by

Henk Bak,

with the support of the Anthroposophical Societyin Australia

Trentham

1998

A Discussion Paper: Summary.

What shows up in the current process of government reorientation and devolution of power onto non-government areas is the constitutional vacuum regarding the public status of those areas.

This paper argues for the need to identify the economy and culture as two distinct non-political public domains and to provide these domains with a constitutional framework for their respective functions, constituencies, decision-making processes, budgets.

Such differentiation of functions would ensure that these public domains can operate according to their own dynamics, value systems, experience and expertise, with full engagement of citizens in their differentiated role as members of three (functional) constituencies.

The ongoing negotiation between objectively opposite or even conflicting economic, political and cultural interests can become transparent and can lead to an interrelationship of those three functions that is optimal for Australian conditions.

The qualities required and learned in this ongoing process, e. g. ’a fair go’, ‘decency’, ‘civility’, ’perceptive tact’ , may help shape us as a nation where race or economic status are no longer relevant.

As economic, political and cultural affairs don’t stop at national boundaries and we are citizens of three (functional) worlds, the special configuration of these functions within those boundaries can become the typical signature of a nation.

The paper focuses on the notion of ‘functional differentiation’, its historical and sociological background, its implications for citizen representation in non-political public decision making processes and for the constitutional status of land , money and the media.

Without functional differentiation in representation and governance one of the three functions tends to dominate the others. Citizens are then reduced to ‘customers’ or mere functions of corporations or bureaucracies.

Functional representation doesn’t mean ‘three parliaments’ etc as different functions require different modes of governance. The present trend for business and professional organisations to establish their own code of practice, ethics or their own charter may be seen as a move toward constituting their areas of work in the context of public-- non-government--domains.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the principle of functional differentiation into the constitutional debate, not to propose or formulate a text. All concrete suggestions of detail are made by way of illustration or clarification. So are the two stories in front and some references with comments at the back. The only attempt to formulation is the draft text for the oath of citizenship.

Henk Bak

The intention of this paper is to draw the Foundation’s attention to the need for ground rules in the area of functional differentiation and globalization.

The economic, political and cultural functions of a nation are no longer confined to that nation and can no longer be subject to domination between them.

Today human beings are simultaneously citizens of three worlds and negotiate continuously their economic, political and cultural commitments.

Hence the proposition that the Constitution of Australia provide for the establishment of the economy and of culture as two public domains, distinct from and on equal footing with the public domain of the state.

Australian Citizenship may be defined as membership of the three functionally differentiated constituencies.

The Constitution needs to provide for authoritative frameworks for the economic as well as the cultural functions of the nation, in addition to the political framework that is already in place.

Such authoritative framework would include: citizen’s rights and responsibilities, representative bodies, election and decision making processes, budget and form of governance.

Most importantly each of the three functional domains needs to be distinguished by its main purpose, guiding values and basic condition of operation.

Here it is assumed that the purpose of the economy is to provide for the needs of its constituency; its guiding value is partnership in nature; its basic condition is an associative mode of operation, with equal representation of consumer, trader and producer perceptions and interests.

The purpose of culture is to enhance individual and collective talents of its constituency; its guiding value is freedom; its basic condition is peer group representation in the different areas of competence or expertise.

The purpose of politics is the establishment and protection of human rights and justice, empowerment and enforcement of human responsibilities; its guiding value is human dignity; its basic condition is equal representation of its constituency.

As the differentiation in public domains is functional, not stratified, the constitution must allow for the all-pervasiveness of each of the three functions in every sphere of life and every level of social organization together with the need for purpose, value and condition to share in this pervasiveness.

The Constitution must protect each function from domination by the others.

The principle of non-domination has significant implications for the raising of revenue: each public domain can only tax its own constituency. No taxation without representation. The state cannot tax the constituency of the economy or of culture.

As all citizens are part of the three constituencies and their decision making processes, citizens themselves are in the position to decide what proportion of their resources is needed to support the economic function (sustainability, welfare, work, etc.), the political function (legislation, executive, judiciary, public service, police, army) and the cultural function (education, rehabilitation, health, sciences, arts, sports, religion). In all three public domains the respective constituencies have the responsibility and authority to negotiate their mutual relations and support as well as to direct their regional and global involvement economically, politically, and culturally.

