FULL BOOK - Ugrin-Varga New theory - Csaba Varga

1. Emese Ugrin – Csaba Varga
New theory of state and
democracy
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2. Published by:
Institute for Strategic Research, Hungary (ISR)
www.strategiakutato.hu
Translated by:
Anna Born
© Emese Ugrin, Csaba Varga, 2008
ISBN: 978-963-87857-01
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3. Contents
Preface ................................................................................................................................... 7
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 10
Chapter One: The glocal world and information age ............................................................... 13
1.1. The new concept of globalisation: functional and substantial globalisation................. 13
1.2. Localisation and ’life milieu’ ........................................................................................ 15
1.3. Glocal age and the new mediation level: the nation...................................................... 16
1.4. The four models of the present glocal age ................................................................... 17
1.5. The Information Age that comes to an end ................................................................... 18
1.6. The age of new technologies and artificial intelligence ................................................ 19
1.7. Age of new knowledge and critical approaches to democracy ..................................... 20
1.8. Information society as the next stage of glocalization .................................................. 23
1.9. The history of the three basic categories and their submodels...................................... 25
1.10. A new understanding of knowledge society at the end of the information age .......... 28
A restricted concept of knowledge in the information society......................................... 29
1.11. The expansion of network society and knowledge-based economy .................... 31
The era of knowledge-driven economy............................................................................ 33
1.12. Capital resources of the information society........................................................ 36
Chapter Two: Developing the relationship between state and citizen ..................................... 39
2.1. Starting point in eight items .......................................................................................... 39
2.2. State and democracy – a solid first approach................................................................ 40
2.3. The theory of the administrative field comprehensively embedded in the individual,
political, social and the collective consciousness................................................................. 42
2.4. Citizen – the theory of five prize-winning community citizen ..................................... 44
2.5. The theory of the state: types of state in the new theory of the state ............................ 45
2.6. Social theory – the theory of new civil society ............................................................. 47
2.7. Historical analysis – the basic model of three periods ................................................. 50
The model of the Industrial Age ...................................................................................... 50
The model of the Socialist Age ........................................................................................ 53
The model fo the Information Age................................................................................... 54
2.8. Democracy – before the new democracy is established............................................... 56
2.9. The functional theories of e-public administration ....................................................... 57
Chapter Three: State, governing, democracy within the concepts of liberal democracy and in
practice ..................................................................................................................................... 63
3.1. The historical formation and definition of the modern state .................................... 63
Problems with the nation-state and its birth ..................................................................... 63
The inconsistencies of nation-state .................................................................................. 65
3.2. Democratic deficit or the post-totalitarian system ....................................................... 65
3.3. Minimal democratic procedures have been emptied of their content ........................... 70
3.4. The repositioning of state after the division of politics from society............................ 72
3.5. The possible road of change: the e-state and civilised country..................................... 74
3.6. Governance and the disfunctional government ............................................................ 76
3.7. The institutional and administrative nature of the state ................................................ 76
3.8. The struggle of the service providing state and the weak communication ................... 77
Chapter Four: In the current of new paradigms ....................................................................... 81
4.1. The paradigm that looks back from the future and paradigm change ........................... 81
4.2. The accepted paradigm of sustainable development.................................................... 82
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4. The anomalies of growth trends in the industrial society................................................. 82
Globalisation vs. Localisation in the 1990s ..................................................................... 83
The state has become a bone of contention between functional globalisation and
localisation ....................................................................................................................... 85
4.3. Is a new „ideology” born on how to continue? ............................................................. 85
4.4. How does the theory of sustainable development develop? ......................................... 86
Sustainable state as a new state theory............................................................................. 87
Chapter Five: New dimensions of general and enigmatic development .................................. 89
5.1. Space and time dimensions of changes ......................................................................... 89
5.2. The cognitive nature of information and its consequences ........................................... 90
5.3. Communication globalisation and information society ................................................ 91
5.4. Does knowledge society bring about primordial model change? ................................. 92
5.5. Redefining knowledge capital and the types of pulling forces of the era ..................... 94
Personal knowlegde.......................................................................................................... 94
Implicit knowledge........................................................................................................... 95
Knowledge as social capital ............................................................................................. 96
Utilized knowledge makes the world off the hinge.......................................................... 96
5.6. The laudation of innovation in the new era................................................................... 97
Innovation in the knowledge-based economy .................................................................. 97
5.7. Knowledge management in the new economy............................................................ 100
The economic approach – knowledge management ...................................................... 100
The social perspective: human resource management ................................................... 101
Chapter Six: The present is already an intelligent development ............................................ 102
6.1. The comprehensive goals and the directions of intelligent development ................... 102
6.2. New approach to planning and the general alteration of the whole ............................ 103
6.3. Tangible limitations of intelligent development ......................................................... 104
6.4. Content management: the future branch of the age..................................................... 105
6.5. The infocommunicational public service system and the business type processing
model.................................................................................................................................. 105
Chapter Seven: The new paradigm of governance – the service providing state .................. 114
7.1. The service providing state and its various interpretations ......................................... 114
The economic perspective .............................................................................................. 114
New social perspective................................................................................................... 118
7.2. Differences between virtual space and cyber space .................................................... 119
7.3. Cyber-space is the scene of collective intelligence ..................................................... 124
The virtual community ................................................................................................... 124
Chapter Eight: The new state as virtual community .............................................................. 126
8.1. The institutionalisation of virtual space in the horisontally organised state ............... 126
8.2. The problem of control – order and chaos .................................................................. 128
8.3. E-governance and e-public administration without popular fallacies ......................... 130
8.4. The historic development and global trends in e-governance..................................... 130
8.5. The hypotheses of various e-governance models....................................................... 131
