458 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems

is best depicted as a network, and the mathematical GERARD, RALPH W. 1958 Units and Concepts of Biology.
theory of networks derives largely from certain Behavioral Science 3:197-206.
branches of topology and abstract algebra rather MILLER, JAMES G. 1955 Toward a General Theory for
the Behavioral Sciences. American Psychologist 10:
than from analysis, which underlies classical 513-531.
mathematics. Thus the salient feature of a nerv- MILLER, JAMES G. 1965a Living Systems: Basic Con-
ous system, of an institution, or of international cepts. Behavioral Science 10:193-237.
systems may well reside in the vastly complex MILLER, JAMES G. 1965fc Living Systems: Structure and
Process; Cross-level Hypotheses. Behavioral Science
network of relations which constitute them: for 10:337-411.
example, functional neural pathways, lines of com- RAPOPORT, ANATOL 1967 Mathematical Aspects of Gen-
munication and authority, links of alliances or eral Systems Analysis. Unpublished manuscript.
rivalries in international trade. If the "nature" of RASHEVSKY, NICOLAS 1953 Outline of a Mathematical
the system is indeed embodied in the quality and Approach to History. Bulletin of Mathematical Bio-
interrelations of these connections, then there is physics 15:197-234.
RICHARDSON, LEWIS F. 1960 Arms and Insecurity. Edited
hope that knowledge of wholes will emerge from by Nicolas Rashevsky and Ernesto Trucco. Pittsburgh:
knowledge of the parts. Boxwood; Chicago: Quadrangle Books.
Moreover, in the system theoretic view, the whole THOMPSON, JOHN W. 1961 Meteorological Models in So-
can be viewed as a unit no less than a part can. cial Dynamics. Human Relations 14:43-62.
Hence, the fate of the components of a system may International Encyclopedia of the
II
be viewed as determined by the fate of the whole Social Sciences - Vol 15
SOCIAL SYSTEMS
system as legitimately as the other way around.
For example, the organism goes through certain "System" is the concept that refers both to a
stages of maturation because its cells differentiate, complex of interdependencies between parts, com-
but the process of differentiation is also the result ponents, and processes that involves discernible
of the maturation. The organism dies because the regularities of relationship, and to a similar type of
cells die, but the converse is also true. National interdependency between such a complex and its
policies are set by leaders, but the selection of surrounding environment. System, in this sense,
leaders depends at least in part on the inertia of is therefore the concept around which all sophis-
ongoing policies. ticated theory in the conceptually generalizing dis-
These observations are rather commonplace and ciplines is and must be organized. This is because
do not in themselves constitute theories. However, any regularity of relationship can be more ade-
a rigorous deduction of these principles as system quately understood if the whole complex of multi-
properties may well involve profound theoretical ple interdependencies of which it forms part is
discoveries. Therein lies the promise of general taken into account.
systems theory.
ANATOL RAPOPORT Social systems and the action system
Methodologically, one must distinguish a theo-
[Directly related are the entries CYBERNETICS and IN- retical system, which is a complex of assumptions,
FORMATION THEORY.] concepts, and propositions having both logical in-
tegration and empirical reference, from an em-
BIBLIOGRAPHY pirical system, which is a set of phenomena in the
ASHBY, W. Ross 1958 General Systems Theory as a observable world that can be described and ana-
New Discipline. General Systems 3:1-6.
lyzed by means of a theoretical system. An em-
BERTALANFFY, LUDWIG VON 1956 General System The-
ory. General Systems 1:1-10. pirical system (e.g., the solar system as relevant
BERTALANFFY, LUDWIG VON 1957 Quantitative Laws in to analytical mechanics) is never a totally concrete
Metabolism and Growth. Quarterly Review of Biology entity but, rather, a selective organization of those
32:217-231. properties of the concrete entity denned as rele-
BERTALANFFY, LUDWIG VON 1962 General System The- vant to the theoretical system in question. Thus,
ory: A Critical Review. General Systems 7:1-20.
BOULDING, KENNETH E. 1956 General System Theory:
for Newtonian solar system mechanics, the earth
The Skeleton of Science. General Systems 1:11-17. is "only" a particle with a given mass, location in
DRIESCH, HANS (1908) 1929 The Science and Philoso- space, velocity, and direction of motion; the New-
phy of the Organism. 2d ed. Vol. 2. London: Mac- tonian scheme is not concerned with the earth's
millan. -» See especially Part 3. geological or human social and cultural character-
FOSTER, CAXTON C.; RAPOPORT, ANATOL; and TRUCCO,
ERNESTO 1957 Some Unsolved Problems in the
istics. In this sense, any theoretical system is
Theory of Non-isolated Systems. General Systems 2: abstract.
9-29. As a theoretical system, the social system is spe-
 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems 459

cifically adapted to describing and analyzing social erally call the personality. With the achievement
interaction considered as a class of empirical sys- of cultural levels of the control of behavior, the
tems. These systems are concerned with the be- primary subsystems of action can no longer be
havior, as distinguished from the metabolic phys- organized—or structured primarily—about the or-
iology, of living organisms. Among the categories ganic base, which, in the first instance, is anatom-
of organisms, our interest in this article centers ical or "physical." Personality, then, is the aspect
on human social interaction, which is organized on of the living individual, as "actor," which must be
the symbolic levels we call "cultural." However, understood in terms of the cultural and social con-
one should remember that such interaction is a tent of the learned patternings that make up his
late evolutionary product and is continuous with a behavioral system. Here, "learned" refers not only
very broad range of interaction phenomena among to the problem of the origin of the patterns in the
other organisms. All bisexual reproduction, for heredity-environment sense, but also to the prob-
example, requires highly structured interactive re- lem of the kind and level of their content. The
lations between the organisms of the two sexes. connection between these two problems partly re-
Various kinds of interspecies ecological relations flects the fact that we have no evidence that cul-
constitute another example, one to which human tural content is, at what we call here the level of
relations with domesticated animals are relevant. pattern, determined through the genes. Thus, there
The aspects of behavior which directly concern is no evidence of a hereditary "propensity" to speak
"cultural-level" systems I call action. Action in this one language rather than another, although the
technical sense includes four generic types of sub- genetically determined capacities to learn and use
systems, the differentiation among which has language are generally fundamental.
gained fairly clear definition during modern intel- Thus, we treat the social system, when evolved
lectual history. to the action level, as one of four primary sub-
The first is simply the organism, which, though systems of action, all of which articulate with the
quite properly treated as a concrete entity in one organic bases of life and with organic adaptation
set of terms, becomes, on a more generalized level, to the environment in the broadest biological sense.
a set of abstract components (i.e., a subsystem) There is a sense in which the social system is
in the culturally organized system of action. the core of human action systems, being the prim-
A second subsystem is the social system, which ary link between the culture and the individual
is generated by the process of interaction among both as personality and as organism—a fact for
individual units. Its distinctive properties are con- which "culture and personality" theorists have
sequences and conditions of the specific modes of often not adequately accounted. As the principal
interrelationship obtaining among the living or- source of the independence of cultural systems
ganisms which constitute its units. from restrictive organic and environmental con-
Third is the cultural system, which is the aspect ditions, it has been the primary locus of the "oper-
of action organized about the specific character- ation bootstrap" of human evolution. The secret of
istics of symbols and the exigencies of forming this evolutionary capacity evidently lies in the pos-
stable systems of them. It is structured in terms of sibility for "reverberation" among the intercom-
patternings of meaning which, when stable, imply municating members of a social system, each of
in turn generalized complexes of constitutive sym- whom is both an actor orienting himself to his
bolisms that give the action system its primary situation in terms of complex, cultural-level, in-
"sense of direction," and which must be treated as tended meanings and an object of orientation
independent of any particular system of social inter- meaningful to orienting actors. Furthermore, each
action. Thus, although there are many ramifica- person is both actor and object to himself as well
tions into such areas as language and communi- as to others. Interaction at the symbolic level thus
cation, the prototypical cultural systems are those becomes a system analytically and, very appre-
of beliefs and ideas. The possibilities of their pres- ciably, empirically independent of its presymbolic
ervation over time, and of their diffusion from one bases (though still grounded in them), and is
personality and/or social system into another, are capable of development on its own.
perhaps the most important hallmarks of the inde- Insight into this basic complex of facts consti-
pendent structure of cultural systems. tutes a principal foundation of modern social sci-
Fourth, the analytical distinction between social ence theory. It has been attained by convergence
and cultural systems has a correlative relation to from at least four sources: Freud's psychology,
the distinction between the organism and those starting from a medical-biological base; Weber's
other aspects of the individual actor which we gen- sociology, which worked to transcend the problems
 460 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems

