Some problems of liberation

Abstract

The increasing complexification of society has challenged the established practice of government by exposing its deficiency of requisite variety. Governments have responded in two ways to amplify their variety: co-optation of elite actors from the private sector and from civil society on the one hand and devolution of state power to local actors on the other. These breaches in the traditional edifices of state governance have been hailed as real utopias in that they portend even greater possibilities for self-management in society. It is proposed that Stafford Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) holds the key not only to comprehending these developments but of dealing with many of the so-called problems of liberation