VENDULKA: mám doma článek od Almonda (1956, Journal of Politics):"The terms which I shall use in descriminating the essential
properties of these classes have emerged out of the Weber-Parsons
tradition in social theory.1 I shall try to suggest why I find some
of these concepts useful. First, a political system is a system of
action. What this means is that the student of political systems
is concerned with empirically observable behavior. He is concerned
with norms or institutions in so far as they affect behavior. Emphasizing
"action" merely means that the description of a political
system can never be satisfied by a simple description of its legal or
ethical norms. In other words, political institutions or persons performing
political r8les are viewed in terms of what it is that they
do, why they do it, and how what they do is related to and affects
what others do. The term system satisfies the need for an inclusive
concept which covers all of the patterned actions relevant to the
making of political decisions. Most political scientists use the term
political process for these purposes. The dificulty with the term
process is that it means any patterning of action through time.
In contrast to process, the concept of system implies a totality of
relevant units, an interdependence between the interactions of units,
and a certain stability in the interaction of these units (perhaps
best described as a changing equilibrium)."..."Thus a political system may be defined as a set of interacting
rbles, or as a structure of rBles, if we understand by structure a
patterning of interactions. The advantage of the concept of rdle
as compared with such terms as institutions, organizations, or
groups, is that it is a more inclusive and more open concept."