8.6. E-governance with the continuously developing tools of ICT.................................... 133
8.7. The four players of e-public administration, or is this the new model?...................... 134
8.8. The elementary significance of knowledge centres .................................................... 135
8.9. E-local governance and e-democracy opens a door to the future................................ 136
The topical e-local governance programme ................................................................... 137
E-democracy – the possibility of participatory democracy............................................ 137
Chapter Nine: Democracy theories and experiments ............................................................. 140
9.1. E-democracy – historical overview – visions and doubts ........................................... 140
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5. 9.2. The extraordinary history of electronic democracy as an idea.................................... 140
The period of "Cybernet" ............................................................................................... 141
The age of tele-democracy ............................................................................................. 142
9.3. Tele-democracy, the age of cyber-democracy ............................................................ 143
9.4. Electronic democracy serving universal values .......................................................... 145
Chapter Ten: Participatory democracy and/or e-democracy.................................................. 147
10.1. The breakthrough: participatory democracy ............................................................. 147
10.2. Understanding participatory democracy – the system of structured dialogue .......... 147
10.3. Participatory democracy – road towards the direct ................................................... 149
(e-)democracy ( from welfare society towards well-fare society) ..................................... 149
10.4. The summary of democracy development and the new, for the time being enigmatic
model? ................................................................................................................................ 154
10.5. The local document of participatory democracy – or the "settlement/city charta" ... 156
Chapter Eleven: The Aba model: development of local democracy, creation of a social
contract ................................................................................................................................... 159
11.1. The presentation of civil representatives, analysis of their plans.............................. 161
11.2. The creation of participatory democracy in Aba and the chances of e-democracy (the
history of events)................................................................................................................ 163
The official beginnings of the democracy (Village assembly, September 2004) .......... 164
Appeal for a local social contract ................................................................................... 164
Draft scenario of the local social contract (third version).............................................. 167
Letter to the citizens of Aba (February, 2005) ............................................................... 169
The programme of social contract in Aba ...................................................................... 170
The (festive) Day of the Social Contract........................................................................ 172
The establishment of the forum of civil representatives (April 2005) ........................... 173
11.3. The future scenario of Aba, until 2007-2010 ............................................................ 173
The Aba model ............................................................................................................... 177
Chapter Twelve: The comprehensive vision of state, democracy and public administration 179
12.1. Rethinking the future, vision of the future, strategy of the future............................. 180
The reinterpretation of the concepts............................................................................... 180
12.2. Clearing the concepts of future planning and future development ........................... 181
12.3. Long-term future image up until 2020, a comprehensive future image until 2013 .. 182
Chapter Thirteen: Paradigm changing new recognitions in the first third of the 21st century
................................................................................................................................................ 183
13.1. The challenging timeliness and the alternative of knowledge society ...................... 183
13.2. The unexpected post-modernisation models ............................................................. 184
13.3. The accepted digital state and public administration vision ..................................... 185
13.4. Network state is the future, but what sort of network state? ..................................... 186
13.5. The cardinal question: participatory democracy and/or e-democracy?..................... 188
Exoteric and esoteric democracy theory ........................................................................ 190
13.6. On a taboo matter: the e-parliament .......................................................................... 191
13.7. The secret of the conceivable future: consciousness-guided (post)society and
(post)democracy ................................................................................................................. 194
Chapter Fourteen: The characteristics of conceivable future scenarios ................................. 198
14.1. The five types of complex future scenarios .............................................................. 199
14.2. Universal scenarios ................................................................................................... 200
14.3. Global scenarios ........................................................................................................ 200
14.4. National scenarios ..................................................................................................... 203
14.5. Local scenarios.......................................................................................................... 208
14.6. On the chances that the scenarios are going to be realised (or left unfinished) ........ 209
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6. Chapter Fifteen: The combined future of the new state, new e-public administration and
participatory democracy......................................................................................................... 212
15.1. What comes after new infocommunication techonologies have been introduced?... 212
15.2. New public administration and office work: k-public administration ..................... 213
15.3. Is new knowledge and new consciousness unavoidalbe in public administration? .. 216
15.4. Intelligent civil society – and what comes after it..................................................... 217
15.5. Finally, is the new state and new democracy vision born? ....................................... 218
Chapter Sixteen: Diverging (and decisive?) alternatives of the near future........................... 221
16.1. The e-state and e-democracy scenarios..................................................................... 221
16.2. The European Union, - the odds of an e-federal state ............................................... 221
16.3. The alternatives of e-governance in Hungary until 2013-2015................................. 222
16.4. The scenarios of Hungarian regional, small regional, settlement e-local governance
and e-public administration................................................................................................ 223
16.5. The chances of institutionalisation of e-democracy, e-election and e-referenda at the
local level ........................................................................................................................... 224
16.6. Individual and community e-consciousness, e-realisations as the qualitative
requirements of participatory e-democracy scenarios........................................................ 224
Chapter Seventeen: Summary: risk factors and the future chances of creating a new world 226
17.1. The veritable long-term chances and hopes .............................................................. 227
17.2. Short term prognosis ................................................................................................. 231
Major publications.................................................................................................................. 233
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7. Preface
Introduction to foreign readers
This volume leans on the Hungarian and more broadely speaking, on
European experiences, although the crisis of the state and democracy model is
not exclusively a Hungarian, nor a European phenomenon. We wouldn’t be
exaggerating even if we modestly claimed that the political-social crossroads
have become global. The sociological backround of the book is based on the
social crises of Hungary, Central-Europe and the totality of the European
continent. For theory creation, however, this regional observation
exceptionally constitutes a point of advantage. For instance, in Hungary or in
the Central European states that have implemented political regime change, the
uselessness of the Euro-atlantic democracy model is more clearly and sharply
visible than in the Western European classical democracies and states.
The authors belong to those exposed intelligentsia who have been
instrumental to regime change in 1989/1990. Csaba Varga was one of the
opinion leaders and social scientists of the Opposition Round Table while
Emese Ugrin art historian became a (Christian Democrat) MP in the Hungarian
parliament after the regime change. Already at that time they warned that the
post-socialist state neither then, nor subsequently should opt for the 19th
century form of capitalism as their universal future perspective.
