A New Orientation in American Government

• Author: Michael Springer,Bertram M. Gross
• Date: 01 May 1967
• Published date: 01 May 1967
• DOI: 10.1177/000271626737100101
• Subject Matter: Articles

1

A

New

Orientation

in

American

Government

By

BERTRAM

M.

GROSS

and

MICHAEL

SPRINGER

1

Bertram

M.

Gross,

Syracuse,

New

York,

is

Professor

of

Political

Science

and

Direc-

tor,

National

Planning

Studies

Program,

Maxwell

School

of

Citizenship

and

Public

Affairs,

Syracuse

University.

He

has

been

Fellow

of

the

Center

for

Advanced

Study

in

the

Behavioral

Sciences

(1961-1962) ;

Executive

Secretary

of

the

President’s

Council

of

Economic

Advisers;

Member

of

Arlington

County

Planning

Commission

and

North-

ern

Virginia

Regional

Planning

Commission;

and

First

Chairman

of

the

National

Capital

Regional

Planning

Council

in

the

United

States.

He

is

the

author

of

The

State

of

the

Nation:

Social

Systems

Accounting

(1966) ;

The

Managing

of

Organiza-

tions

(1964);

and

The

Legislative

Struggle

(1953).

Michael

Springer,

Syracuse,

New

York,

is

Graduate

Assistant,

Maxwell

School

of

Citizenship

and

Public

Affairs,

Syracuse

University.

ABSTRACT:

The

variety

of

approaches

and

subjects

in

this

volume

reflects

the

information

explosion

in

social

indicators.

Current

expansion

of

social

indicator

activity

has

been

given

impetus

by:

(1)

the

growing

awareness

of

the

contributions

and

limitations

of

economic

information;

(2)

the

implementa-

tion

of

the

Planning-Programming-Budgeting

System

within

the

federal

government;

and

(3)

specific

proposals

for

in-

creased

utilization

of

social

information,

such

as

the

Technol-

ogy

Commission’s

call

for

social

accounting,

annual

Social

Reports

of

the

President,

and

a

"Full

Opportunity

and

Social

Accounting

Act."

Normative

concerns

require

that

our

"data

system"

remain

unsystematic,

with

promotion

of

both

multiple

sources

and

dissonance.

Furthermore,

the

development

and

use

of

social

information

should

not

be

thought

of

solely

in

executive

agency

terms—there

is

a

creative

role

for

Congress

in

this

area.

1

Michael

Marien,

graduate

research

assistant

at

Syracuse

University,

has

helped

in

preparing

this

article.

The

assistance

of

the

Stern

Family

Fund

is

acknowledged

for

having

helped

the

special

editor

in

producing

these

two

volumes

and

also

for

having

facilitated

the

convening

of

special

exploration-and-review

sessions

on

many

of

the

articles.

Acknowl-

edgment

must

also

be

made

of

the

ideas,

encouragement,

and

stimulus

provided

by

the

participants

in

these

sessions:

Albert

D.

Biderman,

Bureau

of

Social

Science

Research;

Alfred

Blumstein,

Institute

for

Defense

Analyses;

Michel

Chevalier,

University

of

Pennsyl-

vania ;

Albert

Cohen,

University

of

Connecticut;

John

Dixon,

Basic

Systems,

Xerox

Corp.;

Julius

C.

C.

Edelstein,

C.U.N.Y.;

William

Ehling,

Syracuse

University;

Nathan

Goldman,

Syracuse

University;

Robert

W.

Gregg,

Syracuse

University;

William

G.

Grigsby,

University

of

Pennsylvania;

Jack

B.

Haskins,

Syracuse

University;

Michael

Harrington,

League

for

Industrial

Democracy;

Moyomo

Ise,

Crusade

for

Opportunity,

Syracuse;

Joe

Kappel,

Dept.

of

Health,

Education

and

Welfare;

Gerald

J.

Karaska,

Syracuse

University;

Andrew

2

... Upon

this

gifted

age,

in

its

dark

hour

Rains

from

the

sky

a

meteoric

shower

Of

facts ...

they

lie

unquestioned,

uncom-

bined,

Wisdom

enough

to

leach

of

us

of

our

ill

Is

daily

spun,

but

there

exists

no

loom

To

weave

it

into

fabric.

EDNA

ST.

VINCENT

MILLAY

*

I LV

the

middle

third

of

the

twentieth

i-

century,

the

United

States

made

his-

toric

advances

in

developing

regular,

well-ordered,

and

increasingly

reliable

economic

data.

