Original scientific paper
Theses on the Social Crisis
Josip Županov
; Fakultet političkih nauka Zagreb, Lepušićeva 6
Abstract
Dimensions of the social crisis are determined by the strain between that what should be and what actually is. Spontaneous social processes are dragging the social development in a direction opposite to the one institutionally proclaimed and which Js leading towards the crisis of the legitimacy of the whole system.
The main fields of discrepancy in our social praxis are the following:
(1) contrary to the concept of associated labour the real economic conduct is based on the concept of bargain and the logic of profit,
(2) as opposed to the global economic self-managed coordination, the coordination is in practice effected by means of market or state intervention. Both of the mechanisms have within themselves an »inbuilt« self-reproductory system, functioning whenever introduced into the social praxis.
(3) confronting the egalitarian ideology of eliminating the vertical social stratification (the social structure is confined to horizontal interest groups — the pluralism of self-management interests), a tendency of continuous stratification is constantly evident, (4) opposed to the overcoming of national and other atavistic conflicts, they are being continuously reproduced in new forms,
What are mechanisms for crisis-handling?
Up till now the following mechanisms were used to surmount, or at least to ease the crises:
(1) the first one is the mechanism of institutional adaptation. That means that the system is conforming itself to encompass at least fragmentary those streams which really have effects. The examples for that are the system of collective private incentives, of the socialist market economy which automatically reproduces social relations based on self-management, etc. After the debacle of 1971 institutional adaptation as a means for crisis--handling disappeared.
(2) institutional adaptation was replaced by normatively-ideological elaboration. The system is reacting to every noticed inconsistency by creating norms which will lead to its overcoming.
(3) the third method is a system of political campaigns which are most often directed against social discrepancies, but against other phenomena too, and there is a tendency of elimination them by the campaign coupled with promising that things will be totally different from now on.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
156036
URI
Publication date:
31.12.1979.
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