ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there is a clear alternative to interpreting as meaningless the statistical uniformities observed in the economic and political-administrative spheres. It suggests that for every formal-legal element or claim to validity in the structure of communication in systemic contexts, there is an underlying substantive claim. The chapter argues that there are plausible substantive explanations for observed patterns of conformity to the price norms of the market and the legal order of organizations which are perfectly meaningful, commonplace and logically coherent. It also argues that it is possible for members of organizations to judge when a relationship is substantively rather than merely formally valid. The chapter suggests that the procedural means of guaranteeing the validity of the organizational system, the analogue with respect to the power medium of the free market, is democratic management. It argues that legitimate social action against the backdrop of the same systemic context is an equally coherent possibility.
