POWER, IDEOLOGY, AND CONTROL

Contemporary Systems Thinking

Series Editor: Robert L. Flood University of Hull Hull, United Kingdom

LIBERATING SYSTEMS THEORY Robert L. Flood

OPERATIONAL RESEARCH AND SYSTEMS The Systemic Nature of Operational Research Paul Keys

POWER, IDEOLOGY, AND CONTROL John C. Oliga

SELF-PRODUCING SYSTEMS Implications and Applications of Autopoiesis John Mingers

SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY FOR THE MANAGEMENT SCIENCES Michael C. Jackson

A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher.

POWER, IDEOLOGY, AND CONTROL

John C. Oliga University of Hull Hull, United Kingdom

PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON

Library of Congress CatalogIng-in-PublIcatIon Data

011ga, John C.

Power, ideology, and control / John C. Oliga. p. cm. -- (Contemporary systems thinking)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-306-45160-3 1. Critical theory. 2. Ideology. 3. Power (Social sciences)

-1. Social control, 5. Liberty. 6. Happiness. 7. Social change, I, Title. II, Ser ies, HM24.0293 1995 303,3--dc20 95-46988

CIP

ISBN 0-306-45160-3

© 1996 Plenum Press, New York A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation 233 Spring Street, New York, N. Y. 10013

All rights reserved

10 987654321

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher

Printed in the United States of America

For my mother, Chiro

and in memory of

my father. Owe

Foreword

One of the great challenges we face today is coming to grips with "forces of power/ ' in both theoretical and methodological terms, in a way that prepares us for action—action that is not totally subject to existing forces. The literature has some excellent theoretical accounts of power, but these say little about what we should do. Most often they are abstract and out of reach of all but a select few. In this book, however, we have a clear-cut account of power, ideology, and control that paves the way for practical-minded people to make a genuine attempt at tackling issues of power on both organizational and societal levels.

John C. Oliga suggests a division between what he calls "objectivist," "subjectivist," and "relational" perspectives. With objectivism, he refers to theories that focus on power as capacities located in social structures. These tend to be either synergistic (e.g., Parsonian collective) or conflictual (e.g., Marxian conflictual view) theoretical orientations. With subjectivism he discusses theories that focus on power possessed by agents. With rela­tional approaches he places theories that conceive power as a property of interaction among social forces.

With Oliga's typology, we are able to "categorize" and critique ex­isting literature in the management and systems sciences. This allows us to judge the contribution that the spread of theories and methodologies have made in the way they deal directly with power. At first sight, it seems that little of worth has been achieved with those theories and methodologies when it comes to the question of power, but with further thought through the typology we begin to see the latent contribution that is simply waiting to be released. For instance, the objectivists concerned with design have argued much over rules in structures, and how many or how few there should be (since it is accepted that some order is needed). With Oliga's complementarist typology, we begin to see the relevance and value of all arguments and appreciate that the intellectual task is one of contextualization rather than absolute choice.

Subjectivists too have debated heatedly about the relevance of various forms of intersubjective decision making. Some argue that no decisions

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Vttt Foreword

are possible and that we will always talk past each other. Existing struc­tures may then become deciding forces. Conversely, some people, in effect, permit superdecisions where ossified meanings set the framework in which all decisions take place. Again, with Oliga, we are able to traverse this spectrum. With his complementarist approach to power, we realize that it is not a matter of pinning down a point on the spectrum that is correct, but a matter of contexualizing modes of decision making to actual circumstances. A similar argument holds for relational approaches, that is, establishing and contextualizing empowering relationships and making them part of social practices.

What Oliga has done is to bring together two burning research top­ics—power and complementarism—integrate them, and in doing so create a platform for further development. Development may now progress in the applied management sciences in the tricky area of emancipatory prac­tice. This is now possible thanks to Oliga's work!

