Introduction

This book is a stimulating contribution to the new literature. It is not intended as a comprehensive review of the full range of topics nor is it solely a summary of research findings. It consists, in essence, of an open-ended debate on a limited series of related issues in which the reader is invited to participate. Who might profit by an examination of these topics? What can a reader expect to learn through perusing this particular account and even vicariously joining in the discussion of the social structure of power, the role of bureaucracy in American life today, and what is meant by a democratic society?

In addition, the book offers the perceptive reader an illuminating example of a much neglected topic in that segment of the new literature which stems from the social sciences, namely, the role of the observer in relationship to what is observed.

The editors should be commended for bringing together not a bland series of polite statements but a stimulating discussion which raises more questions than it answers. More important, it raises questions that have to be posed in any significant appraisal of America today.—John Useem, Head Sociology and Anthropology, Michigan State University