People Power, the Public Sphere and the State: A Systems View (Part 1)

[carlos v. jugo]

About a month ago, Rom requested for reactions on Solita Monsod's and Manolo Quezon's respective views on People Power. Since then fellow bloggers Angela Stuart-Santiago and Schumey have weighed in. I am in agreement with their views and i don't think i can add any more new points. My objective in writing this entry would be to analyze Monsod and Quezon's discussion within the framework of Systems Theory, focusing on two interacting systems i.e. the State and the Public Sphere.

John Dryzek defines the State as the "the set of individuals and organizations legally authorized to make binding decisions for a society". He adds some nuance to this definition by explaining that the 'state' "should not be equated with the broader set of society's institutions of government" but encompasses only that portion of the government that fulfills a state imperative, i.e. "any function that governmental structures must perform if those structures are to secure longevity and stability". For purposes of this analysis, i will include as part of the State, the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government. The Public Sphere, a concept that encompasses Civil Society, is the locus of what Jurgen Habermas identifies as communicative rationality which he distinguishes from instrumental rationality. As explained by Dryzek:

"Communicative action is oriented to understanding between individuals rather than success in achieving predefined individual goals. Communicative rationality is found to the degree that communicative action is free from coercion, deception, self-deception, strategizing, and manipulation." - John Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond

The Public Sphere is where this communicative rationality and its accompanying communicative action is found. Civil Society organizations such as the Black and White Movement and like organizations belong to this category. The definition normally excludes those engaged in private as well as economic activities as well as organizations oriented towards violence (e.g. Abu Sayyaf, CPP/NPA).

So defined, the State and the Public Sphere make up two separate, but interrelated Systems which can be represented in two ways as shown in the following diagram:

The figure on the left depicts two Systems 'A' and 'B' interacting with each other. The nature of such interaction between systems is not straightforward though. A distinguishing property of all systems is that it is closed off from the outside world in the sense that it can perceive only those things that the system will allow itself to perceive. An example from biology is the inability of humans to hear sounds beyond certain frequencies that dogs and other animals are perfectly capable of hearing. Similarly, we are also incapable of seeing beyond the colors of the rainbow so we cannot perceive ultraviolet or infrared light. We hear and see what our senses allow us to hear and see. This is also how any two systems normally interact. A system would have evolved such that it can only perceive those aspects of the outside world (including other systems) that it is equipped to perceive and its ability to perceive the outside world is determined by its internal structure, in other words, the system's internal organization. This kind of interaction is called "structural coupling".

Another way of representing two systems interacting is to designate one of the systems as the system and the other as the environment as shown in the figure on the right. System 'A' may be shown as the system while System 'B" as the environment or vice-versa. In a way, this view is better at conveying the structurally coupled nature of the interactions between systems. If System 'A' is embedded in a hostile environment (aka System 'B'), then it will perceive the environment as such, react accordingly or eventually breakdown because of failure to adapt. Alternatively, if System 'A' is in a friendly environment, then it will be able to thrive and prosper as would a tree growing on fertile soil.

[Continued here]