ROBERT L. FLOOD Director, The Centre for Systems Studies Sir Q. W. Lee Professor of Management Sciences University of Hull, Hull

United Kingdom

Preface

As we enter the twenty-first century, we can look back on our recent history with a great deal of mixed feelings. On the one hand, we have made unprecedented and tremendous progress in science and technology in such areas as information, communication, electronic engineering, medicine, transport, and space research. On the other hand, we have made little progress, if not actually regressed, in areas where we interact in social-political terms as fellow human beings. Today, there are numer­ous examples of social conflicts and violent fissions, some ethnic, others relating to religion, race, gender, minority, age, the underprivileged, and the disabled, and still others to politico-economic dissensions and con­frontations. There are examples of exploitation and discrimination within and between different nations, blocs of nations, and regions. There are examples of military aggression, wars, and territorial and boundary dis­putes. There are examples of escalating crime rates, economic and political corruption, and manipulation of social movements by power- and money-hungry leadership. There is wanton plundering, degradation, and de­struction of the environment. And, of course, there are silent, latent, ideologically institutionalized forms of domination and exploitation be­tween and within societies. The list of manifestations of these sociopathol-ogies of our contemporary societies goes on and on.

While these sociopathological manifestations of power, ideology, and control underscore the significance of the critical intent of this book, the aim is not to catalogue, describe, or focus on them as such. Rather, the book seeks to explore the deeper root problems as encapsulated in the broader underlying social issues relating to the concepts of power, ideol­ogy, and control, the aim being that some understanding of these phe­nomena is likely to contribute, even if only dimly and minimally, toward some progress in the transformation of the pathological aspects of con­temporary social order. My purpose in writing this book, however, is not to suggest or offer a method for securing quick or easy solutions in the long struggle toward human and social emancipation, defined in terms of individual freedom and happiness and collective autonomy and re-

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X Preface

sponsibility; rather, the modest objective of the book is to contribute to the "battle cry" from a long historical stream of critical social theorists who have cherished the Utopian vision of human societies freed from the shackles of dominant control through blind and arbitrary use of power and ideological illusions or obfuscations. The processes envisioned in this battle cry are oriented toward the long term, arduously uphill struggle against entrenched and often unwitting forces of social domination, op­pression, and exploitation.

In my view, it is Utopian to search for Utopian solutions. What seems to be the viable way forward is the long, continuous kaizen process of engagement in relentless efforts toward educative enlightenment, leading to the empowerment of human subjects as social agents for change. This in turn leads to the galvanization of individual and collective will for societal transformation in the interest, not merely in reforming, but in fundamentally improving the human condition in an emancipatory man­ner. It is against this vision that the book projects the key ideas of enlight­enment, empowerment, transformation, and emancipation in its treatise on power, ideology, and control.

Turning to the specific themes of the book, I have had in mind a broad spectrum of readers, not only those who may have an academic, professional, and/or managerial interest in social theory, critical social theory, management, systems thinking, or development studies, but also the general reader who is concerned about the emancipatory problems of our contemporary societies. The discursive themes are organized around the following five key questions:

Question 1: What are critical systems thinking and critical social theory all about?

Question 2: What are social order and human freedom and happiness? Question 3: Must we remain helpless and ignorant of ourselves? Question 4: Can we not shape our own destiny? Question 5: Is the idea of human freedom and happiness and collective

autonomy and responsibility Utopian?

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge a number of people from whom I have benefited in one way or another in the course of preparing this book, and to express my sincere gratitude for their invaluable help. On the intellec­tual side of my work on the book, I must thank, first and foremost, Robert L. Flood, who was instrumental in making the very idea of this book a reality. As editor of a series of texts entitled Contemporary Systems Thinking, he not only encouraged me to write this book for the series but was patient and most tolerant when, after signing the contract with Plenum Press of New York and London, I started falling behind the agreed dead­line for the submission of the manuscript. Leaving the submission-dead­line problem aside, I owe Robert Flood a great debt for the invaluable insights I obtained from his suggestions about the intellectual direction the book might take in terms of contributing to the critical systems thinking as part of critical social theory.

Tony Lowe is the next person I would like to thank deeply. I owe the roots of my critical intellectual development, as well my interest in systems thinking, to Tony Lowe. He has remained my mentor. My thanks also go to Tony Tinker, whose ideas, along with those of Tony Lowe, sparked the initial idea of entering into the intellectual arena of critical thought.

My gratitude also goes to John Samuels, with whom I collaborated in intellectually oriented accounting work and who kept a continual inter­est in my development accounting thought. David Cooper was instrumen­tal in the way I looked at the problem of power and ideology. My thanks go to him for this invaluable intellectual advice.

