Before the modification, the assigned topic was ôThe Politics of Energy Policy Following September 11: Stratificationism, Pluralism or Hyperpluralism?ö That secondary question is essential to the revised discussion, since it goes to the heart of what is usually referred to as the nationÆs ôenergy policy.ö Putting that phrase in quotation marks indicates that, to this writer at least, this phrase is extremely suspect, since it suggests that the actions of the United States of America, or the United States of Bush, reflect some sort of logical and coherent belief structure. It will be the object of this paper to prove that the actions of the Bush administration are an example of stratificationism to a degree hitherto unknown in the United States. We shall do this by creating the following sections. Section One will be a definition of terms. Section Two will discuss ôenergy policyö before September 11, 2001. Section Three will attempt to sift through the public statements concerning America and the challenges it faces following the September 11 incident. Section Four will feature a conclusion.
There are four terms that must be defined for this paper to be meaningful. The first three are terms of art in discussing political systems. They are ôPluralismö, ôHyperpluralismö, and ôStratificationismö. The fourth term is ôEnergy Policy.ö Pluralism, according to Morris, is based on the assumption that "each organizational function has its own unique theory that drives its particular area" (1). The organizational functions are also referred to as interest groups, and tend toward the elements of a democracy by agreement. Decisions are made for the benefit of the greatest good.
ôHyperpluralismö takes this concept to its ultimate level and suggests that countries have pluralistic aims that must be reconciled into a unified organizational vision before international business goals can actually be accomplished. If...