Парадоксы советско-китайской и либерально-демократической моделей правления

Социологическое обозрение. 2023. Т. 22. № 3. С. 75–94.

Руслан Хестанов, Артём Космарский

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: Китай, СССР, China, USSR, решение, decision, «однопартийное государство», Н. Луман, Luhmann N., политико-административная дихотомия, political-administrative dichotomy, one-party state

Publication based on the results of: Everyday life in the state of emergency and its normalization strategies: inertia of affect and openness to challenges (2023)