Observing world politics: Luhmann's systems theory of society and international relations

Millenium

Volumn 28, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 239-265

  Albert, Mathias ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0000933066     PISSN: 03058298     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/03058298990280020701     Document Type: Article

References (120)

1. Wilbert E. Moore, 'Global Sociology: The World as a Sirmular System', American Journal of Sociology 71, no. 3 (1966): 475-82.
2. See Kenneth Boulding, The World as a Total System (London: Sage, 1985)
3. and John Burton, World Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972).
4. Although calls for (re-)constituting international theory as a social science are now quite common, it seems that analyses in the Marxist tradition have been most persistent in demanding it. For recent examples, see Justin Rosenberg, 'The International Imagination: IR Theory and "Classic Social Analysis"', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 23, no. 1 (1995): 85-108
5. and Christian Heine and Benno Teschke, 'Sleeping Beauty and the Dialectical Awakening: On the Potential of Dialectic for International Relations', Millennium 25, no. 2 (1996): 399-423.
6. The only work that I am aware of to have systematically engaged with Luhmann's systems theory in IR broadly conceived is Ramon Noguera i Hancock, The Systems (R)evolution: Systems Theory. Social Evolution and International Relations (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1998).
7. See, for example, Andrew Linklater, The Transformation of Political Community (Oxford: Polity, 1998).
8. 'Modern systems theory'' in this section is used synonymously with Luhmann's systems theory of society since this term seems to have established itself as a common label for Luhmann's and Luhmann-inspired systems theoretical work in the social sciences, serving to distinguish it from other systems theories.
9. With the two-volume work Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft ('The Society of Society') which appeared in 1997, Luhmann announced the completion of his 30-year project to construct a theory of society (which in the end had generated some 50 books and some 400 articles; he died in November 1998);
10. see Niklas Luhmann. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997).
11. This 'break' is also quite radical in philosophical terms, but to elaborate on this is beyond the scope of this article; but see particularly the much-debated relation between Luhmann and poststructuralism: Marcus Hahn, 'Vom Kopfstand des Phonozentrismus auf den Brettern der Systemtheorie oder: Luhmann und/oder Derrida - einfach eine Entscheidung? Anmerkungen zu Die Form der Schrift von Niklas Luhmann', Soziale Systeme 2, no. 2 (1996): 283-306.
12. This argument has been aptly summarised in Niels Weber's obituary for Niklas Luhmann. See Niels Weber, 'Die unbeobachtete Weltgesellschaft', Frankfurter Rundschau no. 263 (12 November 1998): 8.
13. Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 160 n. 218. This and all other translations are my own.
14. On the virtues of a pluralist approach in this respect, see for example, Mathias Albert and Yosef Lapid, 'On Dialectic and IR Theory: Hazards of a Proposed Marriage', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 26, no. 2 (1997): 403-15
15. and Mathias Albert and Friedrich Kratochwil, conclusion to Identities, Borders. Orders: New Directions in International Relations Theory, eds. Mathias Albert David Jacobson, and Yosef Lapid (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, forthcoming).
16. It should also be noted that the marginality of world society in Luhmann's writings is not matched by the attention it has received by other people working in the context of Luhmann's approach See particularly the works of Rudolf Stichweh in this respect, e.g., 'Zur Theorie der Weltgesellschaft', Soziale Systeme 1, no. 1 (1995): 29-45.
17. The notion of a container was coined by Anthony Giddens and prominently applied by Peter J. Taylor, 'The State as a Container: Territoriality in the Modern World System', Progress in Human Geography 18, no. 6 (1994): 151-62.
18. See Richard K. Ashley, 'Untying the Sovereign State: A Double Reading of the Anarchy Problematique', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 17, no. 2 (1988): 227-62.
19. This is not to suggest an undue similarity of these theorists, just that there is a basic similarity in their acceptance of the world being differentiated into 'societies' (in the plural) understood as social (usually community-based) totalities.
