In physics, a general systems perspective would be known as a grand unifying theory, in other words, most physicists" Holy Grail. However, systems analysis (from the Greek, "to loosen or break apart") attempts to answer the question of the disaggregated parts in lieu of the much more forbidding whole. In its defense, we can admit that linkages can remain elusive (or that the reconfigured whole is different from the earlier, unreconstructed body), but at least we have some idea as to what makes up (or,just as important, what does note make up) the parts.Although this information may appear as little more than isolated and unrelated, we know from Thomas Kuhn(1962) that these parts are the founding elemants of "scientific revolutions."Given the idiosyncratic episodes addressed by most policy research, we might well be better served to devote ourselves to the quest for a series of mid range theories, as