A Functioning Society: Community, Society, and Polity in the Twentieth Century

by Drucker,Peter F.

• ISBN13: 9780765801593
• ISBN10: 0765801590
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Peter Drucker may be best known as a writer on business and management, but, in fact, these subjects are neither his first nor have they been his foremost intellectual concern. Drucker's primary concern has been community, in which the individual has status, and society, in which the individual has function. He has brought together selections from his vast writings on these subjects in A Functioning Society. This collection presents the full range of Drucker's thought on community, society, and the political structure, and constitutes an ideal introduction to his ideas.The volume is divided into seven themes. The selections in parts 1 and 2 were mostly written during World War II and in the wake of the Great Depression. They seek to define the functioning society in the modern industrial world from a historical perspective, and to identify institutions that could recreate community, the collapse of which produced totalitarianism in Europe. Part 3 deals with the limits of governmental competence in the social and economic realm. It contains some of Drucker's most influential writings, concerned with the difference between big government and effective government.The chapters in part 4 explore autonomous centers of power outside government and within society. These include business corporations, universities, unions, hospitals, and community organizations. Part 5 contains chapters from Drucker's pathbreaking work on the corporation as a social organization rather than merely an economic one. This was a controversial concept when he introduced it; today it is taken for granted. The rise of the so-called "knowledge industries" forms the background for part 6, in which Drucker exploresthe meaning of the shift from a society, economy, and polity based on manual work and skill to one based on knowledge and knowledge workers. The concluding part 7 is devoted entirely to Drucker's long essay "The Next Society

Author Biography

Peter F. Drucker has been Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate School in California since 1971.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Community, Society, Polity	vii
Acknowledgements	xiii
Prologue: What is a Functioning Society?	xv
Part 1: Foundations
Introduction to Part 1	3	(2)
From Rousseau to Hitler	5	(10)
The Conservative Counter-Revolution of 1776	15	(8)
A Conservative Approach	23	(6)
Part 2: The Rise of Totalitarianism
Introduction to Part 2	27	(2)
The Return of the Demons	29	(8)
The Failure of Marxism	37	(18)
Part 3: The Sickness of Government
Introduction to Part 3	53	(2)
From Nation-State to Megastate	55	(16)
The Sickness of Government	71	(10)
No More Salvation by Society	81	(8)
Part 4: The New Pluralism
Introduction to Part 4	87	(2)
The New Pluralism	89	(8)
Toward a Theory of Organizations	97	(14)
The Society of Organizations	111	(18)
Part 5: The Corporation as a Social Institution
Introduction to Part 5	127	(2)
The Governance of Corporations	129	(8)
The Corporation as a Social Institution	137	(2)
The Corporation as a Political Institution	139	(10)
Part 6: The Knowledge Society
Introduction to Part 6	147	(2)
The New World-View	149	(8)
From Capitalism to Knowledge Society	157	(12)
The Productivity of the Knowledge Worker	169	(10)
From Information to Communication	179	(18)
Part 7: The Next Society
Introduction to Part 7	195	(2)
The Next Society	197	(38)
Index	235