of the German intellectual tradition concerning significant for the organism. Function is the only
idealism-materialism; Durkheim's analysis of the basis on which a theoretically systematic ordering
individual actor's relations to the "social facts" of of the structure of living systems is possible. In
his situation; and the social psychology of the this context functional references certainly need
American "symbolic interactionists" Cooley and beg no question about how structural arrangements
Mead, who built upon the philosophy of prag- have come about, since the biological concepts of
matism. [See INTERACTION, article on SOCIAL IN- variation, selection, and adaptation have long since
TERACTION.] provided a framework for analyzing the widest
In dealing with social systems, one must distin- variety of change processes.
guish terminologically between an actor as a unit Goal-attaining processes explicitly intended to
in a social system and the system as such. The fulfill functional requirements constitute a limit-
actor may be either an individual or some kind of ing, but very important, case. Outputs in this sense
collective unit. In both cases, the actor within a have primary functional significance only for the
system of reference will be spoken of as acting in system which receives them and which is situa-
a situation consisting of other actor-units within tional or environmental to the system of reference,
the same system of reference who are considered although they have secondary functional signifi-
as objects. The system as a whole, however, func- cance to the latter. For example, although economic
tions (but does not "act" in a technical sense) in output ("produced" goods) goes to "consumers,"
relation to its environment. Of course, the system the maintenance of certain levels of salable output
references are inherently relative to particular clearly has great significance to producing organ-
scientific problems. When a collective (i.e., social) izations. It is its inputs that have primary func-
system is said to act, as in the case of a govern- tional significance for any given system of refer-
ment conducting foreign relations, this will mean ence. The "factors of production" of economic
that it and the objects of its action constitute the theory are classic examples, being the critical in-
social system of reference and that these objects puts of the economy.
are situation, not environment, to the acting col- In a crucial sense, the relation between any
lectivity. action system—including the social—and any of
its environments is dual. On the one hand, the
The social system and its environments particular environment constitutes a set of objects
A social system, like all living systems, is inher- which are "exterior" to the system in the Cartesian-
ently an open system engaged in processes of inter- Durkheimian sense. On the other hand, through
change (or "input-output relations") with its en- interpenetration, the environmental system is par-
vironment, as well as consisting of interchanges tially and selectively included in the action system
among its internal units. Regarding it as an open of reference. Internalization of cultural and social
system is, from some viewpoints, regarding it as a objects in the personality of the individual is cer-
part of—i.e., a subsystem of—one or more super- tainly the prototypical case of interpenetration, but
ordinate systems. In this sense, it is interdependent the principle it involves should be generalized to
with the other parts of the more comprehensive all the relations between action systems and their
system or systems and, hence, partly dependent on environments.
them for essential inputs. Here the dependence of Thus, neither the individual personality nor the
the organism on its physical environment for nu- social system has any direct relation to the phys-
trition and respiration is prototypical. This is the ical environment; their relations with the latter are
essential basis of the famous concept of function mediated entirely through the organism, which is
as it applies to social systems, as to all other living action's primary link with the physical world. This,
systems. after all, is now a commonplace of modern per-
For any system of reference, functional problems ceptual and epistemological theory (Ayer 1956,
are those concerning the conditions of the main- pp. 130-133). In essentially the same sense,
tenance and/or development of the interchanges neither personalities nor social systems have direct
with environing systems, both inputs from them contact with the ultimate objects of reference, with
and outputs to them. Functional significance may the "ultimate reality" which poses "problems of
be determined by the simple criterion of the dys- meaning" in the sense sociologists associate above
functional consequences of failure, deficit, or ex- all with the work of Max Weber. The objects that
cess of an input to a receiving system, as asphyxia- personalities and social systems know and other-
tion is the consequence of failure in oxygen input, wise directly experience are in our terminology
and so oxygen input is judged to be functionally cultural objects, which are human artifacts in
 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems 461

much the same sense as are the objects of em- ditions of environmental relations, the greatest
pirical cognition. Hence, the relations of personali- self-sufficiency of any type of social system. [See
ties and social systems with ultimate "nonempirical SOCIETY.]
reality" are in a basic sense mediated through the By self-sufficiency (a criterion which has fig-
cultural system. ured prominently in Western thought on the sub-
Emphasis on their lack of direct contact with ject since Aristotle at least), I mean the capacity
what is "out there" concerns in both cases certain of the system, gained through both its internal
qualities of the environing systems as objects. organization and resources and its access to inputs
There is, however, important contact with the from its environments., to function autonomously in
physical and supernatural environments through implementing its normative culture, particularly its
the interpenetration of the latter into action sys- values but also its norms and collective goals. Self-
tems. Hence, such concepts as knowledge are not sufficiency is clearly a degree of generalized adap-
naive illusions but modes of the organization of the tive capacity in the sense of biological theory.
relations between the various action systems and The term "environment" is pluralized here to em-
their environments (Whitehead [1929] and Mead phasize the fact that the relevant environment is
[1938] based their analysis of action on philosophi- not just physical, as in most formulations of gen-
cal positions similar to that assumed here). We eral biological theory, but also includes the three
must regard the relations between the subsystems basic subsystems of action other than the social,
of action, and between the action system and the which have been outlined above.
systems of nonaction, as pluralistic. That is, there The core structure of a society I will call the
will be no one-to-one correspondence between any societal community. More specifically, at different
two interdependent and interpenetrating systems, levels of evolution, it is called tribe, or "the people,"
but there will be a complex relation which can or, for classical Greece, polls, or, for the modern
perhaps be understood by theoretical analysis. This world, nation. It is the collective structure in which
is true of "heredity and environment," "culture and members are united or, in some sense, associated.
personality," and the "ideal" and "real" factors in Its most important property is the kind and level
social systems. of solidarity—in Durkheim's sense—which char-
It is necessary to consider the various environ- acterizes the relations between its members.
ments of a living system, because each such en- The solidarity of a community is essentially the
vironment is engaged in one of the interchange degree to which (and the ways in which) its col-
relations with the system, and the specialized na- lective interest can be expected to prevail over the
tures of these relations serve as the primary bases unit interests of its members wherever the two con-
of the internal differentiation of the system. For flict. It may involve mutual respect among the units
instance, the nutrition and elimination systems, for the rights of membership status, conformity
the respiratory system, and the locomotor system with the value and norms institutionalized in the
of an organism are differentiated from each other collectivity, or positive contribution to the attain-
on this basis. This, as noted, is the essential mean- ment of collective goals. The character of solidarity
ing of the controversial (in social, not biological, varies with the level of differentiation in the so-
science) concept of function. The basis of differ- ciety, differentiation which is evident in the struc-
entiation is functional, since it consists in the dif- tures of the roles in which a given individual is
fering input-output relations of the system with involved, of the system's subcollectivities, and of
its various environments and, following from that, its norms and specified value orientations. The
the internal relations between the differing parts best-known basis for classifying the types of soli-
of the system itself. darity is Durkheim's two categories, mechanical
and organic (see Parsons 1960a).
Society and societal community Both types of solidarity are characterized by
On the understanding that all social systems are common values and institutionalized norms. In the
systems of interaction, the best reference point case of mechanical solidarity, however, the pat-
among their many types, for general theoretical terns of action expected from units are also uni-
purposes, is the society. The definition of this con- form for all units in the system: relative to one
cept presents considerable difficulties, the history another, the units are segments, since they are
°f which cannot occupy us here. For present pur- not functionally differentiated. Durkheim analyzed
poses, I shall define society as the category of social crime as the prototypical violation of the obliga-
system embodying, at the requisite levels of evolu- tions of mechanical solidarity. For full members
tionary development and of control over the con- of the community, no matter how highly differ-
462 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems

