Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T05:37:10.234Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mitranian functionalism: possible or impossible?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 1985

Robert I. Mclaren
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the April 1984 issue of this journal, Mark Imber resurrected Mitranian functionalism. His well-reasoned elucidation of David Mitrany's writings and of the writings of Mitrany's major critics ended in five propositions for further research. Unfortunately, one cannot be sure that these five propositions represent Mitranian functionalism or a new species of functionalism, Imberian functionalism. In any case, the five propositions hardly advance our knowledge of functionalism, even if they are only intended to show the possibility of functionalism's existence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 1985 , pp. 139 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1985

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

1. Imber, Mark F., ‘Re-reading Mitrany: a pragmatic assessment of sovereignty’, Review of International Studies, x (1984), p. 119.Google Scholar

2. Ibid., p. 108.

3. For example, Cox, Robert W. and Jacobson, Harold K., et al, The Anatomy of Influence (New Haven, CT, 1973).Google Scholar

4. See, for example, Alexandrowicz, Charles Henry, The Law-Making Functions of the Specialized Agencies of the United Nations (Sydney, 1973).Google Scholar

5. Imber, op. cit., p. 110.

6. In this paper, functionalism is take n to mean the work of David Mitrany. Its historical antecedents [see F. Parkinson, The Philosophy of International Relations: A study in the history of thought, Sage Library of Social Research, vol. 52 (Beverly Hills, CA, 1977), chapter 6] are acknowledged but ignored.

7. Sewell, James Patrick, Functionalism and World Politics (Princeton, NJ, 1966), p. 51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Ibid.

9. Another empirically-based examination can be found in Harrison, R. J., ‘Testing Functionalism’, in Functionalism: Theory and Practice in International Relations, Groom, A. J. R. and Taylor, Paul (eds.), (New York, 1975), pp. 112–37.Google Scholar

10. Claude, Inis L. Jr., Swords into Plowshares: The Problems and Progress of International Organization 4th edn., (New York, 1971), p. 390.Google Scholar

11. Sewell is one of the few to question it, op. cit., p. 37.

12. Haas, Ernst, Beyond the Nation-State: Functionalism and International Organization (Stanford, CA, 1964), p. 6.Google Scholar

13. Ibid.

14. UPU, Acts of the Universal Postal Union, vols. 1 and 2 (Berne, 1973 and 1971).

15. Simon, Herbert A., Administrative Behavior 2nd edn., (New York, 1965), p. 63.Google Scholar

16. Maslow, A. H., Motivation and Personality (New York, 1954), pp. 91–2.Google Scholar

17. Smart, Ian, ‘Energy and the Public Good’, International Journal, xxxvi (1981), p. 255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18. Mitrany, David, A Working Peace System: An Argument for the Functional Development of International Organization 4th edn., (London, 1946), p. 28.Google Scholar

19. McLaren, Robert I., Organizational Dilemmas (Chichester, 1982), pp. 63–4.Google Scholar

20. See, for example, Hodgetts, J. E., The Canadian Public Service: A Physiology of Government 1867–1970 (Toronto, 1973)Google Scholar, chapter 6.

21. Mitrany, David, ‘The Prospect of Integration: Federal or Functional?’ in Functionalism, Groom and Taylor (eds), p. 66.Google Scholar

22. McLaren, Robert I., Civil servants and public policy: A comparative study of international secretariats (Waterloo, ONT., 1980), p. 10.Google Scholar

23. Ibid., pp. 77–8.

24. Mitrany, ‘The Prospect of Integration’, p. 68.

25. For example, see Stoner, James A. F., Management (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1978), pp. 34–7.Google Scholar

26. Wilson, V. Seymour, Canadian Public Policy and Administration: Theory and Environment (Toronto, 1981), pp. 316, 318.Google Scholar

27. Perhaps Mitrany's most explicit denigration of electoral sovereignty is found in David Mitrany, ‘A Political Theory for the New Society’, inFunctionalism, Groom and Taylor (eds), p. 31.

28. Mitrany, Working Peace System, p. 43; ‘The Prospect of Integration’, p. 71.

29. McLaren, Organizational Dilemmas, p. 44.

30. See for the particular, Codding, George A. Jr., The Universal Postal Union: Coordinator of the International Mails (New York, 1964)Google Scholar; for the general, McLaren, Robert I., ‘Pollution Probe in the Global Village’, International Journal, xxx (1974-1975), pp. 127–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31. Mitrany, Working Peace System, p. 48.

