Comparative Politics: A Developmental Approach by Gabriel A. Almond and G. Bingham Powell, Jr. is an elaboration of the structure-function paradigm first applied in 1960 by Gabriel Almond and James S. Coleman to the study of non-Western politics. In this latest formulation, Almond and G. Bingham Powell, Jr. postulate three levels of functions performed by all political systems: 1) system capabilites, 2) conversion functions, and 3) system maintenance and adaptive functions.