My very special thanks go to Keiko Morita, with whom we undertook the arduous, complex, and "risky" task of trying to understand and interpret a few parts of Habermas's (1984a, 1987b) monumental work in his The Theory of Communicative Action. We stand fully open to criticisms about possible misunderstandings of our understanding of Habermas. My very special gratitude also goes to Foong Lim Fong, with whom we sought to develop the beginnings of a critical understanding of the

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xii Acknowledgments

phenomena of entrepreneurship, innovation, and change—phenomena, which like Total Quality Management (TQM), are currently attracting phenomenal interest everywhere in today's world. The insights we gained have influenced, even if only implicitly, some of the ideas in the book. Furthermore, I must thank Lim Fong for the meticulous and professional skill that went into the onerous task of proofreading the drafts of the manuscript. In the same vein, I would like to extend my very special thanks to A. E. Ojuka-Onedo, with whom we have shared invaluable ethnographic insights about the Papua New Guinean society and also about Uganda, particularly during the country's period of crisis in the 1970s. Both of us have been part of those experiences, which have helped in influencing some of my thoughts in Chapter 14 on developing countries.

Turning to my publisher, I wish to thank all those who have been involved in finally making this book a public reality. In particular, my very special gratitude goes to Ken Derham of Plenum Press, London. From day one of this "project" to its final completion, it was Ken who gave me invaluable advice and suggestions about the logistical aspects of this work, particularly with regard to the importance of keeping in mind all the time the interests of the expected audience. My special thanks also go to Robin Cook of Plenum Press, New York, for her excellent editorial assistance. As the Production Editor for my book, Robin bore the burden of coping with necessary amendments to the manuscript even as the production process was far advanced.

At a personal and family level, I extend my deep feelings for the love and support from my family members: Paul Owe, my late father, who sent me to "school"; Marcelliana Chiro, my mother; Fatima Maria, my wife, who patiently put up with this rather obscure and demanding piece of "work"; my four children: John, Pamela, Raymond, and Terence; and my brothers and sisters (and their families): Valeria, Charles, Agnes, Martin, Mary, and Melchior.

JOHN C. OLIGA

Contents

PART I. INTRODUCTION: WHAT ARE CRITICAL SYSTEMS THINKING AND CRITICAL SOCIAL

THEORY ALL ABOUT?

1. Introduction 3

2. Critical Systems Thinking and Critical Social Theory 9

2.1. Introduction 9 2.2. Pioneering Work in Developing Critical Systems Thinking

as a Distinct Area of Study and Practice 10 2.3. Some New Developments in Critical Systems Thinking.. 21 2.4. Some Critical Views on the Critical Systems Thinking

Research Program 23 2.5. General Comment 30 2.6. Critical Social Theory 31

PART 11. METATHEORETICAL CONCERNS: WHAT ARE SOCIAL ORDER AND HUMAN

FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS?

3. Forms of Social Order and Their Sustaining Worldviews 37

3.1. Forms of Social Order 37 3.2. Sustaining Worldviews 37 3.3. Connective Summary 39

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xiv Contents

4. Individualism and Social Order 41

4.1. Social and Intellectual Roots 41 4.2. Individualism as Ideology 45 4.3. Summary 49

5. Unitarism and Social Order 51

5.1. Social and Intellectual Roots 51 5.2. Unitarism as Ideology 54 5.3. Summary 58

6. Pluralism and Social Order 59

6.1. Differentiated versus Integrated Pluralism 59 6.2. Pluralism as Ideology 63 6.3. Reflective Summary 64

PART III. ENLIGHTENMENT AND EMPOWERMENT: TOWARD SELF-CLARITY AND SELF-WILL: MUST WE

REMAIN HELPLESS AND IGNORANT OF OURSELVES?