20. See, for example, Talcott Parsons, Politics and Social Structure (New York: Free Press, 1969), 2; it should of course be noted that in the works of Michael Mann in particular this notion of normative integration in the concept of society is rejected;
21. see, for example, Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, Volume I: A History of Power from the Beginning to A.D. 1760 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). Nonetheless, the fundamental difference to modern systems theory's understanding of society should become clear below, since the latter sees society as solely constituted by communication.
22. Edward Shils, Center and Periphery: Essays in Macrosociology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975).
23. See Attracta Ingram, 'Constitutional Patriotism', Philosophy and Social Criticism 22, no. 6 (1996): 1-18.
24. See, for example, Jürgen Habermas, Die postnationale Konstellation (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1998).
25. See, for example, Richard Münch, 'Elemente einer Theorie der Integration moderner Gesellschaften: Eine Bestandsaufnahme', in Was hält die moderne Gesellschaft zusammen?, ed. Wilhem Heitmeyer (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997), 66-109.
26. John Agnew, 'The Territorial Trap: The Geographical Assumptions of International Relations Theory', Review of International Political Economy 1, no. 1 (1994): 53-80.
27. Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (New York: Random House, 1979), 15.
28. For a critique, see John Barkdull, 'Waltz, Durkheim, and International Relations: The International System as an Abnormal Form', American Political Science Review 89, no. 4 (1995): 669-80.
29. For Durkheim, mechanical solidarity, by which individuals are inserted directly into society, logically and temporally precedes organic solidarity, which denoted the evolution of a society equipped with a collective conscience independently of individuals. The main vehicle for knitting society closer together under a mode of organic solidarity consists in the evolution of restitutive law. See Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (New York: Free Press, 1964).
30. See Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1977):
31. Adam Watson, The Evolution of International Society. A Comparative Historical Analysis (London: Routledge, 1992);
32. and Timothy Dunne, Inventing International Society: A History of the English School (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998).
33. John Burton, World Society;
34. see also John Burton et al., The Study of World Society: A London Perspective (Pittsburgh: International Studies Association, 1974).
35. Barry Buzan, 'From International System to International Society: Structural Realism and Regime Theory Meet the English School', International Organization 47, no. 3 (1993): 328-50.
36. International Organization Ibid., 337.
37. For newer contributions on the notion of an 'international civil society', see, for example, John A. Hall, ed., Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison (Cambridge: Polity, 1995).
38. Buzan, 'From International Theory to International Society', 345.
39. See Hendrik Spruyt, The Sovereign State and its Competitors (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994)
40. and Yale Ferguson and Richard Mansbach, Polities: Authority, Identities, and Change (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1996).
41. On general systems theory, see, for example, Ludwig von Bertallanfy, General Systems Theory: Foundations. Development. Applications (New York: Braziller, 1986);
42. on CAS in IR, see, for example, Lars-Erik Cederman, Emergent Actors in World Politics: How Nations and States Develop and Dissolve (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997).
43. For an elaboration of the notion of 'communication' by Luhmann, which sets his theory apart even from most systems approaches which are based on communication as constitutive unit, see Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 81-91.
44. Helmut Willke, Systemtheorie, 4th ed. (Stuttgart: Fischer, 1993), 7.
45. Waltz, Theory of International Politics. 79.
46. Burton et al., The Study of World Society, 8.
47. See Barry Buzan, Charles Jones, and Richard Little, The Logic of Anarchy: Neorealism to Structural Realism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
48. Buzan, 'From International System to International Society', 331.
49. Willke, Systemtheorie, 232-33.
50. Systemtheorie, Ibid., 178.
51. Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 76-77.
52. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Ibid., 92-120;
53. see also Niklas Luhmann, 'The Autopoiesis of Social Systems', in Sociocybernetic Paradoxes: Observation, Control and Evolution of Self-Steering Systems, eds. Felix Geyer and Johannes van der Zouwen (London: Sage, 1986), 172-92;
54. and Niklas Luhmann, 'Operational Closure and Structural Coupling: The Differentiation of the Legal System', Cardozo Law Review 13 (1992): 1419-41.
