A model for measuring the performance of social systems

Abstract

Modelling is one of the best methodological instruments to represent heuristically complex societal systems. We of course must try to model society in a way that is both so simple that it will afford a clear view of society and so thorough that it conceals nothing essential. Reaching such a balance will be no easy task and will certainly entail several attempts. Here goes a first such try. I am going to refer to a model on which I have been working for several years now (Parra Luna 1974, 1977, 1983) although the version discussed here is slightly modified. The starting point for this model, for which I am indebted to D. Easton and K.W. Deutsch, is the cybernetic-transformational approach that convertsinputs into outputs via, as explained above, a Transforming Body usually called the “Black Box”. To illustrate the model I will take as complex a society as possible, the current Nation-State, although I will also refer to other smaller social entities such as local governments, companies, groups or families. The model is intended to be applicable to them all. I realise that adopting the Nation-State as an example will make the reader even more wary, if possible, of the operational possibilities of this new systems theory that I am attempting to introduce. Nonetheless I will use this macrosociological dimensions for three reasons: 1) because the model intends merely to be a sketch or outline for a wholly operative model and as such the relevance of any specific shortcomings that may arise in the description is limited; 2) because even if the model is only partially valid in relation to the Nation-State, the implication would be that it would automatically cover all other smaller systems (Institutions, Organisations, Groups, etc.); and 3) because the Nation-State, which represents an integrated macrosociological system, is meaningful for the set of end-values that make up what I will call the “Reference Pattern of Values”.