Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wtssw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-26T16:32:20.667Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Undesigned Consequences of Purposive Legislative Action: Alternatives to Implementation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Lewis Anthony Dexter
Lewis Anthony Dexter
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Maryland – Baltimore County
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to make more specific the familiar sociological notion of the ‘unanticipated consequences of social action’. Reasons for the relative neglect by practitioners and analysts of the side-effects of legislative action are suggested. The discussion of unintended and unanticipated social action is related to the work of classic sociologists, to theorists of diffusion, and to the study of innovations and inventions. Previous studies of Congress (including those by the author) are shown to have focussed on process and representation at the expense of the legislation itself and its consequences, examples of which are considered in this paper. An economic law about the creation of demands by legislation, explaining the development of many side-effects, is proposed. The relationship between rules expressed in enactments and the whole system of formal and informal rules in the life of a society is explored. A number of considerations for future work are outlined, and the paper concludes by arguing that greater awareness of the problem of side-effects will have two valuable consequences: (1) the identification of general tendencies may help to avoid gross perversion of purposes; (2) even where there are no clear regularities of response, the observation of patterns of side-effects and their correlation with other factors may enable analysts to anticipate likely side-effects and suggest readjustments.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , October 1981 , pp. 413 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bauer, R. A., Pool, I. de S. and Dexter, L. A. (1963) American Business and Public Policy. New York: Atterton. (2nd ed.Chicago: Aldine, 1972.)Google Scholar
Bentley, A. F. (1954) An Inquiry into Inquiries. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, J. and Bentley, A. F. (1949) The Knowing and the Known. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Dexter, L. A. (1964) Tyranny of Schooling: An Inquiry into the Problem of Stupidity. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Dexter, L. A. (1969) How Organizations are Represented in Washington. Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill.Google Scholar
Dexter, L. A. (1970) Sociology and Politics of Congress. Chicago: Rand McNally. (Now being revised under a different title; New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.)Google Scholar
Dillon, W. S. (1981) Introduction. In Dexter, L. A., Representation versus Popular Sovereignty, Cambridge, Mass.: Schenckman Books.Google Scholar
Dominic, R. B. (1980) The Attending Physician. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Fenno, R. (1973) Congressmen in Committees. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Glaser, N. (1975) Affirmative Discrimination. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gross, B. (1953) The Legislative Struggle. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Hayes, M. (1981) Lobbyists and Legislators. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Majone, G. and Wildavsky, A. (1978). Implementation as evolution. In Freeman, H. (ed.), Policy Studies Review Annual, No. 2, Beverly Hills, California: Sage, 103–17.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K. (1936) The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action, American Sociological Review, 1, 894–904. (Reprinted in R. K. Merton, Sociological Ambivalence, New York: Free Press, 1976.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myrdal, G. (1944) An American Dilemma. New York: Harper's.Google Scholar
Ogburn, W. F. (1922) Social Change with Respect to Culture and Nature. New York: B. W. Huebsch. (Several subsequent editions by other publishers.)Google Scholar
Peabody, R. L. and Polsby, N. (eds.) (1963, 1969, 1977) New Perspectives on the House of Representatives. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Pressman, J. and Wildavsky, A. (1973) Implementation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Simon, H. (1971) Designing organisations for an information-rich world. In Green-berger, M. (ed.), Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Simon, H., Smithburg, D. and Thompson, V. (1951) Public Administration. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Smith, T. V. (1940) The Legislative Way of Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Stein, Z. and Susser, S. (1963) The social distribution of mental retardation, American Journal of Mental Def. 67, 811–21.Google ScholarPubMed
Vierkandt, A. (1908) Die Stetigkeit im Kulturwandel. Leipzig: Dunckler & Humboldt.Google Scholar