Social or “Societal” Justice: Contribution to a Bentleyian “Group” Definition

Abstract

A century after the publication of The Process of Government, now classic work by Arthur F. Bentley, it is time to recall subtitle of the book: a study of social pressure. In his study of societal dynamics, Bentley indeed seeks to go beyond any analysis statics of society and of the groups that constitute it to evidence of their mutability and their permanent capacity for recomposition. The methodology he develops is therefore that of a social science behaviorist before the hour at the same time as that of a study human activity that he describes as “open” (overt) as opposed to “institutional”.