7. Power and Interests: From Domination to the Power of Knowing You Are Not Powerless 69

7.1. Introduction 69 7.2. Subjectivist Conceptions of Power 73 7.3. Objectivist Conceptions of Power 74 7.4. Relational Conceptions of Power 76 7.5. Conceptions of Power: A Summary 84 7.6. The Concept of Interest 85 7.7. Toward Empowerment of Social Systems 87 7.8. Conclusion 91

8. Ideology: From Mystification to the Power of Knowing That You Can Critically Reflect upon Yourself 93

8.1. Introduction 93 8.2. Historical Conceptions of Ideology 97

Contents XV

8.3. Naturalistic Conceptions of Ideology 104 8.4. Toward "Liberating Systems Theory" 112 8.5. Conclusion 117

PART IV. TRANSFORMATION: TOWARD INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS AND

COLLECTIVE AUTONOMY AND RESPONSIBILITY: CAN WE NOT SHAPE OUR OWN DESTINIES?

9. Control and Social Order 121

9.1. Introduction 121 9.2. Control: A Cybernetic Viewpoint 121 9.3. The Concept of Control: An Organization-Theory

Viewpoint 139 9.4. Social Contradictions and Conflicts: The Problem of

Social Order 141 9.5. Connective Summary 142

10. Control and Human Interests: Methodological Foundations of Systems Methodologies 145

10.1. Introduction 145 10.2. Method or Methodology? 146 10.3. A Framework for Methodology in General 149 10.4. Three Methodological Foundations 152 10.5. Systems Methodologies 161 10.6. Connective Summary 167

11. Control, Constancy, and Change: The Architecture of Power and Ideology 169

11.1. Introduction 169 11.2. Critical Systems Thinking: A Very Slow "Slowcomer"

to Systems Science 169 11.3. Systems Stability and Change: Natural or Historical? . . . 171 11.4. Control and the Architecture of Power and Ideology . . . 172 11.5. Some Implications for Systems Theory 177 11.6. Connective Summary 178

xvi Contents

12. Control and Strategic Ideologies 181

12.1. Introduction 181 12.2. Concepts of Weak and Strong Organizations 181 12.3. Strategic Ideologies Thesis 185 12.4. Conclusion 198

13. Critical Social Theory: From Epistemology to Communicative Paradigm 199

13.1. Introduction 199 13.2. Habermas's Knowledge and Human Interests:

A Human-Centered Epistemological Critique of Objectivistic Positivism 200

13.3. Critical Hermeneutics: A Brief Definition 202 13.4. Burrell and Morgan's Sociological Paradigms and

Habermas's Knowledge and Human Interests 202 13.5. The Epistemological Enigma of Modernity: The

Philosophy of Consciousness 203 13.6. The Linguistic Enigma of Modernity: The

Communicative Action Paradigm 227 13.7. Action in the Communicative Paradigm: A Reconstructed

Logic 266 13.8. Communicative Coherency: Toward a Reconstruction

of the Idea of Complementarism in Critical Systems Thinking 268

PART V. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS: ARE THE IDEAS OF HUMAN FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS

AND COLLECTIVE AUTONOMY AND RESPONSIBILITY UTOPIAN?

14. Enlightenment, Empowerment, and Transformation of Societal Systems: What Is to Be Done? The Case of Developing Countries 273

14.1. Introduction 273 14.2. Developing Countries and the "Double" Emancipatory

Problematic 274 14.3. Developing Countries: A Comment on Terminology 274

Contents XVU

14.4. Development Theories 276 14.5. What Should Be Done? 285 14.6. Is It Utopian? 288

15. Conclusion 291

15.1. In Regard to Critical Social Theory 291 15.2. In Regard to Developing Countries 293 15.3. In Regard to Critical Systems Thinking 293

References 295

Author Index 313

Subject Index 317

Figures and Tables

Figures

Figure 6.1. A Continuum of Membership Discipline (D) and Representation (R) 62

Figure 7.1. Concepts of Power 71 Figure 8.1. Concepts of Ideology 95 Figure 9.1. Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety: Payoff Matrix 124 Figure 9.2. An Inducement-Contribution Matrix 128 Figure 9.3. A General Empirical Model of Control 130 Figure 9.4. Population Ecology Model 132 Figure 9.5. Resource Dependence Model 132 Figure 9.6. Rational Selection Model 133 Figure 9.7. Environmental Variety: The Dialectics of Complexity,

Illiberality, and Variability 136 Figure 9.8. A Model of Environmental Variety 137 Figure 9.9. Environmental Variety and Its Determinants 138

