Michael Crozier

Recursive Governance: Contemporary Political Communication and Public Policy

This article investigates aspects of the new relationships that are emerging between contemporary trends in political communication and public policy. In particular, it identifies and analyzes how these relationships are extending beyond the traditional domain of political communication as information and persuasion. This is traced through a consideration of the notion of political communication as “recursive governance”—a form of governance that operates according to a generative informational logic. The article explores the impact of recursive processes on policy formation and on democratic practice more generally. It argues that the dramatic increase in the use of communications expertise and public relations by government (as well as business and the third sector) is part of what appears to be a far more fundamental systems shift in the very nature of governance in Western democracies.

Rethinking Systems Configurations of Politics and Policy in Contemporary Governance

New governance patterns in Western democracies pose challenges to political analysis. Key here is the relationship of politics and policy. This article examines how this relationship is changing in terms of a communication systems shift. From this perspective, the adequacy of current frameworks of political analysis is called into question. The article applies this critical review to the rise of policy-politics modes of behavior as distinct from older politics-policy forms. This contrast draws attention to the emergent qualities of interactive policy processes and asks how open generative modes of organization operate in fluid conditions while nonetheless exercising political authority.

Society economised: T.R. Ashworth and the history of the social sciences in Australia

Among the various social sciences, sociology was the late starter in the Australian academy. At the two oldest universities distinct sociology programs were only established in the 1990s though sociology had been on offer much earlier in the century at both Sydney and Melbourne. This article investigates the circumstances and reasons behind this disjuncture, linking it to the success of Australian economics in the interwar period and beyond. The fate of sociology at Melbourne is utilised to illustrate the connection. The writings of the Melbourne businessman, T.R. Ashworth and his enigmatically worded bequest to promote sociology at Melbourne are highlighted to underscore what was at stake: the leadership of the social sciences.

Insuring Risk: Systems of Global Finance

Critical analyses of international financial markets tend to explain changes over recent decades in terms of a resurgent liberalism. This paper employs a systems theoretical approach to argue that there has been a far more fundamental transformation in the operations of these financial markets than simply a shift towards more liberalized regimes of regulation. The use of risk as resource and the systematic randomness of these new operational trends have perverse implications not only for the integrity of political systems but also for the neoliberal promoters and players inside the new complex system of global finance.

Ferenc Feher and the European Hermeneutic: Reflections On the Frozen Revolution

The span of Ferenc Feher’s oeuvre is wide and impressive. From aesthetics and literary criticism, through historiography and musicology, to politics and social philosophy, Feher made significant contributions to our understanding of the social historical world. Like Hermes, the messenger of the gods, Feher offered the guidance of insight for human travellers. Yet also like Hermes in his mischief, Feher frequently registered signposts which entailed ominous twists. For example, his various excursus into the dark side of the human condition of-

The Soul and Forms of Georg Lukács

The critic is one who glimpses destiny in forms: whose most profound experience is the soul-content which forms indi rectly and unconsciously conceal within themselves.1 Georg Lukács, 1910.

Review Essays : Encountering Benjamin

In a similar vein to Susan Buck-Morss’ study of the Adorno/Benjamin relationship and Irving Wohlfarth’s scattered essays on Benjamin,4 Wolin’s study represents one of the few informed and critical examinations (in English) of Benjamin’s thought; equally, Wolin has dared to confront the contradictory, and often baffling, nature of Benjamin’s literary legacy. In contrast to some of the selective and partial renditions in which Benjamin has appeared as everything from a Brechtian ’revolutionary’5 to a ’high-culture’ scholar6 (or, even a kindred spirit of Trotsky),7 Wolin has actively sought out the contradictions in Benjamin’s work in order to expose and clarify some of his most central concerns. In addition, the publication of Wolin’s book is complimented, for the English reader, by the recent translation of Gershom Scholem’s Walter Banjamin: Die Geschichte einer Freundschaft;8 both works go a long way toward illuminating the complexity of Benjamin’s thinking.9

Reviews : David Held, Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas (London, Hutchinson, 1980)

A dual function can perhaps be ascribed to introductory texts: firstly to explicate the basic subject matter at hand and, secondly to open up avenues for further (critical) appraisal of this material. On first reading David Held’s ~nt~oducca~an t® Critical Theory seems to satisfy these criteria. The &dquo;classical&dquo; period of critical theory --the &dquo;Frankfurt School&dquo; is examined, initially, on the levels of political economy, aesthetics, psychoanalysis and philosophy of history. This is followed by a differentiation of the three main theorists according to their notions of epistemology and methodology Horkheimer’s formulation of critical theory, Adorno’s conception of negative dialectics and Marcuse’s notions of theory and practice. Further to this, the contemporary efforts of Habermas are systematically (and critically) presented. His earlier work on the public sphere, the distinction between labour and interaction, the attempt to ground knowledge in (the problematical) &dquo;quasi-transcendental&dquo; human interests and so on, are brought together (in their continuity and discontinuity) with Habermas’s more recent concerns