entiated the society, the treatment of the criminal Thus, there is, first, a pluralism of economic inter-
should ideally be always the same, regardless of ests which, if uncontrolled, would tend to destroy
who commits the crime, even though this ideal is the solidarity of the societal community—indeed,
frequently and seriously deviated from. At the so- it may be suggested that an exaggerated anxiety
cietal community level in differentiated societies, about this underlies much of the modern socialist
the core of the system of mechanical solidarity lies dogma that only the central societal collectivity, the
in the patterns of citizenship, in T. H. Marshall's state, can be trusted with any interest which seems
sense (1949). These patterns can be conveniently important to the public welfare. However, there is
subdivided into the components of civil-legal citi- a second pluralism of "interest groups" in the po-
zenship, political citizenship, and social citizenship. litical context which, though of course linked with
In modern American society, the bill of rights and the economic pluralism, is by no means the same.
associated constitutional structures, such as the The political process, as that leading to collective
fourteenth amendment, comprise the most directly decision making, is in part a "political struggle"
relevant institutions in this field. among such interest groups. Thus, it has great
Organic solidarity concerns those aspects of the potential for disrupting societal solidarity. How-
societal system in which roles, subcollectivities, ever, the latter can also not merely contain the
and norms are differentiated on a functional basis. struggle but, even more positively, further integrate
Here, though common value patterns remain of the disparate groups by virtue of various mecha-
the first importance to the various subsystems at nisms of integrative control. Finally, the more dif-
the relevant levels of specification, expectations of ferentiated societal community tends also to be
behavior differ according to role and subcollectivity. culturally pluralistic. This is particularly conspicu-
Solidarity, then, involves the integration of these ous in the few Western societies which have at-
differing expectations with respect to the various tained a certain level of religious pluralism. Thus,
bases of compatible functioning, from mutual non- at the very least, contemporary American society
interference to positive mutual reinforcement. [See is a multidenominational, Judaeo-Christian society
INTEGRATION.] which also includes secular humanists who prefer
Organic solidarity seems to be particularly im- not to affiliate with any explicitly religious as-
portant in three primary structural contexts. Most sociation. In one sense, it has "transcended" the
familiar is the one Durkheim himself particularly historic bases of religious conflict which prevailed
stressed, the economic division of labor, where the in the Western world for centuries. The basis of
most important institutional patterns are contract this is genuine denominational pluralism, not only
and property. Second is what we ordinarily call before the law but also in terms of acceptance in
the area of political differentiation, that of both the the community.
organization of authority and leadership and the Very closely associated with this is the pluralism
various modes of participation in collective decision among the intellectual disciplines which has gained
making, which involve the interplay of information institutionalization in modern society, especially in
and influence bearing on collective action. The the university system (Parsons 1965). The rise of
third is the area of the society's relations with its the sciences was, in the first instance, a profound
cultural involvements. This particularly concerns symptom of this pluralization. But it has now be-
the society's articulation with the religious system, come a major factor in the future development of
but also (and the more so, the more differentiated modern society in a variety of ways. The problem
both the society and the culture) with the arts, the of "ethical" pluralism is analytically more difficult
system of intellectual disciplines, and the relation- and complex. The trend seems to be away from the
ship between the patterns of moral obligation and special kind of moral uniformity which character-
those of law. izes societies in which mechanical solidarity pre-
Organic solidarity and pluralism. In all three dominates. The essential point concerns the level
contexts, organic solidarity is associated with the of generality at which common moral standards
phenomenon generally called pluralism. In none are defined: if a pluralistic society is to integrate
of these cases is the structure of a subsystem ar- its many various kinds of units into a solidary so-
ticulating with the societal community ascribed to cietal community, what counts as moral obligation
the structure of the latter. On the contrary, as a cannot be defined in terms specific to each kind of
function of the level of differentiation among the unit but must be sufficiently general to apply to the
articulating subsystems, there is an increasing flex- considerable range of differentiated classes of units.
ibility that facilitates the concrete relations coming Moralism ties morality to the specifics of a sub-
to be established by relatively specific processes. group or a particular stage of social development
 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems 463