In 1989 this was scarcely understood and was accepted by even fewer
people because during the euphoric times of the regime change everyone
seemed to have been satisfied with the slogans that had grown into mythic
proportions, namely those of market economy and democracy. Not before long,
however, it became obvious that while classical capitalism based on private
ownership that replaced state capitalist socialism could function merely as a
valid starting point, yet it would never bring real and permanent economic and
social solutions (neither) to Central Eastern Europe. And it has also become
clear that the empty, formal, false socialist „democracy” won’t be redeemed by
civil democracy either that is itself formal and rapidly emptying of content. The
two models of the past sharply oppose each other and one could support only
one of them, - yet the real solution could only be brought about by a quantum
jump-like new model.
We should also note here that the Hungarian social-economic situation
and climate is well suited to swiftly and spectacularly reveal the exhaustion and
emptiness of the nineteenth-twentieth century market economy and world
democracy model at the end of the millenium. Moreover, the Hungarian and
other Central European examples of crisis also unveil at a similar speed that the
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8. classical European, even Euro-atlantic modernisation can hardly be continued.
At the same time it is equally revealed (in a dramatic or perhaps pitiful fashion)
that present-day leading civilisation world model has no future image and
perspective. It has ended yet is it not ripe enough to be radically replaced?
The first decade after the millenium, slowly coming to an end, has only
further strenghtened this experience. Hungary with its struggles and search for
the future is becoming once again an example, in a double sense in fact: 1. The
new political elite made up by the one-time opposition who fought for regime
change and the one-time second-rate leaders of the state party that had accepted
regime change are equally captive of the ideology of regime change and thus
global perplexity just as the pre-1989 state party elites who directed the Soviet
Empire that extended over half of the world and executed „surface” reforms
were captive of their own system’s ideology and empirical practice. 2. The
crises that cannot be concealed and the weakness of old or new ideological
engagement make it possible that in Hungary and Central Europe the birth of
radically new state and democracy theories, models, programmes take place,
not obstructed at all by the fact that the current political elites are generally
speaking not open to new models and solutions.
This is understandable, on the one hand, because serious opinion leader
intellectuals cannot be against democracy or constitutional governance since
the experience of soft dictatorship called socialism is simply too close and we
cannot retreat anywhere in the past. On the other hand, in Hungary neither
society nor economy is in the spiritual and mental condition to understand and
support a newer second regime change and face the prospective even greater
risks. One needs to protect the new, liberal democracy and plan for a new
model simultaneously; and likewise, the executive „power” controlled by the
parliament should duly be protected while once again it is high time that the
centralising, power-centred governance model was replaced with something
else.
The global (universal) crisis is clearly visible from Hungary since those
interest- and value groups who urge for the concealment of the crossroads are
too weak to successfully accomplish and legalise the rescue of the system. It is
an inspiring situation and state of consciousness so that new thinking minds
and theoretical programmes could come to light.
Emese Ugrin and Csaba Varga take advantage of the new situation and
meet the new intellectual challenge. Luckily, neither wanted to be party or
government politician and thus both of them have worked primarily in research
from the mid-1990s onwards. Csaba Varga together with Emese Ugrin and five
other eminent scholars founded the Institute for Strategic Reserch which
currently comprises sixteen research groups. Initially, their joint aim was to
establish a comprehensive future perspective for Hungary, yet soon after it has
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9. become evident that neither Hungary nor the post-socialist region can be
understood as isolated entities but only in the framework of broader
civilisation-cultural processes. This is why well before the millenium they
became preoccupied with the globalisation-localisation theory or the theory of
information and/or knowledge society.
This book that was written and published in Hungarian in 2007 and
while is is primarily based on the Central Eastern European experience, it
conceptualises a universal and new democracy and state theory which goes
beyond the borders of Central Europe and even the European continent. While
the book bears witness of wide knowledge on state and democracy literature,
the authors do not adhere to the traditional way of thinking on demoracy
research. The authors are typically the grounded actors of the new knowledge
market as they represent researchers with wide intellectual horisons and in
possession of transdisciplinary knowledge and who are very knowledgeable on
the theories and practices of the digital state, e-public administration and
electronic democracy of the information age.
All this while partly explains, partly does not offer reasons for the radical
new alternatives of the information age. The cure the authors offer for the state
and democracy is universal and based on participation for consciousness-
centred societies and political systems; for that matter, it can equally be applied
to Hungary, Europe or any other continent. The speciality of the volume is a
report on a Hungarian democracy experiment that is centred on participation
and aims at developing collective consciousness, - all of which has been started
off in Aba. Hopefully our book will inspire debate among the interested
professionals of the knowledge world market and perhaps if offers hope for
many developed and developing societies. History will not only continue but
instead of the illusion of an end a new elementary turn should be expected: the
history of a veritable, new world model is about to begin in the coming
decades.
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10. Introduction
Present-day democracy is a post-totalitarian system, - is the basic assertion at the turn
of the twentieth century. Democracy needs protection in order not to slide back into soft
dictatorship, yet it is the concept of democracy that needs re-examination so that we could
reach some sort of post-democratic phase. The prefiguration of the turn of the 20th century
has lasted a whole century: the post-democratic stage could either be regarded as participatory
(as well as electronic) democracy, or as a global, new, ideal democracy based on polis
consciousness. The recognised path starts off from democracy and leads to democracy, albeit
the distance between the two democracy models is as great as it had previously been between
dictatorship and democracy. Furthermore, the new democracy model is not any less blurred
than the post totalitarian system's vision of itself.
The Euro-Atlantic state- and democracy model shows spectacular signs of crisis.