55. Luhmann, Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 63;
56. see also Raimondo Strassoldo, 'Boundaries in Sociological Theory: A Reassessment', in Cooperation and Conflict in Border Areas, eds. Raimondo Strassoldo and Giovanni Delli Zotti (Milan: Franco Agnelli, 1982), 245-71.
57. Luhmann, Social Systems, 28.
58. Willke, Systemtheorie, 279.
59. See Luhmann, Social Systems, 29.
60. Luhmann, Social Systems, Ibid.29.
61. See also Andrew Abbott, 'Things of Boundaries', Social Research 62, no. 4 (1995): 857-82.
62. Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 425.
63. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Ibid., 451.
64. The primary selective mechanism of society as a whole therefore lies in differentiating interaction systems and the societal system (see, for example, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, ibid., 478).
65. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Ibid., 495.
66. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Ibid., 498-505.
67. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Ibid., 812-13.
68. Thus, for example, both the political and the legal systems operate with a model of the organisation 'constitutional court' which thus efficates a (usually strong) structural coupling. However, it is possible for the legal system, for example, to model the constitutional court as 'outside' the legal system: this happens, for example, if it cannot model its decisions according to the legal/illegal distinction any longer.
69. Ibid., 814.
70. Ibid., 828.
71. Ibid., 166.
72. Stichweh, 'Zur Theorie der Weltgesellschaft', 36.
73. Luhmann, Social Systems, 416-17.
74. Social Systems, Ibid., 422.
75. The relation between societal system (and its primary systems), interaction systems and organisations forms a rather difficult, yet basic part of modern systems theory's theory' of society. Luhmann provides a helpful illustration: 'The grand forms of societal subsystems swim on a sea of permanently emerging and dissolving subsystems. No emergence of a subsystem in society, no form of societal systems differentiation can dominate the emergence of all social systems to such a degree so that these would exclusively take place within the primary systems of the society system'. See Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 812-13.
76. Niklas Luhmann, The Differentiation of Society (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), 7.
77. The Differentiation of Society Ibid., 9.
78. The Differentiation of Society Ibid., 11.
79. See Parsons, Politics and Social Structure.
80. See Luhmann, Differentiation of Society, 298.
81. Niklas Luhmann, 'Die Weltgesellschaft', Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie 57, no 1 (1972): 1-34;
82. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 145-71.
83. See also Niklas Luhmann, 'The World Society as a Social System', in Dependence and Inequality: A Systems Approach to the Problems of Mexico and Other Developing Countries, eds. R. Felix Geyer and Johannes van der Zouwen (Oxford: Pergamon, 1982), 295-306.
84. One of the main differences between this notion of world society and John Burton's lies in the emphasis that Burton, as an IR scholar, puts on world society's segmentary differentiation into nation-states as a prime characteristic, in contrast to the primarily functionally differentiated world society of modern systems theory. Of course, there are important differences regarding the very notion of communication too. See Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 160 n. 219.
85. Luhmann, Social Systems, 208.
86. Social Systems, Ibid., 207.
87. It is important to note in this respect that world society is not an autopoietic system in the strict sense ot the term; although all the system's elements are produced within the system, autopoietic closure is not achieved on the basis of a reference to a basal code. It is comprised of all social systems (functional subsystems, interaction systems, etc.). Unlike the big functional subsystems of world society whom their basal code affords some kind of operative 'coherence' world society's unity lies in the differences it includes. While this may sound problematic at first, given that world society is seen to be a social system yet not exhibit many of the characteristics of any kind of social (particularly not an autopoietic) system, Luhmann solves this problem by not putting a singular 'world society' - social system 'above' all other social systems, but by implicating it in every single communication: 'If one assume communication as the elementary operation whose reproduction constitutes society then obviously world society is implicated in every communication'. See Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 150.