and must be distinguished from concern with main- ual's enhanced moral independence from impera-
taining control of action in accord with more gen- tives of unquestioning obligations to conformity.
eralized moral standards. But the obverse aspect is the "right" of the com-
munity to expect appropriate flexibility in the
Cultural system and political system adaptation of moral demands to exigencies of
The societal community in the present sense is realistic implementation.
articulated most directly with the cultural and po- The minimum imperatives of specified common
litical subsystems of the society. Furthermore, it value commitment define one pole of the structures
is in these two relationships that the main connec- of the societal system organized with mechanical
tions between organic and mechanical solidarity solidarity. There is a place for organic solidarity
are lodged. in this context so far as such commitments are so
The cultural (or pattern-maintenance) system firm as not to be "negotiable" and so general as to
centers on the institutionalization of cultural value permit the kind of flexibility in adapting to par-
patterns, which, at the general cultural level, may ticular "exigencies" which has just been discussed.
be regarded as moral. Institutionalized societal What I above called moralism is the limiting case
values, and their specifications to societal sub- where lack of generality (and perhaps firmness of
systems, comprise only part of the relevance of commitment) forecloses such flexibility. The basic
moral values to action; moral values are also in- rights of members in the societal community con-
volved, through internalization, in structures of the stitute, in negative definition, the limits of applica-
personality and behavioral organism; and, more tion of these value commitments. Members' com-
generally, they articulate with religion, science, plementary obligations to the societal community
and the arts within the cultural system. constitute the obverse expectations of contribution
Community in the present sense is never a to the functioning of a social system to which they
simple matter of the "acting out" of value commit- are committed.
ments. It also involves differentiated acceptance, In a sense, the "payoff" on such obligations comes
in valuational terms, of the conditions necessary in the relation between the societal community
for the functioning of societies and their sub- and the political subsystem, since the latter is con-
systems. Essentially this latter element draws the cerned with collective goal attainment as a func-
line between utopianism—making an imperative tion of the total society and, pari passu, of each
of "pure" value actualization—and realistic social subsystem grounded in communal solidarity. This
idealism. Avoiding the Utopian dilemma involves relation between the societal community and the
organizing the value system so as to include the political subsystem concerns a further step toward
positive valuation of social relationships for their mastering exigencies in the interest of the imple-
own sake, not only as being rigidly instrumental mentation of values. It is a matter not just of
to specific value patterns. establishing particular relationships of solidarity
But this is not the whole story. In addition to a as the "setting" for value implementation but,
general "set" establishing a presumption of legiti- further, of committing the interests of that com-
macy for the social system as such, there must munity to particular collective goals—which in-
also be a more flexible set of mechanisms provid- volves dealing with the exigencies of particular
ing for adaptation between the cultural subsystem environmental conditions. For the individual, then,
of the society and the societal community itself. this concerns not merely his personal commitment
These mechanisms concern the capacity for han- to the goal but his obligations as a member of the
dling the changing needs and exigencies of various community. Committing the community implies a
associational relationships in the light of both solution to the problem of integrating the com-
their developing interrelations and their relations munity with reference to the "policy" in question,
with the value system; the more particularized com- whether this involves developing a broad consensus
mitments must be a function of changing concep- or ruthlessly suppressing minority, or even ma-
tions of the imperatives of relationship, as defining jority, views. As a somewhat extreme case, entering
the nature of "valued association." The commit- a war commits the national community, whatever
ment to the societal community is, so far as this various membership elements think about it, short
interchange develops flexibility, no longer ascrip- of their mustering a resistance which would favor
tive but dependent on the need for such com- the enemy cause.
mitment and on an evaluation of its compatibility Here, as in the relation of the national com-
With deeper moral commitments at the cultural munity to the "cultural" subsystem, two impor-
level. One aspect of this flexibility is the individ- tantly different levels are involved. One concerns
 464 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems

the general "authority" of differentiated elements versely, this also concerns the rights of membership
in the society to commit or bind the collectivity elements to give or withhold support for particular
as a whole in the pursuit of particular goals in par- policies and, more generally, particular claims to
ticular situations. One extreme in this context leadership status. The appeals for such support,
would be an absolutist or despotic "government" however, must be on grounds of organic rather
which presumed to act as it pleased, regardless of than mechanical solidarity. The procedural rules
consent or opposition in the broader societal com- become the focus of common commitments, while
munity. An opposite extreme would be a commu- particular outcomes become matters for legitimate
nity which made any collective action dependent on contest.
virtually unanimous and explicit consent.
By differentiating the two levels, modern gov- Solidarity and the economy
ernmental systems avoid being caught in the above At this point, we may recall that Durkheim in-
dilemma. They set up procedural rules defining the troduced the concept of organic solidarity in ana-
level of support needed to authorize collective lyzing the division of labor in the economic sense.
action binding the collectivity as a whole, includ- This was quite logical in the light both of the
ing minorities that dissent in various contexts. For utilitarian theories to which he was critically orient-
this to work, the minorities must be committed to ing himself and of the economy's relative remote-
the legitimacy of the governmental system, even ness from the setting of the system of mechanical
though they refuse to support particular policy solidarity as that which was just discussed. Focus
decisions of the moment. on the economic system was the most convenient
For the individual (or political minority groups), way to set up a clear conceptual dichotomy.
however, such situations may present a moral Nevertheless, it now seems better to approach
dilemma. In his role as a responsible member of the problem of the economic system indirectly,
the societal community, which includes an obliga- through its relations to the other aspects of a social
tion to support its government (not particular de- system. We conceive of the economy as the func-
cisions or parties) the member of a minority sub- tional subsystem of a society differentiated about
group is, up to a point, obligated not only to accept producing and allocating fluidly disposable re-
but often also to cooperate actively in implement- sources within the society. As put in a quite fa-
ing a policy of which he disapproves. There may, miliar paradigm, it operates through combining
however, be a point beyond which his conscience the factors of production—e.g., land, labor, capital,
will not allow this. He will then be driven into and organization—to produce the two primary
various levels of resistance, ranging from with- categories of output: commodities and services.
drawal of active participation, through public pro- The economic categories are not the physical ob-
test, conspicuous noncooperation, and militant jects or the physical behavior involved as such, but
attempts to prevent or sabotage its implementation, certain ways of controlling them: in the case of
to revolution. commodities, essentially property rights; in the
The development of political differentiation and case of services, the kind of authority or power
pluralism, including the generalization of the over the performer we associate with the status of
crucial levels of political obligation, tends to broaden employer.
the range of individual freedom for dissent and The actual combinatorial processes, which we
also to draw the lines between politically institu- call economic production, take place in goal-
tionalized—as distinguished from moral—rights of oriented organizational units that economists call
dissent and opposition and those institutionally firms. The strictly economic functions concern the
denned as illegitimate. The basic independence of management of the boundary relations of these
the cultural-moral and the socially institutional- units through what is ordinarily called the market
ized systems, however, precludes any social com- system, and should be distinguished from the tech-
munity from being completely immune to the kind nological functions. The economic functions in-
of political opposition which can lead to the dis- volve procuring control of the factors of produc-
ruption of its basic solidarity. tion (including determination of requirements for
The element of mechanical solidarity here con- them) and disposing of the outputs of production
cerns the legitimation of collective decision-making through marketing. These processes operate by
authorities. Such legitimation must derive from adjusting relations between supply and demand
common value commitments to the societal com- through establishing terms for the transfer of con-
munity and, hence, to the kinds of collective action trol that equate quantity and price for both parties
considered legitimate, including the identification to the exchange.
of the agencies entitled to take such action. Ob- Here the primary institutional focus of organic
 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems 465