While the global politico-state arena has vested interests in masking the current crisis, it is
through the efforts of local forces that the crisis is essentially managed. This, however, has
only a minimal impact on stakeholders at a global and nation-state level. Behind the scenes
only very few people deny the necessity of radical reconsideration, whilst in practice there is
not even one politico-state group prepared to risk its current positions. The complexity of the
situation is adequately demonstrated that while the European Union expressly pushes for the
introduction of electronic democracy, the solution to the European Constitution or the reform
of the European Commission still awaits a final answer.
A new state and democracy theory is or the more necessary because the democracy of
nations/states cannot be interpreted isolatedly. Global democracy that spans over continents is
going to come into existence as a coherent system simultaneously in the global and local
social space-time, at mid-level as continental and partially nation-state democracy, while at
the lower local levels it is going to consist of a regional, micro-democracy. The same also
holds true at the state level: the global state is a unified system (or the institutional system
which substitutes it), a continental state (union, confederacy, etc.) and a nation-state and a
local government.
The multi-layered participatory democracy, the expansion programme of the local and
communal democracy is already fifteen years old.1 On the whole, we can nevertheless state
that a unified system has not yet been set up, despite the fact that every country, continent or
international organisation includes in its political mission the aim of "democratising
democracy". This, however, presupposes a new model of democracy. The idea of
participatory democracy was able to spread so fast first and foremost because globalisation
and localisation processes have become ever stronger, they have entered the area of the
economy. Due to new information technology systems, the effect of these processess has
made its way into the social and cultural spheres, too. Here we are going to introduce the new
concept: the idea of knowledge and consciousness-based democracies.
1
One of the first books published in Hungary about this topic is: Pál Bánlaky-Csaba Varga (1978): Azon túl ott a
tág világ (The Wide World There Beyond) Magvető, Quickening Time, 1979
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11. In this context, the programme of participatory democracy should be viewed as the
strengthening of defence mechanisms of local world(s) that aim at preserving local socio-
economic and enviromental interests, as well as local identity. On the other hand, this
programme also serves as a means to manage continental competivity of local and national
societies. Since different regions of the world are differently affected by the new
consequences of glocalisation, the two strategic roles make the differences in its realisation
comprehensible.
Another source of diversity is to be found in local democratic traditions, which are
greatly influenced by the socio-economic state of a given area and the operability of existing
institutional systems, etc.
The theory of e-governance, e-public administration and the new democracy is in itself
a new theory. If, for instance, e-public administration is a new type of public administration,
then one of the foundations of the new theory is the practice of the new public administration,
while another of its foundations is based on the basic principles of the programmes which
designed e-public administration. We should not believe that the theoretical conceptions of
each and every new European development had been conceived prior to its implementation
phase. For that matter, in Hungary the introduction of e-government and e-public
administration had been declared prior to the development of a theoretical approach. At
present, nevertheless, there is neither an ongoing public debate on the crisis of pleasure
society, the emptiness of current political models nor a search for the universal future.
The theory of e-governance is, however, not merely and not exclusively a new public
administration theory: on the one hand, the character "e" lifts the public administrative
approach into another dimension, hence as of now we speak of an electronic and/or digital
public administration. Consequently, the theory has to extend to and include the new
(infocommunicative) technology and the world perception that is inspired by new technology.
On the other hand, e-public administration is going to fundamentally change, - or to put it
more carefully: may probably change, – the state itself, it will redefine what it means to be a
citizen as well as assume a new type of relationship between state and citizen (and its
communities). The theory of e-public administration (or k-public administration) will
therefore need to include theories on the state, citizens, society and democracy. What follows
from the above is that sooner or later an integrated theory is going to evolve, which
comprehensively examines and interprets basic questions, as well re-examines the
development of public administration.
E-governance and e-public administration are in the focus of our attention primarily
because so much in Europe as in Hungary this developmental stage for the future seems
realistic and feasible. The foreseeable perspectives, however, lead much further: they point
toward a participatory state and participatory democracy, both of which are unimaginable
without the evolution of the intelligent network society. All in all, the short-term timetable
might look the following:
Phases of Elements Perspective
Phases: development
Service state, Service state, partial digital e-governance which Established digital
digital state and e- is simultaneously citizen-friendly, with island- state and all
public like e-state governance and e-local authority; inclusive e-scale
First phase administration public administration added within the public
framework of the traditional representative administration
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12. democracy, partly based on a new and
formalised social agreement
e-governance and Partial European and national democracy Established e-
Second limited e- reform, national, regional small area and democracy although
phase democracy settlement e-democracy, with e-referenda, representative
simultaneously simple or complex or democracy still in
electronically participative democracy place
Intelligent civil Intelligent (real and virtual) civil societies Intelligent civil
society and social established at a global, continental and local society and network
Third phase particpative level are going to step over the framework of democracy
democracy traditional democracy, or will enforce the new
democracy and social model built on the
participation and direct decisions in basic
questions.
Participatory A democracy and participatory state built Developed
democracy and simultaneoulsy on individual decisions and civil participatory
Fourth participatory state associations that are more loosely connected democracy, free
phase led by society than political parties yet it is also a society and
comprehensive real/ virtual democracy and communal citizen
participatory state where the civilian citizen is who makes
aware rather than manipulated and hence responsible
becomes a responsible individual decisions
Table 1. Developmental phases, ideas & hypotheses 2000-2050 (Csaba Varga)
This book is partially a comprehensive attempt to elaborate at length a new and
integrated theory, whilst it is also going to raise every important theoretical issue with regards
to new state and democracy theories, new society and democracy theories as well as the
professional and interdisciplinary theories of e-public administration. The book does not only
revolve around theoretical problems and solutions, but it also tries to formulate alternative
state and democracy development scenarios for the next thirty to forty years.
Similarly, the book showcases perhaps the most comprehensive Hungarian attempt to
local government and democracy, also known as the Aba model. Aba gained regional and
national fame and interest when it started its own experiment on the development of
participatory democracy in the summer of 2004, which the locals prefer to call democracy
experiment or social agreement programme for short. The essence of the Aba model is as
follows: it is based not on a single, but multiple representation of citizens combined with
structured dialogue and is further developed into shared local governance to finally achieve
participatory and electronic democracy. One of the elements of this idea is thus the combined
development of e-democracy and e-public administration. The gradual realisation of the Aba
model is of particular interest because it is a real practical example rather than merely a
theoretical one.
