ABSTRACT
This chapter begins to develop the formulation of more systematic notions about the results of legislation and other legislative action. It is improbable that senators or congressmen, or most lobbyists or enthusiasts for the Civil Rights program, foresaw and anticipated any such development; and clear that few, if any, thought that any such outgrowth was part of the legislative design. Most persons engaged in advocating, supporting, and formulating legislative action tend to focus on what it is intended or hoped to achieve. In oversimplified language, we treat legislatures as a sociological phenomenon and the process of enacting legislation as a sociological process. Legislation may be viewed as consisting of rules for conduct, prescriptions, prohibition, permissions, addressed to officials and citizens. It is desirable to adopt one leading hypothesis or notion: let us as students and scholars assume that we do not know till we have studied and observed what consequences, if any, will flow from a given legislative action.
