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

344Chapter 8prozesse) among different functional systems. Willke' s neocorporatistvision "aims at shaping intersystem relationships among autonomous,active, and interdependent subsystems that no longer submitto the primacyofonepart [namely, politics] . Hence they do notderive total system rationality from the validity of the universal butfrom the reflexive attunement of the particular. "31 According to hisdiagnosis, the political systems in Western societies are already onthe road to a "supervisory" state.32 The following three pointssummarize the description of a society that would be both integratedby, and under the guardianship of, an intersystemic balanceof this sort:(a) The supervisory state looks to nonhierarchical bargainingsystems for an attunement among sociofunctional systems thateither suffer disturbances in their operations and performanceand need "developmental aid," or burden their environment withexternalities and must be prodded to "show consideration." However,the manner in which self-referential systems can be inducedto structural transformations is already fixed by these systems' ownstructures. For this reason, the supervisory state must pursue an"options policy" that goes beyond incentives. This kind of policy isa familiar idea in economic planning. To steer a given system, anoptions approach first considers that system's mode of operationand degrees of freedom and then exerts influence on the system'sself-steering through suitable changes in the context. The extensivelyresearched difficulties in such policy fields as health care,technology, and science provide plausible evidence for the limits ofdirect state interventions; instead of this, the approach taken inbusiness consultation is considered exemplary as a strategy thatimplicates the various operationally closed systems in a "productiveand self-binding interrelationship."33(b) Even the politics that "counsels" systems must avail itself ofthe language of law, though no longer in the form of conditionalor goal programs but as "reflexive" law.34 Politics provides themanipulated systems with new "forms" for their own setting ofpriorities, so that the set of preferences internal to the systemreceives a different weight. Each system should play its own melodybut with a new rhythm. To this end, an individualistic civil law mustbe transposed to the level of collective actors and converted from