This book was not written as an answer to the current political crisis in Hungary. Yet
the increased national democratic deficit and the radical decrease of state capabilities jointly
with the crisis currently experienced in the development of Hungarian society may change the
view of the involved parties, namely the minds of those who shape public opinion and are the
decision-makers in Hungary.
January 1st, 2008
Emese Ugrin –Csaba Varga
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13. Chapter One: The glocal world and information age
As we have already pointed out in the introduction, we need to characterise the
information age in order to adequately interpret the concept of e-public administration. This,
however, is not possible to understand without a comprehenisve and more paradigmatic
interpretation of globalisation processes. This is also necessary because at the end of the
twentieth century, the information age stands for universal globalisation.
1.1. The new concept of globalisation: functional and substantial
globalisation
Suprisingly, even the Soviet Empire, or the group of COMECON countries can be
described as a paramilitary, semi-global, monopolist state system. The globalisation at end of
the twentieth century has, however, far exceeded any previous models of globalisation (both
those that took place several thousand or several hundred years ago). This new type of
globalisation embraces the entire global population and reaches to even the most hidden
corners of the third and fourth world. On the other hand, it also creates a new type of
universal space-time structure in human civilisation in a way that it simultaneously a
functional and substantional world process.
Hence the notion of new globalisation concisely sums up the recognition that the
constantly uniting human civilization has reached the stage of functional globalisation. This
globalisation, however, does not only create a new world structure, but it also attempts to fill
in the "vacuum" it generates with particular content. New globalisation therefore
simultaneoulsy entails globalisation and localisation, so it is not surprising that it is
increasingly called the glocal world structure.
New globalisation is a dual process: it consists of a functional and substantional series
of changes. By functionality we mean that the functional elements and processes of human
civilization (economy, society, ecology and their sub-systems, politics, state, military,
education, etc) are globalising at a rate and extent never seen before. As a result, global
economy, global society, global military order, etc. have come into existence.
Substantionality means that the people do no longer simply dream of a unified civilization
and culture, but that unification is now taking place at a rate and extent never experienced
before. This is why we can speak today of global knowledge and global culture with good
reason.
While they differ greatly in their characteristics, the two great processes nonetheless
also strengthen each other. New functionalism unifies in such a way that largely identical
economic and political structures evolve in different countries and continents while new
unification does not merge but rather preseves the culture and way of thinking of the peoples
and nationalities. Consequently, new unification also hinders and limits paramilitary or
political globalisation in a number of ways. It is therefore no coincidence that there is no exact
same state or public administration in the member states of the European Union; after all,
each state and its public administration retains its own particuliarities. Yet it is beyond doubt
that the state belongs to the functional side of globalisation as it has long lost its substantional
characteristics.
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14. It is Endre Kiss, the philosopher, who notes2: "According to a widely shared
interpretation, globalisation is the science of such particular comprehensive problems, which
affect the ENTIRE humanity in a new qualitative way, and its trends affect us existentially. In
this spirit ecological problems become for instance legitimate areas of globalisation, as are
other issues such as the state of raw materials, migration, shared healthcare problems of the
world, which know no boundaries any more, positive and negative world dynamics of
questions regarding the population, the energy situation, the arms trade and drug crisis are all
great dilemmas of integration and world economy. Another major interpretation does not tie
the issues and the whole phenomenon of globalisation to individual concrete and always
singularly appearing "global" questions, (or to a (partial) cluster made up of random
questions), but instead it examines the structural and functional correlations of a new world
situation in its ENTIRETY." Thus, globalisation theory does not simply aims to define some
kind of partial and fragmented state of the world, it puts the functional, and, to add to Endre
Kiss' train of thought, the substantial general theory of the post-millennium global-universal
world into words.
Since globalisation would hang loose in the universal space were the base not
strenghtened and fuctional, thus it needs localisation process to strengthen and evolve on each
and every continent. This in itself is already a global process irrespective of the interests of
globalisation and it happens even in modernised European countries that local regions aim at
increasing their independence to reduce their defencelessness. This is how in the new glocal
world order the state (and the nation-state) is situated in the middle, which, on the one hand,
offers some protective shields for local regions, while on the other hand simultaneously helps
local regions to integrate in the global stage.
The new glocal world can also be described as quantitative and qualitative
globalisation. By quantitative globalisation we first and foremost mean that globalisation goes
on continually both spatially and functionally and eventually it is going to embrace the entire
human civilization. Qualitative globalisation, as its name already suggests, could mean
qualitative globalisation (although historically it has not been pre-determined whether this
would be the outcome in reality) and this may necessarily entail the substantional unification
of the world's countries and peoples (similarly to the above point, it has not yet been decided
from a historical point of view whether such an event would also imply a global state or a
global army for that matter).
When it became apparent for the very first time in the last decades of the twentieth
century that soon the evolution of the information age is going to become an effective world
process, many have started to formulate short or long term utopias about how the information
age will simultaneously be the cause and the consequence, dynamitic and end product of the
present globalisation. This process was essentially set off after the turn of the millennium,
when the first the functional then the substantional globalisation acquired enormous power
resources with the spread of the info-communication networks and services.
The post-millennium world is thus undoubtedly a glocal world, ever more so in
Europe, including the less or moderately developed countries. The present glocal world is
wears the robe of the information age, and its public political name is knowledge-based
economy and society.
