The Transformation of Democracy as a Model of Orientation for Complex Societies

Welmut Willke (1945) is currently one of the leaders in systemic thought in sociology. A close collaborator of Niklas Luhmann in the 80's at Bielefeld University, Willke's interest in a theory of systems that handled the concrete problems of modern societies led him to develop a heterodox line of systematic thought, characterized fundamentally by the idea of 'non-instructive' intervention in autonomous social systems. While Luhmann held emphatically that it was impossible to intervene in an autonomous system from within, to Willke, intervention would be successful if it made sense to the autonomous properties of the system to be regulated. This text expresses this idea in relation to democracy: if democracy intends to maintain some capacity to orient modern society, it must renounce any claim of control & substitute it by a structure of coordination. Democracy then probably becomes more an strategic model of seduction, but one which is by all means less imposing. Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.