ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the bias that affected the interpretation of Political Development, apparent in the discussion of some policy scientists, was more than an expression of specialized interest on the part of those concerned with Political as opposed to Economic Development. It considers a view of politics and society that constituted another intermediary step in the definition of conventional interpretations of Development. The conviction that the United States stood at the crossroads, its future to be determined by competition with the Soviet Union in the Third World, had a direct impact on the analysis of Development. Among theorists of Political Development, it was the association of mass society with "mass politics," the fear of radical mass-based movements and their destabiiization of the existing political order, that took priority. Interpretations of mass society that resonated with particular clarity in conventional analyses of Political Development were those that claimed to document the danger to democracy represented by popular participation.