2
Endre Kiss (2005) Magyarország és a globalizáció (Hungary and Globalisation) Kodolányi, Székesfehérvár);
Endre Kiss (2006) A globalizáció jövője és/mint tudástársadalom (The Future of Globalisation and /as
Knowledge Society) (www.pointernet.pds.hu/kissendre)
14

15. 1.2. Localisation and ’life milieu’
At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the semi-global state of the world
localities were in dual subjection; on the one hand, they depended on continental
superpowers, on the other hand, on the states of the industrial age and their nationalised
politics and societies. We may call this stage the age of subjugated European localities. This is
a universal phase although local authorities played an increasingly important role in some
states. At this point, local economies have become increasingly integrated into the partial
global systems of the continents.
At first sight the concept of globalisation is to be understood by focusing, within the
global structure, on local levels in the local structure. Nowadays in Europe and in Hungary we
call these places the scenes of localisation (starting from larger and ending with smaller
elements) as is the region, the county, the small areas, the town and the village. Presently
about twenty to thirty settlements make up a small area in Hungary, which is almost always
held together by one or more towns; in all, there are almost one hundred and eighty small
regions. In Hungary counties are currently reckoned with; besides Budapest, there are
nineteen of them altogether. Consequently, by and large ten small areas belong to every one
of them; last but not least, the nineteen counties constitute the seven regions of Hungary
(except perhaps the region that unites Budapest and Pest county); all in all, every region is
consists of three counties.
Just like in Hungary, in every country, local regions (all seven of them) are the basic
units and balance of the global world. If there is no localisation there is no globalisation
either, or if there is one, then it is of a kind that sooner or later becomes unsustainable. The
opposite of this arguments holds true as well: without globalisation local regions would
remain isolated and introverted. The relationship between the global and local worlds can
vary greatly: the biggest danger of today could be that globalisation prevails over the local
levels and thus the subordination of local worlds continue. However, the reverse negative
process is not likely to occur, that is, that local worlds prevail over globalisation. It is so much
a task as an opportunity to find some kind of a balance between the two levels. The new,
interactive internet-based information and communication revolution is one option that
provides opportunities.
For the sake of a more in-depth analysis, however, the internal structure and
characteristics of local regions are also worth summing up. Within the framework of
localisation theory we argue that local worlds are made up of three structural elements: the
upper life milieu, the lower life milieu and the internalised life milieu. The notion of life
milieu is introduced here in order to adequately account for the analysis of the local worlds; it
is significant insofar that it is the local life milieu that the individual as well as the community
directly relates to. We find the region and the county at higher levels, which could be
described increasingly as regional upper society. Similarly, the concept of lower life milieu
can be broken down into two structural elements: the environment and the directly
experienced world. The environment (that is, the small area, the centre of the small area, the
town or village of residence) is the social milieu in which the individuals live day in and day
out. The notion of the direct world refers to – symbolically speaking - the"hot reality" (circle
of friends, family, etc.), the everyday experiences of the individual. One of the novelties of
the locality theory is that we examine the imprint of the local world and the internal reality of
the individual. To put it differently, we focus on the the personal dimensions of the local
world.
15

16. In the global context, a network of local worlds was born as a continuation and
acceleration of localisation. All of these are different realities. In the world structure, they
represent an independent and stable pole, which presumably is going to strengthen in the
decades to come. In the localization process we can also distinguish between quantitative and
qualitative localisation. Past decades have primarily brought about the dominance of the
quantitative processes, and it will be the great task of the first half of the twenty-first century
realise the qualitative localisation in human civilisation. Today numerous developments point
to this direction; the independence and self-assertion of local regions increasingly grows, as
they begin to think in terms of new types of "city states" local "states" "regional states” and
micro-republics. This holds also true for Hungary, and this is what the more advanced regions
and smaller areas strive for, whether they admit it or not.
1.3. Glocal age and the new mediation level: the nation
We can still regard the 1980s and 1990s as a time when globalisation and localisation
were on separate although parallel tracks, yet it became clear already before the turn of the
millennium that globalisation and localisation also build upon and complement each other.
This is why we can state that today there is no globalisation without localisation, and vice
versa. If we consider the sphere between globalisation and localisation at the level of nation-
states, then this level is so much element, disc, or even as a bridge for mediation that
structures the world.
There are several categories generally accepted to describe the dual process of
globalisation and localisation: the best terms are perhaps glocalisation or glocal. This
contracted category expresses in a precise way that globalisation and localisation are linked
together. It is also worth noting, however, that in the information age it is going to become
normal practice that globalisation has a direct impact on localisation, and that localisation also
"skips" the nation-state mediaton level. Nations do not dissapear, neither do they remain
captive of the prevailing nation–state. Instead, more than ever, nations are going to become
communities, linked by common culture and high-level consciousness. The content of this
consciousness is knowledge. In an ideal scenario, eventually we will be able to speak of
knowledge- and cultural nation. This type of nation is first and foremost no longer introvert,
no longer on the run, defensive or closed; quite the contrary, it is open, it is strong and rooted
in itself, it does not offensive and it is proud to shows itself to the world. It does not aim to
divide, it integrates the people both in time and in space. It dates back to thousands of years
and looks forward to endless spatial time.
This triple process (global sphere, nation-state level, local sphere) has not yet been
developed and accepted. However, we propose a new concept on similar lines: globe-natio-
loc (globalisation-nationalisation-localisation). Well, we admit that this word is slightly hard
to pronounce and hard to learn by heart. Yet we emphatically emphasise that a new type of
globalisation-localisation as well as nationalisation is taking place with a new content. For
these reasons a newly created and pertinent concept will be likely introduced in the next few
years. Regardless of the name of this concept, we confidently state that Hungary, or in the
broader perspective, Central Europe has reached the glocal age, which has also the middle
nation level, too.
16

17. 1.4. The four models of the present glocal age
The new glocal age is not to be placed outside history, on the contrary, it is deeply
embedded in history. It has not happened unexpectedly, nor will it end unexpectedly. After
the turn of the millenium, the glocal age tries to break away from the captivity of the
industrial and, at times, post-industrial age. However, this process takes far more time and
effort than the theoreticians of the information age might want to think. The reason for this is
that the industrial age, a world model itself, also struggles for subsistence. The present new
globalisation, nationalisation and localisation simultaneously embodies the combination and
joint existence of the three world models (Industrial Age, Information Age, Knowledge Age).
