Rouslan Khestanov 1, Artyom Kosmarski 1, 2
Paradoxes of the Soviet-Chinese and Liberal-Democratic Models of Government
2023,
vol. 22,
No. 3,
pp. 75–94
[issue contents]
The article focuses on two models of political and state formations, those of liberal-democratic and Soviet-Chinese. The use of Niklas Luhmann’s concept of decision in analyzing their systemic foundations opens a new perspective on both these models and the contemporary political process. A brief overview of the discussion on the topic of decision-making in organizations was offered, and the heuristic value of Niklas Luhmann’s concept of decision was substantiated. One of his key definitions of decision is that decision-making can be described as the transformation of uncertainty into risk. In this view, decision is seen as a function and element of the organization or organizational systems. An organization continuously makes decisions, though none solve the problem because it is based on a paradox: only those issues that are fundamentally undecidable can be decided. At the same time, each new decision is not only a response to the challenges of the surrounding world, but is contingently determined by a series of previous decisions. Therefore, one can say that the decision-making process is based on the paradox that constitutes the organization and determines its specificity and identity. The article demonstrates that the liberal-democratic model is based on the paradox of politics and administration. The Soviet-Chinese model is based on the paradox of party and state.
Keywords:
USSR;
China;
decision;
political-administrative dichotomy;
one-party state;
Niklas Luhmann
Citation:
Khestanov R., Kosmarski A. (2023) Paradoksy sovetsko-kitayskoy i liberal'no-demokraticheskoy modeley pravleniya [Paradoxes of the Soviet-Chinese and Liberal-Democratic Models of Government]. The Russian Sociological Review, vol. 22, no 3 (in Russian)