Functional Theory of Government, Law, and Institutions

Kalu N. Kalu is Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science and National Security Policy at Auburn University, Montgomery.

• Ch. 1 The Framework of Functional TheoryCh. 2 State and Government: Ontology and FunctionCh. 3 Structural Functionalism: Stable States and Organizational FormsCh. 4 The Cybernetic State: Of Homeostasis, Entropy, and Feedback LoopsCh. 5 How Institutions Shape Political ActionCh. 6 Behavioral Paradigms in Politics and InstitutionsCh. 7 Law, Justice, and JurisprudenceCh. 8 Political Reasoning and Political JudgementCh. 9 Governing the International Commons: Ecopolitics and the Limits of RegulationCh. 10 State and Institutions as Organizing Symbols

This book should have begun on page 54, for it is there that Kalu (political science, Auburn Univ.) lays out his impassioned warning of the dangers awaiting a world that neglects the importance of the state. Kalu asserts, rightly, that state institutions function as guarantors of public safety, providers of public goods, and suppliers of the “basic needs of associational ownership” (p. 54)—all bedrock conditions of sustainable, secure societies. Specifically, institutions of state authority enable economic growth (discussed in chapter 5), individual well-being (chapter 6), justice (chapter 7), and rational governance (chapter 8). Without respect for law and institutions, citizens everywhere stand to lose benefits they hoped they would gain as citizens of the world because states regulate behavior and articulate and defend social values in a way that amorphous global institutions cannot. Kalu summarizes a number of structural-functional theories, but this book applies theory, and does not develop of a new one. What is new is Kalu’s explanation of the reality beginning to dawn on electorates around the world that the needs of citizens may hang on the efforts vigorous, respected state institutions many may consider antediluvian. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.