solidarity is the institution of contract, which is man 1962). Nevertheless, the extent of an econ-
essentially the set of procedural rules regulating omy's "monetization" is undoubtedly the most
transfers of both factors of production and eco- important single index of the mobilizability of its
nomic outputs. This institutional complex not only resources and, hence, the flexibility of their alloca-
regulates the actual settlement of contracts but tion, at all combinatorial stages, from ultimate
also defines what types of contract may—and may natural resources and human energies or skills, to
not—be entered into, how agreements may be ar- finished consumption goods and services.
rived at, their bearing on the interests of third Money is also important theoretically as the
parties, and the obligations of parties under various best-understood member of the family of general-
special contingencies, such as the development of ized symbolic media of interchange involved in
unforeseen obstacles to the fulfillment of terms. social interaction processes. Political power and
The institution of property, then, is the norma- influence as used in political leadership processes
tive system regulating acquisition, disposal, control, certainly belong to this family (Parsons 1963a;
and use of physical objects in relation to the con- 1963k).
tractual system, whether the objects be factors of The economy, as here conceived, articulates
production or commodity outputs. And the institu- with the societal community primarily through the
tional complex we call employment regulates the institutional complex of contract, property., and
acquisition and utilization of human services, the employment-occupation system. Its solidarity
either as factors of production or as ultimate agents is maintained by keeping its transactions in line
of valued consumption. with certain integrative imperatives, e.g., by pro-
tecting the interests both of parties to contractual
Generalized media of interchange relations and of third parties and by providing a
In sufficiently developed and differentiated sys- basis in solidary relations for effective collective
tems, a central role in economic process is played action, especially through making economic re-
by money, as both a symbolic medium of exchange sources available to collective units, including par-
and a measure and store of value in the economic ticularly the government.
sense. Money may be defined as the capacity of a Money, like the other members of the family of
societal unit to command economically valuable media, is a symbolic medium which, without being
resources through the exchange process, i.e., too farfetched, we may call a specialized language.
through contractual agreements, without giving Like all such media, it expresses and communicates
commodities or services in return. The payment of messages having meanings with reference to a
money constitutes the transfer of such capacity code—that is, a set of rules for the use, trans-
from one unit to another. In most transactions in formation, and combination of symbols. (The the-
a developed economy, entities that have "value in ory of the operation of such types of messages and
use" figure on only one side of an exchange rela- codes of rules has been developed in the field of
tionship, being balanced by a monetary "considera- linguistics by, particularly, Jakobson & Halle 1956;
tion" on the other. To "pay" money is to accept Chomsky 1957; 1964). In the case of money, as
certain economic obligations, defined by a propor- institutionalized, it is highly important to recog-
tionate diminution in one's capacity to command nize that the relevant code is part of the legal sys-
economic "values" in other transactions. To accept tem; this is most clear in societies having a suf-
money in payment, on the other hand, is to gain ficiently high level of differentiation. As we have
the right to an expectation that others will make put it, the institutions of contract, property, and
economically valuable goods and services available employment, as parts of the legal system, consti-
at the times and places of one's own choosing, tute the code in terms of which transformations
within the limits defined in the market nexus. It between money and commodities or services and
has long been a commonplace of economics that among different forms of monetary assets operate.
only a far-reaching institutionalization of the mone- Financial transactions, therefore, constitute a cer-
tary mechanism can make an extended division of tain type of "conversations."
labor possible (see, for example, Adam Smith's This paradigm is also applicable to relations be-
classic statement in 1776, book 1, especially chap- tween the societal community and the other pri-
ter 3), though it is known that politically con- mary functional subsystems of the society. In the
trolled administrative allocation of resources can case of the polity, the medium which corresponds to
substitute for the contractual-monetary mecha- money is power. This I conceive as the generalized
nisms up to a point, as in the "command" economy medium of mobilizing capacities for effective col-
of the Soviet Union, which reached its highest de- lective action, utilizable by members of collectivi-
velopment in the late Stalinist period (see Gross- ties to contribute toward binding the collectivity to
466 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems

particular courses of action, either determining or of the societal system must be anchored in a value
contributing to the implementation of specific system if it is to have a basis of legitimation. But
policy goals. (This usage of the concept of political its structure is determined not only by value speci-
power is clearly different from those most common fication but also by adjustment to the exigencies
in both sociology and political science; for a dis- of the other functional subsystems. But in this
cussion of the issues involved in the usage of this process of adjustment the integratively oriented
concept, see Parsons 1963&.) The code within code still maintains a certain level of integrity with
which power as a medium operates centers about respect to the value commitment and solidarity of
the institution of authority, which in turn articu- the societal community. In highly differentiated
lates with the patterns of institutionalized leader- societies, this basic code system is the core of the
ship and administrative responsibility for main- legal system.
taining regulatory norms.
In the sphere of articulation with the cultural Societies and their environments
system, the operative medium is what I call com- We may now return to the problem of the rela-
mitments. This concerns the specification of the tions of a society as a social system with its en-
general value patterns to the levels necessary for vironments. The basis of the differentiation be-
their workable combination with the other factors tween the societal community and the other three
requisite to their implementation in concrete action. primary subsystems of the society should be sought
Commitment to valued associations of the societal in the basis on which they in turn are differentiated
community type is the prototype here (unfortu- from it and from each other. In general, it can be
nately, I have not yet been able to develop for pub- said that the reason for the existence of these
lication an analysis of the commitments medium patterned differentiations is that they help the
on the same level as I have done for money, power, social system to cope with the exigencies imposed
and influence). The relevant code is the set of on it by its environments.
institutions which constitutes the underpinning of The organic—physical environment. In dealing
society's mechanical solidarity—in American so- with this problem, perhaps we had best begin with
ciety those formulated in the bill of rights, etc., as the economy, partly because the relevant theoret-
noted. Within this context, the civil component ical analysis is most highly developed there. In the
holds precedence, because it formulates the valua- terms of our general paradigm, the intrasocial re-
tional basis of community membership. lation between societal community and economy
Finally, the societal community itself is the focus is paralleled at the level of the general action sys-
of operation for a fourth generalized medium, tem by the relation between the social system and
which I have called, in a special technical sense, the behavioral organism.
influence (Parsons 1963a). Here the relevant code First, it should be emphasized that all relations
is comprised of the norms underlying organic soli- between the social system and the physical en-
darity, as they relate to the pluralistic structure of vironment are mediated through the behavioral
differentiated societies. Since their primary con- organism. The perceptual processes of the organ-
text is that of the solidarity of the society, we may ism are the source of information about the phys-
consider their major focus to be justification for ical environment, which gains cultural organization
the allocation of loyalties. Here justification must from its conceptual and theoretical components.
be carefully distinguished from legitimation. Justi- The organism is also the source of the "instinctual"
fication is less absolute and operates at a lower components of the motivation of individuals' per-
level in the cybernetic hierarchy. The system may sonalities.
well be legitimated while questions of the justifica- The relation between the organism and the so-
tion of certain choices between alternative subsidi- ciety's economic subsystem, which is of direct con-
ary solidarities are still left open where actual or cern here, constitutes the technological system.
potential dilemmas are posed. This involves the utilization of empirical knowl-
These different code components are more or edge, structured by perceptual feedback through
less adequately integrated in a going societal sys- the cultural system, for the design and production
tem, where they constitute its basic normative of commodities having utility for human social
structure. They should be distinguished from the functions. What is to be produced, in what quan-
primary normative components of a pattern-main- tities relative to alternative uses of the factors of
tenance system, since the latter are made up of production (cost factors), is economically deter-
value patterns and their specifications, not of dif- mined; how it is to be produced is a technological
ferentiated norms. The integratively oriented code problem. Technology involves not only the use of
 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems 467