Figure 10.1. Four Paradigms for the Analysis of Social Theory.. . 150 Figure 11.1. Systems Stability and Change: The Architecture of Power and Ideology 176

Figure 13.1. The Enigma of Modernity: The Dialectic of Enlighten­ment 205

Figure 13.2. Hegel's Objective Idealism: Absolutist Paradigm 208 Figure 13.3. A Common Interpretive Framework for Under­

standing Different Paradigmatic Positions on the Enigma of Modernity 209

Figure 13.4. Marxian Marxism: Economistic Determinism: Pro­duction Paradigm 211

Figure 13.5. The Reconstruction of the Process of Rational­ization 213

Figure 13.6. Weber's Culturalist Paradigm 214 Figure 13.7. Lukacsian Marxism: Dialectical Voluntarism Para­digm 216

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XX Figures and Tables

Figure 13.8. Gramscian Marxism: Revolutionary "Praxis" Para­digm 217

Figure 13.9. The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory: Critique of Instrumental Reason Paradigm 219

Figure 13.10. Sociology of Change (Subject-Centered Philosophy of Consciousness) 222

Figure 13.11. The Young Habermas's Epistemological Paradigm.. 224 Figure 13.12. Nietzschian Aesthetics Paradigm 225 Figure 13.13. Rationalization Complexes 227 Figure 13.14. Mature Habermas's Communicative Action Para­

digm 228 Figure 13.15. Actor-World Relations 233 Figure 13.16. Types of Argumentation 236 Figure 13.17. The "Reconstruction" of Weber 237 Figure 13.18. Action-Rationality-Rationalization Complex 238 Figure 13.19. Forms of Language Orientation 242 Figure 13.20. The Paradigm of Language and Habermas's TCA

Project of Modernity 244 Figure 13.21. Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary

Speech Acts 246 Figure 13.22. Perlocutionary and Illocutionary Human Actions . . . 248 Figure 13.23. Communicative Action: The "Originary" Form of

Language-in-Use 249 Figure 13.24. The Philosophy of Language: An Account of

Developments in Language Perspectives 251 Figure 13.25. Contributions of Reproduction Processes to Main­

taining the Structural Components of the Lifeworld 258 Figure 13.26. Society-as-a-Whole (SAAW) from System Perspec­

tive 259 Figure 13.27. Society-as-a-Whole (SAAW) from Lifeworld Perspec­

tive 260 Figure 13.28. Society-as-a-Whole (SAAW) from the Perspective of

Its Constituent Subsystems (the Olympic Metaphor) 261 Figure 13.29. Colonization of the Lifeworld by the System through

the Medium of Juridification 262 Figure 13.30. Manifestations of Crisis when Reproduction Proc­

esses Are Disturbed (Pathologies) 263 Figure 13.31. Welfare State: System and Lifeworld Exchanges of

Burdens and Benefits (from the Perspective of the System) 264 Figure 13.32. Welfare-State Compromise Structures of Late

Capitalism (from the Perspective of the Lifeworld) 265 Figure 13.33. The Logic of Social and Nonsocial Actions 267

Figures and Tables XXt

Figure 14.1. "Development Problem": What Is to Be Done? 287 Figure 15.1. From Domination toward Emancipation: The Logic of the Overall Critical Argument 292

Tables

Table 1.1. Structure of the Book 7 Table 3.1. Typology of Forms of Social Order 38 Table 6.1. Differentiated (Pluralist) Welfare State versus Inte­

grated (Corporatist) Welfare State 61 Table 7.1. Conceptions of Power and Their Fundamental As­sumptions 85

Table 10.1. Habermas's Interest Constitution Theory 152 Table 10.2. Problem Contexts and Systems Methodologies 165 Table 11.1. Mechanisms of Ideological Subjection and Qualifi­

cation 174 Table 12.1. Judgments on the Textbook Scandal 193 Table 13.1. The Enigma of Modernity: With Some Key Players and

Their Lifetimes 206 Table 13.2. Weber's Typology of Actions and Their Underlying

Rationality and Meaning 239 Table 13.3. World Relations, Actions, and Forms of Rationality

(Validity Claims) 240 Table 13.4. Developments in Language Perspectives 243