Between Facts and Norms - Contributions to a ... - Blogs Unpad

319Deliberative Politicsthat allow one to distinguish the illocutionary binding forces ofaction oriented toward reaching an understanding. 5°In regard to a society's integration, the activities of collective orindividual actors must first of all be coordinated in such a way thattheir different accomplishments and contributions to a positivelyevaluated result fit together. These problems of functional coordinationrequire a cognitive orientation to circumstances and events inthe objective world. Results are judged according to the standardsof technical and economic rationality. The conditions of successcan thereby be described from either of two perspectives. From theviewpoint of the participating actors, success appears as the realizationof collective goals, whereas from the observer perspective itappears as the maintenance of a given system or as the attunementof different systems to one another. The concept of functionalcoordination generalizes the concrete form of cooperation exemplifiedby the division of labor. It is neutral with respect to thedifferences between social and system integration. By contrast, thetwo further forms of integration belong only to social integration.These pertain either to the moral regulation of conflicts or to theethical safeguardingofidentities and forms of life. Problems ofbalancingconflicting claims call for a normative orientation to legitimateorders of the social world. Problems of expressive identity formationcall for an orientation to shared conceptions of the good lifeand the interpretation of needs. Results are judged according tothe standards of moral and ethical rationality, respectively. Togetherwith the standards of efficiency and rational decision making,these standards provide criteria for judging the success ofsocietal integration in general. Peters derives from this a complexconcept of "social rationality" that makes it possible to evaluate asociety's reproduction as a more or less successful problem-solvingprocess.s1 Consequently, the observable stability of an order is nota sufficient indicator of the rationality of a solution.According to this proposal, societies are to be viewed in generalas problem-solving systems, in which success or failure is measuredagainst criteria of rationality. If we adopt this conception (whichgoes back to Karl Deutsch and others), then we see that democraticprocedure and the discursive mode of sociation found in the legalcommunity are simply reflexive refinements and specializations of