Together they make up the prevailing world model, whilst there are very sharp differences
between them.
Industrial Age
monetary industrial society
pleasure society
Information Age Knowledge Age
information innovational knowledge society
society
Consciousness Age
consciousness society
(idea )
Table 2: The universal four age model (Csaba Varga)
The industrial age and especially its end, the monetary industrial age, has created the
consumer-centred pleasure society4 model in the Euro-Atlantic zone by partially integrating
certain advantages of the information age. The central aim of this era is consumption, thus its
benchmark is consumption, too. The individual just as the community or a country measures
the state of its development and success by its position in the global market of consumption.
Pleasure society is also called risk society3. Pleasure society at present feeds the personal
3
Ulrich Beck (1986) Die Risikogesellschaft. Auf dem Weg in eine andere Moderne. Frankfurt/Main
(Suhrkamp Verlag); (2003); In Hungarian: A kockázattársadalom. Út egy másik modernitásba (Risk society),
Századvég Kiadó, Budapest.
17

18. hunger for pleasure, yet due to the nature, standard and manner of the service, the failure of
pleasure society is guaranteed.
Yesterday’s Europe marked the "invention" of the industrial age: the spread of
industrialised mass production, the urbanised city, the representational democracy (mass
democracy), science (or rather: normal science), the rational materialist way of thinking and
widespread alienation. The information age should be seen as the end of the industrial age:
monetary capitalism is replaced by information capitalism, representational democracy and its
institutions empty of meaning, politics is generally deconstructed, financial and cultural
globalism spread all over the world. Each age concludes with total disillusion and the loss of
sense in the future. At the time of political regime change Hungary too, opted not for the
future but for the past when it embraced the industrial age, industrial society and its ways of
operation.
Representational democracy is the democracy of the industrial age. The post-
industrial global age and the present democracy model are not on good terms with each other.
Globalisation either neutralises or empties democracy, or, a new type of democracy will be
able to sucessfully cope with globalisation and it will put it under its control.
1.5. The Information Age that comes to an end
Having briefly clarified what we mean by globalisation and glocal age, let us turn our
attention to the relationship between the information age and the new glocal world. From a
historical perspective globalisation cannot be considered a new phenomenon: in the last five
to seven thousand years several types of (usually partial and limited) globalisations had taken
place. These types of globalisations were first and foremost the result of a more or less
imperial, occassionally global imperial aspirations. One of the novelties of the globalisation
that has been accelerating since the second part of the twentieth century was that for the first
time in the history of humankind globalisation attempted to ”conquer” the entire human
civilisation. The quantitive expansion of globalisation, however, can not be imagined without
the existence of the Information Age. The technologies and services of the Information Age
make it possible for the global economy and attached policies to connect the entire world and
attempt to make it a uniform political and economic area. This functional globalisation has
not come to an end yet, nonetheless, we can assert with conviction that the Information Age is
the newest type of globalisation, or to put it differently, the Information Age is the
simultaneous globalisation and localisation.
Lately, we have heard much about new economy, the central element of the glocal age.
The concept was imported from the US to Europe; although not fully, yet at intervals it
corresponds to knowledge-based economy. It is the essence of economy that has changed:
from the economy of industrial age we crossed the threshold to the economy of the
information age. To quote Nicholas Negroponte: ”As business activity globalises and the
internet spreads around the world, so are we witnessing the evolution of a single, uniform
digital workplace. From the point of view of storing and manipulating bites, the significance
of geopolitical borders all but have completely disappeared…”4Therefore, we are one step
away from the universal digital world, the economically coherent universe of existence. This
model, however, only takes mass production into consideration: not only shoes or tertiary
4
Nicholas Negroponte (2002): Digitalis létezés (The Unfinished Revolution) Typotext, Budapest. p.179.
18

19. degrees are currently mass produced, but information and the mediatized reality is also for the
consumption of the masses.
This glocal age is necessarily moving toward a new social system, too. Earlier on
sociology used to report mainly on the structures, classes, strata and subgroups of society as if
these elements were to constitute the knowledge of the entire society. These elements,
nonetheless, are only the structural features of society, and merely by taking these elements
nobody is able to understand in its entirety what society really means. Western European and
American authors wrote a number of books on social theory in the last couple of years.5
Although at present we might know perhaps more about society as a whole, the scientific
explanations and standardisation of different sociological trends still needs to be developed.6
There is no complex, unified social theory in Europe, even though we use such notions as
communication society, linguistic society, information society, knowledge-based group
relations, dynamics, and virtual social phenomenon systems. Regardless of the philosophical
viewpoint, the picture of the entire social theory will simply not aggregate.7 In the meantime,
however, the mindset of industrial society has been emptied of meaning. Whilst information
society creates another (virtual) society, we have all but lost our sense of direction; although
we might add that luckily, we have also left the illusions of society and community behind.
For some it might come as a surprise that some scientists of information society
already predict the end of information society. Nicholas Negroponte holds following opinion
on the matter: ”We have wasted too many words and too much time by stressing the
significance of the transition from the industrial age to the post-industrial or information age.
In the meanwhile noone noticed that the age of information has come to a close and we have
stepped into the age of post-information”.8 We can definitely agree with this statement. Right
from the start, before the society of information age could have fully developed, it became
apparent that it needs to be reconsidered and stepped over. The surviving industrial age shall
be blamed for its failure, too.
The turn of the millenium unmasked the industrial age for good; its new version is
called the Information Age. The boundary, however, is sharp between the two: something
different is going to soon commence.
1.6. The age of new technologies and artificial intelligence
Before we can start discussing the new world models and their chances thereof, it is
important to note that the industrial age was disrupted most spectacularly by the expansion of
new technology. In the last few decades the industrial technology produced numerous
technological innovations.