Individual and collective entitlements to land, money and media need to be principally understood - and increasingly dealt with - in terms of stewardship rather than ownership. Their contexts - nature, trust, language - are no commodities.

Functional differentiation while dealing with land, money and media, requires differentiation in basic conditions.

In economic terms land requires effective use, money requires stable exchange value, and media require transparency of vested interests, of producers, traders and consumers.

Culture, on the other hand, requires room to play (sacred places, wilderness, recreation, sports), generosity (grants, scholarships, donations, interest free loans), and freedom (of speech, expression, access to information).

In terms of the political function - legislative, executive, judiciary - public concerns as environmental integrity of land, access to credit and equitable levels of interest, and media protection of human dignity, privacy and copyright, take precedence over the concerns of ownership, stake and shareholders. The accumulative effect of interest driven debt needs to be offset by an equivalent effect of gift money.

Much of the above is already happening at many levels through a multitude of governmental and non-governmental organizations and processes. Much of it is held back through lack of constitutional support and/or through persistence of functional domination. Parts of the public sector of the former welfare state could be maintained and adapted to their new role as instruments at the discretion and in the service of their respective economic and cultural constituencies.

A constitutional foundation for functional differentiation is crucial for a healthy development of these three public domains. If the interrelation between these three functions is the signature of a modern nation, then its constitution might be the foundation of a nation’s distinct contribution to the community of nations.

Henk Bak
with the support of the Council of the Anthroposophical Society in Australia

1. A constitution should not only crystallize past experience and received wisdom, but also act as a living form for the embodiment of new unfolding and development.

2. Functional differentiation has a precedent within State Governments in the principle of separation of legislative, executive and judiciary powers: the trias politica. What is proposed here is differentiation, i.e. separation (as well as relatedness) of economic, political and cultural functions within society as a whole: a trias publica.

3. For the proposed constitution of culture as distinct public domain there is a precedent in the separation of Church and State. This principle tends to be applied by extension to relative independence (at arms length) of arts, sciences, sports, education, health, from direct State influence.

For the proposed constitution of the economy as a distinct public domain there is not such precedent. The rise of the economy as a relatively autonomous function of society is a rather recent phenomenon, unprecedented in the history of mankind. Without an adequate constitutional framework for the economy, including its natural resources, a present day nation is not equipped for its time, let alone for the 21st century.

4. A single major indication of the need for distinct constitutional frameworks for the economy and for culture, is the present constitutional vacuum into which current governments devolve their cultural and economic responsibilities: privatization without public context; proliferation of power without responsibility.

5. Drafting and ratifying constitutional frameworks for the economy and for culture is the sole prerogative of the respective constituencies and their representative conventions. The role of politicians and the State could only be one of caretaker and facilitator.

6. It is envisaged that in a properly constituted economy decisions will be made on the basis of the experience, perceptions and understanding of pollution, poverty, unemployment, as well as wealth etc, rather than on theories, models and statistics. In such a context money and work would not be traded as commodities; a wage would be negotiated as a share in the sale of a product, and to work or not to work would be a question of human participation in functional process (economical, political, cultural) rather than a slavery function of markets.

In a properly constituted culture schools and universities, hospitals and prisons are no longer run by administrators but by collegial bodies of professionals.

Politicians will be relieved of the extra burden of having to make cultural and economic decisions. Political parties can concentrate on the best ways in which to legislate for the enhancement and protection of human rights and dignity and on how to have an effective form of justice penetrate into the areas of economics and of culture.

In the same way an autonomous culture can contribute to the domains of politics and economics without dominating them.

And much can be learned from the economic experience e.g. skills in managing wealth as well as in managing poverty, that can be useful in the conduct of political and cultural affairs.

Schools, hospitals,universities, art and research institutions will be empowered to be themselves again: not quasi businesses, but educational, healing, artistic and research institutions with a business component. Businesses can be businesses again: not quasi tax collectors, but serving their communities directly, generating income and work, without the detour of political intervention. In governing themselves, business people together with consumers, can regain the dignity of their profession which at present is greatly lost.

