ABSTRACT
In a pluralistic system we should expect that linkages between leaders and followers, between those to whom policy applies and those charged with formulating and applying policy would be diverse. The more diverse they are, the more pluralistic the system; the less diverse, the less pluralistic. This chapter offers a tentative answer to the question of the prospects for American pluralism. First, as to major institutions of unofficial public-sector intermediation, the gains in influence of managers of the mass media have been balanced by the losses of leaders of the political parties. As to underlying conditions in the population at large making for multiple political demands, there are no signs of abatement of current trends: the proliferation of groups, the invention of new demands, and the consequent bureaucratization of intermediation as service agencies attempt to protect themselves against excessive claims.
