ABSTRACT

This chapter offers an alternative approach to the conceptualization of the action-level characteristics of systemic social interaction which supports the possibility of more or less norm-free interactions. It shows how normatively valid exchange and authority relationships can be compatible with the emergence and persistence of markets and political systems. The chapter gives a critical account of Habermas's approach to systemic social interactions from the participants' perspective. It proposes a structure of validity claims that seems to be adequate for the general case of the pursuit of non-generalizable norms and values. The chapter suggests that it makes sense that the structure should also characterize the case of action in the systemic context. It suggests that the information is available in the systemic context itself. It argues that systemic interactions involve the comparison of an action situation with a model. The chapter also argues that the scope of sovereignty of an officeholder must in the final analysis be the subject of negotiation.