7. The most penetrating and sophisticated theoretical foundation of functional differentiation can be found in the works of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann.

Pioneering work in this area has been done by Rudolf Steiner in the aftermath of the First World War, which he saw as the result of nations failing to separate their economies from their political concerns.

Non-differentiation between economic, political and cultural functions defines a totalitarian regime, whether of the fascist, nazist, communist or capitalist variety.

8. The Council of the Anthroposophical Society in Australia, giving its support to this submission, represents a movement and worldwide organization that has researched and practised functional differentiation and globalization in a range of areas across the societal spectrum: agriculture, banking, education, caring communities with physically and mentally disabled people, sciences, arts, medicine, management, ethical investment, religious communities. With 35 schools, 5 colleges of adult education, ca. 1 1/4 million acres of biodynamically farmed land, therapy centres and communities, our movement contributes substantially to the economy and the culture of Australia. This submission may be part of this contribution.

The intention of the submission is not to provide a text or set of clauses, but rather to place functional differentiation, its urgency and ramifications on the constitutional agenda articulate enough to be discussed and open enough to be developed.

With ‘functional differentiation’ being written into the Constitution, a constitutional foundation for the three functions or public domains and their interrelation needs to be laid.

The specifics of each domain may be part of the one Constitution or take the form of three separate constitutions. In the latter case, these constitutions might be designated by different names. An example would be: ‘Constitution’ for political, ‘Statute’ for cultural constitution, and for the economy Charter or- by extension of its recently acquired meaning - ‘Accord’.

‘Monarchy’ means ‘government by one head of state’. By itself change of head of state does not turn a monarchy into a republic. ‘Res Publica’ means ‘public affair’ - government by public representation. Historically republics had a collegial form of highest office. (Ancient Rome; pre nineteenth century Venice and The Netherlands) Our state of affairs requires effective input of three sovereign constituencies in the form and person or persons of leadership. Rome had two heads of state who alternated, we might need three-as-a-team.

An individual or a team as head of state needs to be capable and committed to represent and foster a balanced interrelatedness between the three functions and their value systems.

A republic that confines the public domain to the political arena may be less suited to implement functional differentiation than a monarchy that traditionally assumes some responsibility for culture and economics as public domains.

Basic political, economic and cultural rights and responsibilities should be written into the Constitution as well as frameworks for distinct political, economic and cultural representative bodies in terms of constituencies, elections, decision making processes, form of governance, authority, enforcement, revenue, and relations between representative bodies and executives within each public domain and between them

This does not mean ‘three.parliaments’ as economic and cultural decision making processes require distinctly different modes of representation., etc.

Rather than a Bill of Rights with subsequent allowance for their limitation by community interest, one might formulate a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities which would include community interests.

As a whole we are a society rather than a community. At best we aspire to become a community. In this process citizen’s rights and responsibilities range from local to national to world communities. They include the maintenance of existing communities and their renewal, e.g. indigenous communities, religious and learned communities, and the formation of new communities., e.g intentional communities with people in need of special care, communities working with nature....

Citizenship needs to be understood as simultaneously and inseparably being member of three sovereign constituencies, as the legitimating source of authority in the economy, in politics and in culture. A citizen of the Economy is not the same as a customer or entrepreneur: a citizen takes part in economic decisions at the level of the economic framework, a customer or entrepreneur is party to economic transactions.

A citizen’s commitment is to the proper relation between those three functions as an expression of nationhood (replacing race, religion and language as constitutive elements of nationhood) as well as a contribution to world peace (through partnership in nature, a stance for human dignity, and creativity in freedom).

As citizens of the world permanent residents would share these commitments but not the sovereignty within the Australian context.

The principle ‘no taxation without representation’ needs to be articulated in the Constitution not only in terms of levels of government but also of functional domains.

As a sophisticated, a-political, public service, the Australian Tax Office, could be employed by the three public domains for the design and deployment of three distinct forms of taxation, which - again - might operate under different names: e.g. a levy system in the economy, taxation in the political domain, a contribution system in culture.

As the functional domains are not confined to any single nation, extending themselves world-wide, foreign affairs needs to be functionally differentiated.

The role of the senate could be one of ensuring that the separation into three representative bodies, etc., is balanced by interrelatedness between them.

