Niklas Luhmann's Political Sociology

Luhmann's work on political governance, impact, and steering remains underexplored in the English-speaking world. This book aims to fill this omission by bringing together Luhmann’s key writings on this part of his political sociology. Effective steering in dynamic systems may involve sending signals and observing the effects, rather than attempting to control every aspect. Traditional action theory fails to address the complexities of political steering because it oversimplifies causal relationships and cannot adequately handle the unpredictable nature of complex systems. Luhmann advocates for a second-order cybernetic approach that accounts for the observer's role in understanding control and steering. His approach reveals shortcomings of those political theories that fail to recognize the limits of political power and the indirect, and often unpredictable ways that that politics influences other systems and society as a whole.