THE AUTOPOIESIS OF ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS - LUHMANN,NIKLAS ON PUBLIC-ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC-POLICY

This article offers an introduction to Niklas Luhmann's theory of soci al systems as it pertains to public administration and policy, as a fi rst step towards both a critique and its empirical application to empi rical reality. It reconstructs Luhmann's early writings on bureaucracy and policy-making and shows how this early, more empirical work groun ded his abtract theory of social systems in general and the political system in particular. The article also introduces some central concept s of Luhmann's more recent work on the autopoietic nature of social sy stems and considers the latter's consequences for bureaucratic adaptiv eness and governmental steering in the welfare state. One of the main benefits of applying Luhmann's theory to public administration, the ar ticle concludes, is that it conceptualizes the central concerns of pub lic administration within a complex picture of society as a whole, in which both the agency that issues decisions and the realm affected by these decisions are included.