Whereas the Courts are part of the political/legal function of society, implementation of sentences needs to be differentiated, eg. ‘pure fines’ stays in the legal domain; ‘community services’ moves toward the economic; and ‘rehabilitation’ towards the cultural domain. Prisons as an economic, profit making concern need to be deemed unconstitutional; private prisons as non-profit cultural institutions, focussing on rehabilitation (in the way hospitals focus on healing, schools on education) need to be encouraged.

The rights and responsibilities of indigenous people should be clarified as under section 4. Indigenous people share the sovereignty by which citizens legislate their own economic, political and cultural affairs, locally, statewide, nationwide.

To participate in a functionally differentiated public arena is to be continually educated economically, politically and culturally. Citizens in charge of bureaucracies rather than a function of their service will be part of the process that generates the proposals.

As voters they will recognise those proposals as their own.

Contributions to this debate include ‘non-domination of any of the three public domains’ and the need to differentiate values according to functional context. For example: freedom functional as guiding value in culture becomes dysfunctional when applied as guiding value to the economy. Solidarity functional as guiding value in the economy becomes dysfunctional when applied as such to culture. The position of freedom and solidarity in the configuration of values of culture is different from that of politics or the economy.

Functional differentiation in citizen representation and decision making processes should counter undifferentiated managerial modes of government which reduce citizens at best to ‘customers’, at worst to mere ‘functions’ of bureaucracies.

Without particularisation, i.e. (re-)building and (re-)empowering local communities, globalisation tends to drain resources from and impose directives on local communities.

Functional differentiation enables local communities to (re-)claim their own natural resources, cultural heritage and creativity, which as public concerns take precedence over private ownership. Private profit may be a valid function of economy, economy must never be a function of private profit.

Functional differentiation empowers citizens in any public domain to research, debate, evaluate, regulate, monitor, redirect developments in accordance with the optimal functioning of those domains.

Without differentiation the impact of developments in science, technology and communication tends to be indiscriminate across the board. Functional differentiation would empower schools, eg. to withstand the indiscriminate push for computer learning at the cost of experiential and sensory learning which becomes ever more urgent in an increasingly desensitised and ‘virtualised’ environment.

Differentiation in mode of representation and governance between the three public domains means that those developments can be perceived, observed, understood and evaluated in distinctly different ways: individuals and communities will have the opportunity to practise and appreciate

A. consumer, producer and trader perspectives through the associative mode of dealing with the economy,

B. majority and minority perspectives through the mode of equal representation in politics, and

C. expert, professional perspectives through the collegial mode in culture.

 

NOTE: ‘Association’ is distinguished from ‘cooperation’ in that its members join forces to support each other in their different goals rather than subjecting themselves to a common goal.

Thus the vital economic information, experience and skills gained through poverty, unemployment, exploitation, disabilities, sickness, pollution, old age, childhood, i.e. vital consumer information, etc., is no longer ‘externalities’ but just as much part of public economic decision making as are the inputs of traders and producers.

Under the sacred power who is the creator of this land and the guide of its people,

I, ...................................................................... pledge loyalty to Australia, its nature and its laws, its Indigenous Custodians and the great diversity of people from all over the world who came to settle on its shores.

I honour their ideals and great achievements and I build on them.

I take part in our economy as a caring partner, in our democracy as a responsible citizen, and in our culture as a free individual.

I share responsibility for the vitality of our natural environment, for the integrity of our institutions and for the healthy development of both for the benefit of the earth , our children and future generations.

I support Australia as a nation in the community of nations and share its commitment to freedom, human dignity and life on this planet.

I trust that our loyalty to Australia and the world works both ways and leads to good neighbourship in the region and at home.

______________________________

The first sentence is from Les Murray’s draft,1992. The phrase ’.....settle on its shores’ echoes a favourite expression of the late Burnum Burnum.

Diagrams

Download Diagram 1 (107 kilobytes)

Download Diagram 2 (116 kilobytes)

Publications by the Constitutional Centenary Foundation, 155 Barry Street. Carlton 3053. These include Facts Sheets, Issue Papers, Reports, Discussion Papers, a Magazine as well as the text of the Australian Constitution, annotated by Cheryl Saunders. 1997.

