Political Authority in a Democratic Society: A Systems Perspective -- Hyo-chon Park, August 5, 2002

46th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), Shanghai, P.R. China, August 2-6, 2002.

Monday, August 5, 2002, 3:10 p.m., Human Systems Inquiry Track

This digest was created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker's presentation(s) and comments from the audience. These should not be viewed as official transcripts of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. These notes have been contributed by David Ing (daviding@systemicbusiness.org) at the IBM Advanced Business Institute ( http://www.ibm.com/abi ).

Political science, teaching at Seoul National University

Related to autopoesis, etc.

A democratic government doesn't rule.

What is authority?

• A right to command; an entitlement to rule.

Idea of a political system as an open system, a democracy responding to environmental issue.

• An authority system need to replace the open system concept with some newer concepts.

The political system as an open system.

• System is in an environment.
• The political system operates in an environment of a social system.

Support for the political system:

• A close relationship between compliance and support.
• Stability is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition of the authority system.

Supposed functions of political authority for social order.

• Why do we need a political authority?
  • A social contract?
• Public goods
  • Creates opportunities for free riders -- prisoner's dilemma.

Case in Korea:

• Korea had peaceful democratization in 1987.
• Improvement in human rights, but political opposition has been tolerated reluctantly.
  • Rule like a guardian -- which is criticized by the media.
  • If you are used to Confuscian role, then paternalistic, expecting obedience of the citizens.

A theory of autopoesis:

• An internal environment as well as an external environment.
• Self-reference of the system with itself.