Internal societal reaction to external change: The case of the Korean peninsula

As social systems increase in complexity, they must monitor the relationshi ps among their internal components carefully, to see that their functioning is harmonious. The internal components must not only meet their own needs, but must meet the overall needs of the total society as well. If this is n ot done adequately, the society could face an alarming increase in internal entropy, to its great peril. However, in attending to internal needs, the complex society cannot neglect the need to monitor and react to a variety o f external flows, including monetary and information flows. This paper comb ines social entropy theory and autopoiesis theory to analyze the relationsh ips between internal and external relations in a complex social system. Sou th and North Korea are used as illustrations. An important issue is how a n ation's boundaries are controlled. This is discussed briefly, and five mode ls of boundary control are presented. North Korea is shown to have a model 1 system, while South Korea has a model 4 system.