Countdown to 2001. Key issues for the next 5 years. 1996. This document has been used as the format for the second part of this discussion paper.

Representing the People. A discussion paper highlighting the dilemma caused by the erosion of parliamentarian representation through commercialisation of government activities.

Round Table. Magazine. 1997 Issue 1: Constitutional Principles formulated at the Federation Centenary Convention. April 1997, which cover many of the principles suggested in the present paper, already identified, including stewardship of the land, but without principles concerning the economy and finance.

Duffy, Michael Tolerance is not enough. Weekend Australian. 23-24 August 1997: "We need a new concept of a nation, one that has values more inspiring than tolerance. "

Goudzwaard, Bob and de Lange, Harry Beyond Poverty and Affluence. Toward an Economy of Care. Foreword by Maurice Strong. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Grand Rapids. Michigan. USA. WCC Publications. Geneva. (1986) 1995. Realistically describes what kind of decisions an Economy constituted in its own right would be able to make and to what extend this is already happening.

Fletcher, Colin The person in sight of sociology. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London 1975. Chapter 2. A theory of the person: an attempt to develop a sense for the logic involved when an individual needs to find a balance between three opposing societal functions and their demands. He calls it "Trialectics".

Hohendahl, Peter Uwe. Recasting the Public Sphere. October 73. MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachussetts. Summer 1995. Attempts by German thinkers like Habermas, Negt and Kluge to come to grips with differentiation, especially dealing with the shift from before to after 1989.

Horne, Donald The Avenue of the Fair Go. A group tour of Australian Political Thought, Harper Collins. Sydney 1997. . A most comprehensive and instructive demonstration of all the opposing and conflicting value systems that need to be accommodated in our complex society, and what attempts have been made to find a workable balance.

Kolakowski, Leszek. In praise of inconsistency. New Times April 1992. A Russian Weekly. Moscow. page. 46-48: ". . . the world of values is not a logically double valued [one] as opposed to the world of theoretical thought. "

Krygier, Martin Between fear and hope: hybrid thoughts on public values. Sydney ABC Books. Boyer Lectures 1997 Krygier refers to Kolakowski. One’s thoughts would need to be socialist, liberal, conservative, internationalist, communitarian, democratic in order to match the complexity of our society. {My paraphrase}. The public value that Krygier suggests may help us remain human amidst all conflicts is decency.

Lange, David New Zealand’s public sector reform. An example, not a model. In: Australian Rationalist. Number 45. Summer 1997-1998. Page. 6-12. Descriptive of how public and private sectors differentiate their value systems according to function or fail to do so. Functional representation in schools on a local level shields education from dominance of economic values. At University level this did not happen.

Langmore, John and Quiggin, John Work for all: full employment in the nineties. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1994. A finely tuned set of achievable policies to realise four different value orientations: a society in which people can be secure, free, just and creative.

Luhmann, Niklas The Differentiation of Society. Columbia University Press. New York 1982. Especially Chapter 3 on Talcott Parsons and what it takes to develop a consistent theory of action. And Chapter 10 on functional differentiation as opposed to stratified differentiation of society.

Martin, Henry Economic and social policies are inseparable. The Republican Thursday August 7, 1997. Report on a ‘convention’ of academics, economists, community, welfare and union leaders, a federal politician and local government representatives behind closed doors. Drawn from across the political spectrum, the participants produced a manifesto that was not widely published, that reads like a thorough exercise in functional differentiation without using the concept by name.

Miller, Toby The Well-Tempered Self. Citizenship, Culture and the Postmodern. Subject. The John Hopkins University Press. Baltimore and London. 1993. A brilliant concept to characterise the condition of the citizen of this time: the same individual needs to be ‘tuned ‘so that switching into different value systems doesn’t require re-tuning every time. The metaphor refers to J. S. Bach’s demonstration that on The ‘Well-Tempered Keyboard ‘such a tuning as regards key-signatures was possible. This concept inspired the sub-title of this paper.

Robson, Donna Sue Community. The impact of government reforms on Victorians and their local communities. People Together Project. N. Carlton 1997 With differentiation in economic and cultural issues as a way of organising perceptions before conceptualising new structures.