88. Armin Nasschi, 'Inklusion, Exklusion-Integration, Desintegration: Die Theorie funktionaler Differenzierung und die Desintegrationsthese', in Was hält die moderne Gesellschaft zusammen?, ed. Wilhelm Heitmeyer, (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997), 125.
89. Rudolf Stichweh, 'Nation und Weltgesellschaft', in Das Prinzip Nation in der modernen Gesellschaft, eds. Bernd Estel and Tilman Meyer (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1994), 86.
90. Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 148.
91. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Ibid., 148-49.
92. See, for example, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, ibid., 149.
93. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Ibid., 162.
94. See, Cor example, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, ibid., 163.
95. Niklas Luhmann, Social Systems (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), 430
96. and 'Limits of Steering', Theory. Culture and Society 14, no. 1 (1997): 41-57.
97. Which is due not only to the numbers of communication and interaction, but also to the operative closure of societal subsystems.
98. See, for example, Willke, Systemtheorie, 273.
99. See Helmut Willke, Ironie des Staates: Grundlinien einer Staatstheorie polyzentrischer Gesellschaft (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1996), 202.
100. Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 632.
101. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Ibid., 633-34.
102. This thesis has been elaborated further by other authors; see, for example, Peter Fuchs and Dietrich Schneider, 'Das Hautpmann-von-Köpenick-Syndrom: Überlegungen zur Zukunft funktionaler Differenzierung', Soziale Systeme 1, no. 2 (1995): 203-24.
103. To elaborate on this point would be beyond the scope of this article: it is however taken up and further in Mathias Albert and Lothar Brock, 'The Complexities of Global Change: Conceptualizing the Regulation of Global Structures' (paper presented at the workshop on 'Globalisierung und die Handlungsfähigkeit des Nationalstaates', Arnoldshain, 8-10 July 1999).
104. See also Dirk Richter, 'Weltgesellschaft', in Soziologische Gesellschaftsbegriffe: Konzepte moderner Zeitdiagnosen, eds. Georg Kneer. Armin Nasschi, and Markus Schroer (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1997), 184.
105. Interestingly, this does not preclude a world state-perspective if that should be the form of self-observation that the political and/or legal subsystem of world society develops over time. However, 'world-state' in that respect must not be taken to connote a 'primacy' of the political over other functional systems or a societal 'integration' efficated by it.
106. See David Mitrany, A Working Peace System (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1966).
107. Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, 811.
108. Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Ibid.811.
109. See, for example, John Boli and George Thomas, 'World Culture in the World Polity: A Century of International Non-Governmental Organization', American Sociological Review 62, no. 2 (1997): 171-90.
110. See Niklas Luhmann, 'Der Staat des politischen Systems', in Perspektiven der Weltgesellschaft, ed. Ulrich Beck (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1998), 345-80
111. and 'Staat und Politik: Zur Semantik der Selbstbeschreibung politischer Systeme', in Soziologische Aufklärung 4, 2d ed. (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1994), 74-103.
112. Niklas Luhmann, 'Territorial Borders as System Boundaries', in Cooperation and Conflict in Border Areas, eds. Raimondo Strassoldo and Giovanni Delli Zotti (Milan: Franco Agnelli, 1982), 240.
113. Willke, Systemtheorie, 259-60.
114. Willke, Ironie des Staates, 372.
115. Stichweh, 'Zur Theorie der Weltgesellschaft', 43.
116. See Mathias Albert, 'On Boundaries, Territory and Postmodernity: An International Relations Perspective', in Boundaries, Territory and Postmodernity, ed. David Newman (London: Frank Cass, 1999), 53-68.
117. In a similar sense, see R.B.J. Walker, Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
118. See Robert Jervis. Systems Effects: Complexity in Social and Political Life (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997) for a good overview over the literature.
119. See, for example, World Society Research Group, 'Introduction: World Society', in Civilizing World Politics: Society and Community Beyond the State, eds. Mathias Albert, Lothar Brock, and Klaus Dieter Wolf (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, forthcoming).
120. I further elaborate on some of these points in The Politics of World Society: Identity, Law and Security (in preparation).