These

advances

were

of

some

help

to

private

and

public

de-

cision-making

in

meeting

the

challenges

of

the

Great

Depression

and

World

War

II.

They

have

been

of

increasingly

greater

help,

it

is

widely

acknowledged,

since

1946.

As

Americans

enter

the

last

third

of

the

century,

a

subtle

but

profoundly

significant

shift

is

beginning

to

take

place

in

the

informational

premises

of

decision-making

throughout

the

coun-

try :

more

explicit

attention

to

transeco-

nomic

goals

and

data.

This

shift

is

associated-both

as

cause

and

effect-

with

a

rapidly

emerging

proliferation

of

publicly

and

privately

produced

social

indicators.

This

&dquo;meteoric

shower&dquo;-

as

illustrated

by

the

following

articles

and

the

companion

volume

of

THE

ANNALS

to

be

published

in

September

1967-may

well

proved

to

be

one

of

the

most

important,

complicated

and

challenging

aspects

of

the

modern

&dquo;information

explosion.&dquo;

While

the

social

indicator

explosion

raises

many

new

problems

for

the

struc-

ture

of

American

government,

the

rela-

tions

between

private

and

public

agen-

cies,

and

the

place

of

the

individual

in

an

increasingly

organized

society,

this

article

will

focus

on

some

more

prosaic

issues

which

must

be

understood

before

one can

begin

to

face

these

larger

ques-

tions.

This

article

will

attempt

to

in-

troduce

these

issues

by

dealing

with

-the

variety

of

approaches

in

this

volume,

-some

key

points

in

the

social

in-

dicator

information

explosion,

and

-our

unsystematic

national

data

system.

In

so

doing,

we

shall

touch

upon

various

legislative

proposals

bearing

upon

these

subjects,

particularly

the

&dquo;Full

Oppor-

tunity

and

Social

Accounting

Act&dquo;

(S.

843)

proposed

by

Senator

Walter

F.

Mondale

and

ten

other

senators.2

2

&dquo;New

Goals

for

Social

Indicators,&dquo;

the

introductory

article

for

the

forth-

coming

September

1967

volume

of

THE

ANNALS

will

deal

directly

with

the

even

more

complex

issue

of

the

relationship

between

indicators

and

goals

in

terms

of

the

profound

normative

questions

involved

in

the

selection

of

indicators;

their

underpinnings

in

concepts,

theories

* Collected

Sonnets

of

Edna

St.

Vincent

Millay

(New

York:

Washington

Square

Press,

1959).

2

Senators

Clark

(Pa.),

Hart

(Mich.),

Harris

(Ind.),

Inouye

(Hawaii),

Kennedy

(Mass.),

McCarthy

(Minn.),

McGee

(Wyo.),

Muskie

(Maine),

Nelson

(Wis.),

and

Prox-

mire

(Wis.).

Senator

Proxmire,

it

may

be

noted,

is

Chairman

of

the

Joint

Economic

Committee

of

Congress.

Kopkind,

New

Republic;

Peter

Lejins,

University

of

Maryland;

William

F.

Lipman,

Federal

Office,

California

Legislature;

Michael

Marien,

Syracuse

University;

S.

M.

Miller,

N.Y.U.

(on

leave

to

Ford

Foundation) ;

Howard

E.

Mitchell,

University

of

Pennsylvania;

Robert

B.

Mitchell,

University

of

Pennsylvania;

G.

Holmes

Perkins,

University

of

Pennsylvania;

Ivar

Peterson,

New

York

Times;

Douglas

W.

Rae,

Syracuse

University;

John

Rider,

Syracuse

University;

Pamela

Roby,

N.Y.U.;

Bruce

M.

Russett,

Yale

University;

Seymour

Sachs,

Syracuse

University;

Marshall

H.

Segall,

Syracuse

University;

Thorsten

Sellin,

University

of

Pennsylvania;

Eleanor

B.

Sheldon,

Russell

Sage

Foundation;

William

H.

T.

Smith,

Chief

of

Police,

Syracuse,

N.Y.;

Stanton

Wheeler,

Russell

Sage

Foundation;

Oliver

P.

Williams,

University

of

Pennsylvania;

Preston

Wilcox,

Columbia

University;

Marvin

E.

Wolfgang,

University

of

Pennsylvania;

and,

Roland

E.

Wolseley,

Syracuse

University.