Evolution Of Global Society Research Articles

The Zhongyong Dialectic: A Bridge into the Relational World

Abstract Three tensions are said to exist in my relational theory, i.e. between ontology and behavior, between structure and process, and between substance and procedure. Underlying these tensions is a crucial question: How to identify the subject and object and understand the domination–subordination power relationship therein? These seeming inconsistencies appear if observed through a dualistic lens but may well disappear when viewed from the zhongyong dialectic, which, as an epistemological and methodological device, assumes no binary dichotomy in the first place. It believes in immanent relationality and dynamic transformability, holding that interaction based on difference rather than homogeneity generates healthy life and arguing that subject and object, structure and process, substance and procedure—all these categories constructed as dichotomous opposites are in fact mutually transformable as related parts of a whole. The evolution of global society, from international society of nation-states, to global society of humans, and to planetary society of all on earth (or beyond), clearly indicates the relational transformability across the ostensible subject–object divide. Power relations exist, but any unilateral exercise of power is ephemeral, for power over will not last, while power to will.

Can China be the transition model to twenty-first-century socialism?

The essay examines the dangers of the integration of emerging powers into the world system. It then analyses the methodological possibility of scientific prediction of the evolution of global society in the twenty-first century. The key to that prediction is the deciphering of the ‘DNA’ of social evolution, that is, its specific mode of production and superstructure. We identify both for twenty-first-century socialism. The evolutionary context of Deng Xiaoping's development strategy is described and the causes for the erosion of the Soviet model and the failure of Perestroika are analyzed. A reflection of the class character of the Chinese model follows. Finally, the essay discusses the conditions under which the Chinese way to socialism might become a general transition model for twenty-first-century socialism.

The Force of Code: Law's Transformation under Information-Technological Conditions

As one of the commentators of Luhmann's oeuvre once rightly put it, “the occasionally authoritative gestures of Luhmann's writing may intimidate all those who do not also perceive his gentle touches of irony.” Luhmann's note at the end of his treatise,Law as a Social System, about law's future in the global society is one of those typical statements of Luhmann, characterized by this mixture of authoritative “coolness” with a touch of irony. Be that as it may, the master seems to be once again right with his prophecy-like statement: Law is indeed undergoing a transformation, the results of which might soon let law appear as nothing more than a “European anomaly, which might well level off with the evolution of global society.”

The Evolution of Human Societies: From Foraging Groups to Agrarian State

1. Introdution Part I. The Family-Level Group: 2. The family level 3. Family-level foragers 4. Families with domestication Part II. The Local Group: 5. The local group 6. The family and the village 7. The village and the clan 8. The corporate group and the big man collectivity Part III. The Regional Polity: 9. The regional polity 10. The simple chiefdom 11. The complex chiefdom 12. The archaic state 13. The peasant economy 14. The evolution of global society.