The simplest way to resolve disputes over institutions is to ask a different question. What is it that institutions do that makes them candidates for political study? Instead of asking the older, institutional question, "What is the structure for the expression of politics?", we ask, "What is the expressing function of politics?"

Specifying politics as the authoritative allocation of values is an attempt to identify the defining function of political life (Easton, 1953; 1957). It defines that which all political systems do, whatever the arrangements for carrying out the defining function. All forms of government, dictatorships as well as democracies, are said to allocate values authoritatively. Perhaps even more important, it is no longer necessary to argue over which institution defines political life. We can now look for the function of politics, the authoritative allocation of values, and study politics in whatever institution performs this function....This functional emphasis not only avoids criticisms that the wrong social unit has been chosen, but also conceptualizes politics as a system of actions with the defining function occupying the center stage....

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(S)hifting one's focus from institutions to functions also means adjusting the lens of one's viewing equipment; it means looking not at a static unit, but rather at the flow of a certain type of action that can occur in many social structures. Demands and supports become policies and decisions through actions that authoritatively allocate values, and this is a function that many institutions carry out. If we set aside for the moment the issue of whether there is any single defining function, or characteristic, of political life, then the question we want to be sure of answering correctly is, "Does the authoritative allocation of values adequately define politics?"

One helpful way to inspect Easton's definition of politics is to look carefully at each word in the definition and try to determine if it covers all, or a substantial slice, of political life.

AUTHORITATIVE

Easton defines a policy as authoritative when "people feel they must or ought to obey it." One difficulty with this specification is that feelings have little to do with some political events. In the strongest traditions of political life, social customs may govern behavior more effectively than any overt directive from political leaders. Preindustrial societies, indeed many small rural towns in America, are directed by the authority of "things have always been done this way." In such cases, policies may be carried out from habit, not from any feeling about what must or ought to be done.

We must also allow for the unintended consequences of action....Policy may be the outcome of a decision process, but these outcomes can authoritatively affect behavior in a way quite unforeseen by those who initially form the policy.

A second difficulty with authoritative is its suggestion of obedience. Certainly many policies do elicit "obey" responses.... But other policies are not imperative and do not require obedience for compliance....

ALLOCATION

Is policy always a form of allocation? When we allocate items, we distribute them. Distribution is a common enough theme in contemporary politics. It is even easy to see the political system as primarily concerned with distribution as its extracts resources (primarily through taxes) and spends moneys. But other policies are not so easily seen as allocationist formulas. Such regulatory policies as civil rights laws, law enforcement, and electoral reform are only marginally allocationist. Rather they seem directed at insuring conformity with certain rules....

VALUES

One of the most difficult words to interpret in any language is value and the difficulties are no less pronounced in political discourse. Political policy can allocate values in two prominent ways: (1) by rearranging the attitudes of citizens that express values; and (2) by distributing the things that are valued by citizens. In the first, policy aims at changing or maintaining the values of a population; this might happen when a government decides to "educate" its citizens about a policy it regards as necessary....

Policy also distributes the goods and services that are held in favor by the public. Distributing "things" are among the more visible actions of a political system....

Still a third sense of values, however, is not covered by (1) or (2). This is the sense in which the term refers to disputes over what ought to be valued.... Authentic disputes over what ought to be held valuable are not equivalent to efforts aimed at changing or maintaining attitudes, or to distributions of valued things. They are actions aimed at clarifying, at settling on primary standards and rules, and teaching basic conclusions about "the good life."