Pusey, Michael Economic Rationalism in Canberra. A Nation Building State Changes Its Mind. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, Sydney, Melbourne etc. 1991. For the purpose of this research government departments were differentiated on the basis of function: economy, inner circle and programme departments, including social welfare. The functional differentiation was related to education and training backgrounds and professional career satisfaction. In the context of the present paper Social Welfare would be rather part of the economic group of departments. The thorough and ongoing research conducted and published by social welfare agencies makes them a competent and invaluable partner in economic decision making processes.

Salvation Army Staff Hard Times Families in Crisis.Salvation Army Crossroads Network. 1992. "It would seem that a radical restructuring of Australian industry has been occurring without a coherent and practical plan that identifies where economic development, and consequently employment, will be generated in the future . "page 56.

Salvaris, Michael National Benchmarks for Social Development and Citizenship. Centre for Urban and Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology. Melbourne. 1994. Refers to the notion of active citizenship or critical participation in a whole range of areas outside the strictly political domain, on the one hand economical {wealth distribution, housing} on the other hand cultural {health, education, cultural rights and duties}.

Saul, John Ralston The Unconscious Civilisation. Massey lectures. 1995. Penguin Books 1997. If the economy and culture are not consciously taken hold of as functions of citizenship, then citizenship gets reduced to a function of the economy {corporatism} and culture{media, language}Citizens become mere customers, consumers or clients . Citizens need to be active, working or fighting for equilibrium. {My summary and paraphrase. }

Steiner, Rudolf Economics. The world as one economy {1922} New Economy Publications. West Hoathly, West Sussex, England 1993. Earlier published as World Economy Rudolf Steiner Press London 1972. The 1993 edition includes Steiner’s responses to questions after the lectures, plus annotations by Christopher Budd. Very instructive considerations of economics as a distinct public function and how it interweaves with the political and cultural functions of society. In 1922 a clear awareness of economy as a global function, and knowledge as an economic resource.. An emphasis on ‘association’ rather than ‘cooperation’ as the necessary form of participation in economic decision making. In cooperation members unite to achieve a common goal. To obtain the ongoing data for economic science and decision making one needs continuing input from participants with different-often opposing -goals: a continuous exchange of producers’, traders’ and consumers’ experiences and perspectives .

Toward Social Renewal. Basic Issues of the Social Question. {1923}. Rudolf Steiner Press. London. 1977. Possibly the first comprehensive exposition of the need for functional differentiation of society, the kind of thinking it requires and how dysfunctional society becomes if such differentiation doesn’t take place

Stockton, Eugene D The aboriginal gift: spirituality for a nation. Millennium Books. Alexandria, NSW, 1995. The final chapter offers a vision of a future synthesis between aboriginal and western beliefs and value systems. Though ‘lacking in detail and blurred at the edges’ according to its author, in this vision society is differentiated in terms of functions (culture, politics and economics and back to culture) as well as their respective values (human development, mutual respect, inclusive care).

Stretton, Hugh Poor Laws 1834 and-1996. Brotherhood of St Laurence. Fitzroy Melbourne 1996. A most scholarly and socially compelling argument for the fact that the economy needs government.

Toohey, Brian Tumbling Dice. Economists are our gods, but do they live in the twentieth century? William Heineman. Australia. Port Melbourne 1994. New science, chaos theory and non-linear thinking may make it necessary and possible to take consumer groups seriously in economic equations.

Wearne, Bruce C. The theory and scholarship of Talcott Parsons to 1951. A critical commentary. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, Melbourne etc. 1989. Conversations with the author helped sharpen the theoretical aspect of this paper.

Wiseman, John Editor. Alternatives to Globalisation; An Asia-Pacific Perspective. Community Aid Abroad. Fitzroy 1997. Again a wealth of exercises in functional differentiation . In Chapter 5 Breaking the Spell? Alternative Responses to Globalisation the author, John Wiseman, highlights the need to move away from a stratified conception of citizenship, in this case based on beneficiaries and victims, inclusion and exclusion etc., toward spatial and temporal concepts. . . . "The rights and responsibilities of global citizens will need to be constantly renewed through negotiation at a range of spatial levels. And the dimension of time needs to be added. . . . . . . "