ultimate "natural" resources (analytically a "land" normatively expected to be, when he is not engaged
factor) and "equipment" (a benefit from previous in such other specific activities as work and special
production) but also labor—a factor that, socio- recreation.
logically speaking, takes the form of service. This Communication and transportation—of both
is a particularly important category of the inter- goods and persons—therefore require physical
penetration of the economy with other parts of the media and must be involved in the physical world,
societal system. We conceive of service as an out- perhaps especially in its spatial aspects. The actual
put from the economy which "corresponds" to communication of a message from a sender in one
labor as a factor of production but which should physical location to a receiver in another is always
definitely not be identified with labor. Very im- problematic, even if the two are engaged in face-
portantly, however, service is a crucial factor in to-face conversation in the same room. The same
technological efficiency. This apparently paradox- is true of broadcast communication—newspapers
ical conception derives from the fact that techno- must get from the printing plant to the readers,
logical processes always occur within a framework radio and television broadcasts must be transmitted
of social organization, never as "purely physical" through the "air"—and of the conveyance of per-
phenomena. This means that the physical, be- sons and goods from place to place.
havioral operations of persons in technological set- In certain senses, though, the most fundamental
tings are a function of their commitments, as mem- problem here is that the normative orders consti-
bers of the societal community and its relevant tutive of social systems must "apply" to categories
subsystems, to devote their energy and skill to pro- of persons and their acts in ways that include speci-
ductive uses in the economic sense. This human fications of where the persons or acts are located.
component is then combined, at the general action Very generally, then, the societal community and
system level, with empirical knowledge of stand- various of its subsystems "claim jurisdiction" over
ards of socioeconomic utility to produce facilities persons and their acts with reference to particular
which can be relatively freely allocated to the vari- territorial areas. A most important reason for the
ous functional needs of societal units. Analyses in prominence of territoriality is that normative obli-
these terms can contribute much toward resolving gations, if taken sufficiently seriously, must on oc-
the old controversy about whether the material casion be somehow enforced, and this involves
basis of a complex societal system is "ultimately" resort at some point to physical negative sanctions,
economic or technological, or whether the distinc- which can only be applied to the noncompliant
tion between these categories should be abandoned. individual where he is. This, in turn, obviously
Physical location is a particularly important in- includes enforcing claims to the jurisdiction over,
volvement of technological systems, deriving from and the utilization of resources within, an area
the necessity to bring together physical materials, and, hence, a readiness to enforce respect for such
plant, equipment, and organisms as performers of control upon outsiders, i.e., the function of defense
service. Role differentiation between the occu- (Parsons 1960b).
pational and residential units tends to involve Thus, spatial location is involved in all the func-
physical separation of workplaces from places of tions of social systems. Its articulation with social
residence, although the involvement of the same processes is what we ordinarily call the ecological
persons in both units sets certain requirements for aspect of the system—the distribution of its various
the physical interrelations of the units' locations. activities in physical space and their orientation to
In particular, the modern urban community is very spatial considerations. In principle, all other ana-
largely built about the relationship between these lytically distinguishable aspects of physical systems
two sets of locations. are comparably involved with social interaction, but
Residence, like occupation, also articulates phys- the foregoing will have to serve for illustration.
ical location and the organism into the social sys- The core of the social system, the societal
tem. But it operates in the context of the organic community, relates to the physical environment
rhythm, such as sleep, nutrition, and sexual ac- primarily through two mediating systems: the
tivity, to which human beings are bound. Another economy, which is primarily social but which inter-
limiting factor is that the household (which, in penetrates with the technological system, and the
spite of many exceptions, remains the usual unit technological system, which is primarily organic-
of residence), has at its core kinship units center- physical but which interpenetrates with the econ-
ing on one or more nuclear families. The place of omy. Organic-physical factors, then, operate in all
residence is the human individual's residual loca- the other primary subsystems of the society, each
tion, the place where he is likely to be, and is often of which has its technological and economic as-
468 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems

pects, although they are subordinated to other con- As structures of such interpenetration, "theolog-
siderations, such as the political. ical schools" or "prophetic movements," though
The cultural environment. There is parallel quite distinct from religion as a component of the
complexity at the other end of the cybernetic hier- culture, are cultural subsystems of the society that
archy, in which action and, hence, social systems have religious primacy but also interpenetrate with
are involved. A society, or any other type of social churches or other forms of the social institutional-
system, has a pattern-maintenance subsystem, the ization of religion. In the same way, law schools,
units of which (once the system is sufficiently dif- as companies of legal scholars, are cultural sub-
ferentiated) have cultural primacy. These social systems, whereas courts of law are the social-system
system units, then, interpenetrate with both the units in which legal doctrines are applied to social
societal community (and other societal subsys- situations. In the more strictly cognitive disciplines,
tems) and with the cultural system proper. With "companies of scholars" constitute cultural sub-
progressing differentiation, they tend to become dis- systems, which often involve "schools" at the level
tinctively different according to whether their pri- of cultural content, whereas universities and other
mary concern is cultural or social. educational collectivities constitute the articulated
Religion comprises the matrix from which cul- social system units.
tural institutions in general have become differ- For certain purposes, we may, as above, legiti-
entiated and remains the "master system" in the mately equate the pattern-maintenance subsystem
cybernetic sense. But secular intellectual disciplines of a society with the cultural system, since its pri-
(science), arts in the expressive-symbolic sense, mary function is articulating the social system as
and normative disciplines (e.g., ethics and law) such—the system constituted by social interaction
have gained differentiation from it. —with cultural patterns and norms. This, however,
This formulates very briefly the main line of in- is elliptical. In the first instance, there are the more
ternal differentiation of a cultural system. The complex relationships just sketched. But there is
pattern-maintenance system, however, is not a cul- also a further complication. Any system of cul-
tural system in a strict sense (though for simplifi- tural content, particularly a value system, must be
cation the distinction has not always been made in specified from the most general relevant levels to
this article), but the subsystem of the social sys- levels relevant to the highly particular functions
tem articulating most closely with the cultural and exigencies of many and various subsystems.
system. Religion as a cultural phenomenon is not For instance, every technological system producing
part of the pattern-maintenance system. Rather, a particular commodity has special exigencies that
the relevant structure is the collective organization the general principles of the relevant science can-
of religious orientations, e.g., in churches or in not handle alone; similarly, every medical case is
prophetic movements. Science as a body of knowl- in some sense unique, and the physician must
edge is cultural; universities as collectivities or- tailor his general medical knowledge to its spe-
ganized about the development of science through cificities.
research and about its communication through One set of exigencies of human societies has a
teaching are parts of the society. Pattern-mainte- special bearing here. It concerns the consequen-
nance structures in this connection have cultural ces of the fact that culture is learned by the hu-
primacy only in that their societal functions con- man being; it is not part of his hereditary equip-
cern interchange with the cultural system and in ment. If a given society is defined by its institu-
that they interpenetrate with the latter. Thus, re- tionalization of certain cultural patterns, then the
ligious orientations or scientific "systems of knowl- necessity of internalizing those patterns in the on-
edge" are constitutive parts of churches and uni- coming generation is second in functional impor-
versities, not only "environments" to them. tance only to maintenance of the adult levels of
Just as man has no direct contact with the phys- that culture. This cultural imperative evidently
ical world independent of the organisms (which, underlies the functioning of kinship institutions in
however, is itself part of that world), so he has no all known human societies and, at higher levels of
direct contact with the ultimate nonempirical differentiation, of many kinds and levels of formal
"grounds" of his existence, what Weber called the education.
world of "ultimate realities." His objects in this This whole subsystem of institutions, as well as
realm to which he orients himself are not the ulti- those involved with cultural innovation (e.g., re-
mate entities as such but his representations of search organizations), should be included in the
them. They are cultural objects—parts of the cul- pattern-maintenance subsystem of a society, char-
tural system in the action sense—and hence inter- acterized by primary interpenetration with the cul-
penetrate with all the other subsystems of action. tural system of action. Kinship, however, having
 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems 469

