The Political Stratum

The editors of the New York Times, or economists at the Brookings Institution, have a permanence and interest in governance that some elected politicians will not possess. Foundation executives who fund projects on "The Governance of America" or "The Deficit and the Public Interest," as well as the academics who write those books, perform some functions of system maintenance. During summer 1987 every thirty-second television spot about our wonderful Constitution was a reminder that system maintenance occurs outside the formal procedures of state authority.

The processes that form attitudes are as consequential as those by which people resolve differences over the values they have formed. By this logic, Gramsci reminds us, schools and newspapers are as much a part of politics as are legislators and courts. If we follow this path too far, however, we will reidentify the state and society because all life

teaches about values. Furthermore, how are we to separate those acts of opinion formation that are system maintenance (thus the state) from those that are antisystem (thus something else)?