ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the question of the boundaries of the political system and of the nature of its environment, before addressing the question of the scope of its activities, and examines the extent to which it is self-regulating or even self-organizing. David Easton's minimal interest in the productive function of public institutions is all the more unfortunate because the activities seem to conform to his model better than any other output of the political system. The controlling activity of the political system is, in W.D. Coleman's words, "restricted to those facets of social life found useful for achieving particular consequences or functions." Easton coined the terms "withinput" and "intrasystem output" in order to describe the self-regulatory capabilities of the political system. The political system remains too dependent on the culture of the society in which it operates to be able to reproduce itself entirely.