special reference to child care, is the substructure mediate cases specially involved at the crux of dif-
of the pattern-maintenance system that operates ferentiation between organism and personality
at the farthest remove from the considerations of (notably, erotic pleasure), all rewards are social
the general culture; at the appropriate level of system outputs. Conversely, outputs from the per-
specification of values, however, it has cultural sonality to the social system are personal goal
primacy. Furthermore, it also relates quite spe- achievements which, from the viewpoint of the
cially not only to the society but also to the ex- receiving social system, are contributions to its
igencies of both organism and personality, about functioning, insofar as the two systems are inte-
which a few words must now be said. grated with each other.
The psychological environment. The person- The focus of such integration is the phenome-
ality, as analytically distinguished from the organ- non of "identification," through which the person-
ism, constitutes the third primary environment of ality acquires a motivationally and cognitively
a social system. It interpenetrates with the indi- meaningful role set and the social system acquires
vidual organism in the obvious and fundamental a member who can make meaningful contributions.
sense that the storage facilities of learned content Malintegration means that this matching relation-
must be organic, as must the physical mechanisms ship has failed in one way or another—"deviance,"
of perception and cognition, of the control of "alienation," and a variety of other phenomena fit
learned behavior, and of the bases of motivation. in this category. It is also crucial to allow for per-
At the level of this discussion, however, the per- sonal creativity in relation to the social system. The
sonality forms a distinct system articulated with analytical independence of social system and per-
social systems through their political subsystems, sonality is the basic origin of both the prevalence
not simply in the sense of government but of any of deviant behavior and the openings for creativity.
collective ordering. This is to say that the primary The frequent allegation that sociology teaches the
goal output of social systems is to the personalities necessity of flat "conformity" is a conspicuous case
of their members. Although they interpenetrate of the fallacy of misplaced concreteness. If our
crucially with social systems, the personalities of analytical generalizations about social systems
individuals are not core constituents of social sys- "applied" without qualification to all the member
tems (nor vice versa) but precisely environments personalities, this would be the case. The mutual
of them. Freud, especially in his later work, was independence of the two categories of system—
quite clear about the obverse relationship: namely, though accounting for their interdependence and
that the individual personality's primary environ- interpenetration—is the theoretical basis for the
ment consists of the social systems into which it fundamental and general phenomenon of the au-
becomes integrated. Freud's famous "reality prin- tonomy of the individual, so far as the social system
ciple" is the principle of ego adaptation to the social is concerned.
environment. Two important considerations reinforce this as-
I am treating the personality last among the sertion of the reality of personal autonomy, the
primary environments of the social system because, degrees and kinds of which must be seen as varying
of the three, it is the least commonly conceptualized with different types of social system. First, ana-
as such. This conceptualization directly counters lytically and apart from its direct relation to the
the long tradition that a society is "composed" or social system, the personality system is the pri-
"made up" of "individuals." The latter may be true mary meeting ground of the cultural system, the
if the society and the individual are conceived of behavioral organism, and, secondarily, the physical
as concrete entities. Here, however, social system world. Although there have been serious theoret-
and personality—the concrete term "individual" is ical difficulties with the "culture and personality"
avoided in this context—are used as abstractly studies of the last generation in behavioral science,
defined systems which are distinguished analyti- they did focus upon a crucial relationship here, as
cally, though allowance is made for the crucial did the "behavioristic" traditions of psychology in
relation of interpenetration. The unit of interpene- studying the interrelations of personality and or-
tration between a personality and a social system ganism. Hence, it can be said not only that the
is not the individual but a role or complex of roles. personality is autonomous as a distinct subsystem
The same personality may participate in several of action, but also that this autonomy is importantly
social systems in different roles. grounded in the personality's interchanges with
From the viewpoint of the psychology of the per- the cultural and organic levels of the organization
sonality, the positive outputs from the social sys- of action. These three sets of considerations (plus
tem are rewards. Indeed, I would even say that, at the uniqueness of the genetic constitution of prac-
the level of cultural symbolization, except for inter- tically every human organism) go far in explain-
470 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems

ing the irreducibility of the distinctiveness of all gone far in understanding the vastly complex phe-
human personalities, as well as their autonomy. nomena of monetary systems, they have generally
The second consideration derives from an in- been considered as unique. I have suggested that
ternal feature of social systems that is generally money is not unique in either of two senses.
called "role pluralism." That is, not only do indi- First, it can be considered a special case of a
viduals have plural role involvements, but also very general phenomenon: language. It is in fact
different individuals' combinations of role partici- a very highly specialized language. Crucial here is
pations vary widely. Such variance includes com- the recognition that it operates at the symbolic
plexes of differing roles which are often categorized level and that its primary function is communica-
together for limited purposes. Thus, one "middle- tion, though of a special, normative sort. The
class suburban mother" may have one child, an- "monetary system" is a code, in the grammatical-
other three, and another five, and the assortments syntactical sense. The circulation of money is the
of the children by age and sex may vary, so that "sending" of messages which give the recipient ca-
even "being a mother" is not an identical thing for pacity to command goods and services through
each member of that category, even sociologically. market channels. The recipient gains the expecta-
To this we can add differences in occupation of tion that he can "request," by virtue of his holding
husbands, religion, ethnicity, participation in com- money, access to goods and services of a given
munity affairs, etc. value. There is an institutionalized obligation on
When so many mutually independent—though those receiving such requests—if they are "in busi-
also interdependent—factors are operating, any- ness"—to comply. But the process of money circu-
one familiar with the logic of combinatorial varia- lation involves literally nothing except communi-
bility should find it difficult to maintain that a cated messages. A check is only a filled-in form
modern, highly differentiated society is incompati- letter to the bank on which it is drawn.
ble with individuality. Of course, there are also Second, money is not the only specialized lan-
matters of the specific kinds of autonomy and in- guage of this sort operating in social systems. Po-
dividuality which are at stake. However, the argu- litical power is certainly another. It centers on the
ments alleging that modern societies are repressive use of discretionary authority in collective organ-
of all autonomy and stifling of all individuality are izations to make decisions which, as binding on
frequently so over generalized that they appear to the collectivity, require performances of those
deny altogether the combinatorial argument just who are obligated to further their implementation.
outlined. Furthermore, a strong case can be made Not only executive decisions constitute uses of
that the trend of modern society, because it has power in this sense, but also the exercise of fran-
become so highly differentiated and pluralistic, is chises in many connections, from voting in govern-
positively to favor individuality rather than to sup- mental elections to voting as a member of a small
press it in favor of conformism. committee.
We have confined our attention here to human- A third generalized symbolic medium is influ-
level social systems and have emphasized the im- ence. By this I mean, quite technically, the ca-
portance of the symbolic systems, which we call pacity to achieve "consensus" with other members
cultural, that become constitutive of them through of an associated group through persuasion, with-
being involved in action and interpenetrating with out having to give fully adequate reasons (an ade-
social systems. Perhaps the most general matrix of quate reason, in this sense, would be one that gave
these symbolic systems is language. On various the recipient sufficient information for making a
levels, there is great familiarity with the concept rational decision himself, or one that was at least
of symbolic systems, e.g., of "ideas" having a pre- fully understandable to him). Thus, a physician,
dominantly cognitive focus and of "expressive sym- as a technical specialist, may persuade a patient to
bols" in the arts and in ritual. follow his advice even when it is out of the question
that the patient is competent to understand its
The media of interchange revisited technical grounds. The patient must, as members
In conclusion, we may carry a little further the of the profession often put it, have "confidence" in
discussion, introduced above, of another category his physician.
of symbolic systems that emerges into great promi- Fourth is the medium of generalized commit-
nence in highly differentiated social systems: the ments to the implementation of cultural values, at
media of interchange. Attention was called above the level of the social system as such. It is the most
to money as the medium of exchange in economic difficult to conceptualize, and the least can be said
transactions. Though the science of economics has about it.
 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems 471

