L'analyse cybernetique des politiques gouvernementales

In: Canadian journal of political science: CJPS = Revue canadienne de science politique : RCSP, Band 11, Heft 3, S. 529-544

Abstract

Cybernetic analysis is part of the sytems approach & has been used by several authors to study governmental policies or public decisions. It is used differently here. Regulation by feedback is considered complex rather than simple; positive feedback seems neither exceptional nor pathological, & great emphasis is placed on power relations in the phenomena of regulation by feedback through which government policies are formed. The presentation of different subsystems of the cybernetic model & of different types of regulation by feedback are illustrated by examples touching on the adjustment of electoral boundaries. The first results of research bearing on the sector of social affairs & on that of energy serve to underline characteristics of the cybernetic analysis of government policies: (1) the key role it gives regulation by feedback, (2) its particular attention to the unxpected consequences of action, & (3) its insistence on the phenomena of communication as essential to action. 7 Figures. HA.