ABSTRACT

The political system is one of the function systems of modern society, the daily operation of which requires and renders possible a high degree of risky decision making. And here, too, the growing trend towards risk taking is on the basis of binary coding. The unequivocalness of superordinate and subordinate status intrinsic to the hierarchy of office in the modern state makes it possible to take and to implement decisions even if their consequences cannot be assessed. The political system can observe risky behaviour and in so doing relate it to causes or structures or to statistical frequencies. Politics finds itself exposed to and defenceless against the demand that it take preventive action. The logic of the argument is convincing: it is better to prevent losses from happening in the first place than to remedy them once they have occurred.