The need for generalized media of interchange ments. It is in this sense that commitments may be
is a function of the differentiatedness of social considered a "circulating" medium.
structures; in this sense they are all partly integra- These media appear in generalized and differen-
tive mechanisms. The relations between markets tiated form only when relatively high levels of dif-
and money and the division of labor are well ferentiation in the relevant spheres have been
known, but similar considerations apply in the attained. Primitive societies never have money and
other cases. market systems, and many archaic societies have
In the political case, the necessity for the mech- them only rudimentarily, if at all. What Weber
anism of power stems from the social "status called "patriarchal" political structures do not have
distance" between the loci of decision making and power as a generalized medium, and "patrimonial"
the loci of the performances necessary for the im- regimes show only its first emergence.
plementation of the decisions. In complex organ- Other generalized media seem to operate in the
izations, it is not realistically possible for decision zones of interpenetration between the social sys-
makers to consult in detail with every person upon tem and the other primary subsystems of action.
whose compliance effective implementation of their As already noted, what Freud called erotic pleasure
decisions depends. This may involve reasons of is at the same time both organic (i.e., a component
time and urgency, technical considerations, access of the personality) and, because of its involvement
to special information, or various exigencies of co- with interpersonal relations, a component of cer-
ordination. Thus, elections must lead to a concen- tain elementary social systems. What psychoana-
tration of power in the hands of the candidates lytic and other social psychologists have called
elected. There cannot, however, be a simple con- affect is probably another such mechanism, oper-
sensus between all the members of the electorate ating among persons in the interchange between
and the preferred candidate—this would be incom- the personality and social systems rather than in
patible with the voter's freedom of choice. Hence, direct relation to the organism. The two famous
the individual voter must agree to make a binding "wishes" for recognition and for response discussed
decision that he prefers candidate X over Y. If by W. I. Thomas perhaps designate still another
enough voters do likewise, X will be elected. The medium which, however, may be a subdivision of
electoral authorities are obligated to comply with the more general mechanism of affect. In the
the aggregate of decisions of the voters. organic-physical set of relations, technological
In the case of influence, the functional need in- "know-how" and skill are probably well regarded
volves bridging certain gaps between the bases of in this way.
accepting "advice" (in the sense of attempts to per- Another set of media operate in the zone of in-
suade without either situational inducements or terpenetration between the social and cultural
threats of coercive sanctions) and the intrinsically systems. Ideology is a conspicuous example. The
cogent "reasons" for such acceptance. Complex concept conscience, as used in Puritan traditions
communities cannot wait for fully rational demon- especially, seems to belong in this category. Repu-
strations of the advisability of all commitments. tation, as that term is used in discussing the social
Therefore, they must rely on influence or, as we structure of scientific communities, is probably an-
sometimes say, prestige, as utilized by persons in other case. The concept faith, as used in Christian
responsible roles. The user of influence creates a tradition, especially Protestantism, probably refers
presumption for the reasonableness of his case, so to a generalized mechanism peculiar to the cultural
that the object of his attempts at persuasion feels, level of action organization.
in the integrated case, reasonably sure in trusting The relative salience of the various generalized
him. media of interchange (and of particular cases
Similarly, commitments are given to others within them) for specific structures is a useful
when an individual enters into a situation (i.e., guide to the structural arrangements among and
makes or, more appropriately, gives a commit- within the subsytems of more generalized social
ment) without in fact being fully able to ensure systems, notably societies. We have also claimed
that the process of action implementation will be that the core of a society is the societal community,
carried out in a manner conducive to preserving which, functionally regarded, is the integrative
or enhancing the integrity of his values. Thus, in a subsystem. It interpenetrates and interchanges di-
sense different from that of the influence context, rectly with each of the other primary subsystems:
he has either to trust others or to sacrifice the pros- the pattern-maintenance or cultural-primary sub-
pect of successful implementation. In turn, others systems; the goal-attainment subsystem, or polity;
must trust him to gain fulfillment of their commit- and the adaptive subsystem, or economy. The
472 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS: Social Systems

medium focal to the societal community is influ- pal societal medium operating in this realm, though
ence, which is interchangeable for power, money, various others are involved secondarily. A modern
and value commitments. society, then, contains a considerable number of
Each of the other three subsystems constitutes a structural units having cultural primacy. Religious
zone of primary interpenetration and interchange collectivities need hardly be mentioned, so con-
between the social system and one of its intra- spicuous are they from any comparative point of
action environments. The economy interchanges view. Increasingly, modern societies have universi-
with the organic-physical environment; and money, ties, which institutionalize the intellectual disci-
in a sufficiently differentiated economy, can be plines that are in some sense sciences, various or-
used in exchange for the factors of production, ganizations focusing upon the arts, and the very
which are then also technologically combined. crucial institutions of highly generalized law, with
Though a modern economy is structured primarily their articulations to ethics.
about financial institutions and market systems,
these latter interpenetrate, in turn, with the tech- The social system is, thus, a very complex entity.
nological organization of production. As an organization of human interests, activities,
The polity interpenetrates, in the first instance, and commitments, it must be viewed as a system
with the personality. Power, as the medium having and in functional perspective. This is the key to its
political primacy, can be used to acquire both hu- lines of organization, its modes of differentiation,
man services and the demands for collective action and its integration. Such a system may be con-
which justify leadership initiative. Underlying these sidered as both structure and process, in different
two forms of "mobile" human resources are the aspects and for different scientific purposes. Struc-
processes that generate and stabilize them. Here turally, we have suggested that there is a double
the interpenetration between social system and basis for systematizing differentiation and varia-
personality leads toward both the psychological tion: that internal to the primary social system
"depths" of the personality and the relational con- itself and that involved in its relations to its pri-
texts articulating the basic integration of social mary environments, as analyzed with reference to
systems. Above all, family and kinship, as well as the general system of action. Processually, the
neighborhood and education, fit this context but categories of analysis must follow from and inte-
so do complexes such as recreation. These operate, grate with those of structure. I suggest that, given
however, at a level quite different from the direct the central position of language as definitive of
interchanges between personality and polity. For human society, the more differentiated and spe-
macrosocial purposes, therefore, they should be cialized symbolic media of interchange constitute
treated as pattern-maintenance processes. the master scheme for the systematic analysis of
Finally, the interpenetration between social and social system processes.
cultural systems concerns, most saliently, the place TALCOTT PARSONS
of religion in relation to social structure. Indeed,
the primary structures of the most primitive socie- [See also LINGUISTICS; SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS; SOCIAL
ties fall almost entirely into the two basic cate- STRUCTURE; SOCIETY; STATE; and the biographies
gories of kinship and religion. With further differ- of COOLEY; DURKHEIM; MEAD; PARETO; THOMAS;
entiation, however, religion becomes more and WEBER, MAX; WHITEHEAD.]
more clearly distinguished from political organiza- BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Mouton.
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plines. Thus, law, in close relation to ethical phi- tion of the Soviet Economy. Slavic Review 21:203-
222.
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handmaidens of religion; and, generally last, sci- mentals of Language. The Hague: Mouton.
ence have become independent cultural realms— MARSHALL, T. H. (1949) 1964 Citizenship and Social
though they are always also interdependent and Class. Pages 65-122 in T. H. Marshall, Class, Citizen-
ship, and Social Development: Essays. Garden City,
interpenetrating with each other and with the social N.Y.: Doubleday. -» The essay is based on the Mar-
system. Value commitments constitute the princi- shall lecture delivered at Cambridge in 1949. The col-