32. For example, Jordan, Robert S. and Renninger, John P., ‘The Changing Concepts of the International Civil Service’, in The International Civil Service: Changing Role and Concepts, Graham, Norman A. and Jordan, Robert S. (eds), (New York, 1980).Google Scholar

33. Referenced In Ibid., p. 19, although not necessarily supported by the authors.

34. Cf. Weiss, Thomas and Siotis, Jean, ‘Functionalism and International Secretariats: Ideology and Rhetoric in the UN Family’, in Functionalism, Groom and Taylor (eds), p. 186.Google Scholar

35. Adie, Robert F. and Thomas, Paul G., Canadian Public Administration: Problematical Perspectives (Scarborough, ONT, 1982), p. 142.Google Scholar

36. Banting, Keith G., The Welfare State and Canadian Federalism (Kingston, ONT, 1982), p. 83Google Scholar; for the argument that the welfare state should not necessarily lead to redistribution, see Marc F. Planner, ‘The welfare state vs. the redistributive state’, The Public Interest, Iv (1979), pp.28–48.

37. McLaren, Civil servants andpublic policy, p. 77.

38. Ibid.

39. Mitrany, Working Peace System, p. 30.

40. Clapp, Gordon R., The TVA: An Approach to the Development of a Region (Chicago, 1955), pp. 83–5.Google Scholar

41. Mitrany, Working Peace System, p. 46.

42. McLaren, Civil servants andpublic policy, pp. 42–74.

43. Cf. Puchala, Donald J. and Fagan, Stuart I., ‘International Politics in the 1970's: The Search for a Perspective’, in Globalism Versus Realism: International Relations' Third Debate, Maghroori, Ray and Ramberg, Bennett (eds), (Boulder, CO, 1982), p. 53.Google Scholar

44. Mitrany suggests as much in ‘The Functional Approach in Historical Perspective’, International Affairs, xlvii (1971), p. 537.

45. For an earlier example drawn from international commodity agreements, see Mayall, James, ‘Functionalism and International Economic Relationships’, in Functionalism, Groom and Taylor (eds), p. 254.Google Scholar

46. Mitrany, Working Peace System, p. 45.

47. McLaren, Organizational Dilemmas, pp. 8–28.

48. Luard, Evan, International Agencies: The Emerging Framework of Interdependence (London, 1977), p. 312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. McLaren, Organizational Dilemmas, p. 11.

50. Ibid., p. 10.

51. Mitrany, Working Peace System, p. 31.

52. Ibid., pp. 50–1; Taylor, Paul, ‘Functionalism: The Theory of David Mitrany’, in International Organization: A Conceptual Approach, Taylor, Paul and Groom, A. J. R., (eds), (London, 1978), pp. 242–3.Google Scholar

53. Wolf, Peter, ‘International Organization and Attitude Change: A Re-examination of the Functionalist Approach’, International Organization, xxvii (1973), pp. 347–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54. Haas, Beyond the Nation-State, p. 457.

55. Groom, A. J. R., ‘Functionalism and World Society’, in Functionalism, Groom and Taylor, (eds), p. 99.Google Scholar

56. Riggs, Robert E., ‘One small step for functionalism: UN participation and Congressional attitude change’, International Organization, xxxi (1977), pp. 515–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57. Mitrany, ‘The Prospect of Integration’, p. 66.

58. Mitrany, David, ‘The Protection of Human Rights’, in The Functional Theory of Politics (London, 1975), p. 197.Google Scholar

59. Burton, John W., ‘Functionalism and the Resolution of Conflict’, in Functionalism, Groom and Taylor, (eds), p. 241.Google Scholar

60. Ibid., p. 249.

61. For example, see Finkel, Alvin, Business and Social Reform in the Thirties (Toronto, 1979).Google Scholar

62. Cf. Taylor, ‘Functionalism: The Theory of David Mitrany’, p. 242.

63. E.g. Mitrany, ‘Agenda of Peacemaking’, in Functional Theory, p. 171. See also Sewell, op. cit., pp. 31–4.

64. E.g. Mitrany, ‘The Functional Approach in Historical Perspective’, pp. 532–43.