5
As far as we are concerned, we do not believe that the issue can be solved by the concept of net society as it is
used by Manuel Castells frequently: ’These trends are equal to the triumph of the individual, yet it is not clear
how much load they put on society. However, we should take into consideration that the individuals supported
by the new technical opportunities are really able to reconstruct the social interaction patterns and they create a
new form of society, the net society.’ (p.139.)
6
Imre Kovács ed.. (2006): Társadalmi metszetek (Social sections) Napvilág Kiadó
7
There are good foreign and Hungarian examples. Frank L. Szemjon (2005) The Intellectual Basis of Society
(Kairosz); In Hungary Elemér Szádeczky-Kardoss could have become a significiant turning point with his book:
Elemér Szádeczky-Kardoss (1989) Universal Connection of Phenomena. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.
8
Nicholas Negroponte: idem p. 129.
19

20. Most of the Hungarian intellectual elite has had an anti-technological bias for a long
time; new technological results were keenly interpreted as an inhuman process. In Hungary
theory of technology is not even always taught at polytechnic universities, even though we
cannot correctly interpret the history of the last twenty years, the regime change and the
following 10 to 12 years without an understanding of the numerous changes in economy,
society, consciousness and human dimension that were all forced upon us by technological
changes. Two global powers such Japan and Germany, regularly issue technological forecasts
for the next twenty years.9 These elaborate publications of several thousands topics forecast
the changes in the fields of science, research and technology for the next two decades. Most
of their predictions held so far proved to be correct.
These forecasts are very serious and well founded. It is therefore clearly predicted that
the technology of the next twenty years will have no resemblence of the technology of
yesteryears, nor that of today. Already within a decade, the personal computers and digital
cameras currently in use are going to become the size of a pen or watch, so the ones that we
use now will be out-of-date. More importantly, as a result of human-centred computing the
computer is going to become an intelligent assistant.10 At this stage we have not even
mentioned the expected results of nanotechnology. We may choose to fear the coming super
revolutions of technology, yet we can have a different attitude towards technological
change11. Being aware of the immenent changes means that we can get prepared for them, and
we should try to capitalise on new technologies. We presuppose that in this field enormous
breakthroughs are to be expected.
It is in this sense of the word that we claim that artificial intelligence is going to play a
key role not only in the the modernisation of the state but also in education and civilisation.
We wonder whether even one teacher or instructor has any idea how s/he would put artificial
intelligence at work at their facilities and institutions.
All in all, new technology is responsible for providing a helping hand so that
information society should not sink into the mud of the industrial society. Yet there is another
subtantial matter that the information society shall have to answer: Is knowledge brought by
new technologies used in an adequate manner?
1.7. Age of new knowledge and critical approaches to democracy
Contrary to the opinion expressed in other publications, we claim that the most
important new feature of (let us momentarily forget about the maturity of) the new age is new
knowledge created rather than new technology, or new economy, or a new type of society we
are going to live in. This holds true even though at best we are only at the threshold of the age
of knowledge. It is a new phenomenon that the total knowledge of mankind doubles every 1.5
to 2.5 years; meanwhile, it is often the case that the knowledge of past decades essentially
replaces the knowledge of the last 2000 years.
9
Zoltán Pálmai (2002): On Technological Trends. (e-World, 2002/Special Issue); TEP, Technological
Forecasting Programme (www.om.hu )
10
Michael L. Dertouzos (2002): Félkész forradalom: útban a megszelidített számítógépek felé (Semi-finished
Revolution. En route to Domesticated Computers) Typotext, Budapest, p.48.
11
It is not suprising that many are already imagining circuits built in the brain or chip installed in the brain, since
these technological developments are almost ready. Michael L. Dertouzos (2002) p.49.
20

21. The grouping and the standardisation of knowledge may be the subject-matter of a
whole new investigation.12 In the age of knowledge society it seems reasonable to interpret
old-new knowledge according to their functional and substantial roles, just as it is interpreted
in the case of globalisation, for that matter. The summary of functional roles records the
manner knowledge becomes social capital and the speed with which it spreads around in the
new glocal world. This is why we distinguish among global, continental (in our case:
European), national and local knowledge. There is a relatively large amount of tresspass
among knowledge types. This is accounted by the fact that the global world has entered into a
multicultural age; yet, all the same, in the long run a significant amount of discrepancy is
going to continue to exist between the cultures of human civilisation, whether in the domain
of knowledge, religion or value systems.
New types of knowledge first and foremost are grouped substantially. We attach more
importance to the real values and contents of knowledge than to any social practice;
knowledge that is independent from time and space, found in it most pure forms, independent
of the understanding and applications of a period. That is why we can distinguish knowledge
from reality/non-reality running infinitely in every direction; we thus have knowledge, for
instance, about God, materials, space and time, society, mankind or, for that matter, our
knowledge of the methodology of thinking. Coming from this perspective it does not matter
whether the particular piece of knowledge was created by religion, art or science.
Another way of grouping substantial knowledge is to arrange it according to the
content and carrier of knowledge. The dominant aspect of this logic is the collective
evaluation of formal and contentual characteristics of knowledge. That type of knowledge
belongs to the formatted publicly shared knowledge, which manifest itself in most languages
both linguistically and conceptually and which almost always has a uniform meaning. This
kind of knowledge is on the other hand widely used in human civilisations, and the wide
variety of such knowledge forms the the basic condition of the existance for human culture.
This is the commonly shared knowledge of humankind, which of course linguistically
translates into a large amount of variations. If this formatted commonly shared knowledge
suddenly vanished or ceased to exit, the humanly constructed world and humankind as such
would be doomed. The commonly shared knowledge constitutes the elementary, cardinal
condition of life on Earth.
It is a recent recognition that no current valid democracy theory exists. There ara
numerous different kinds of reasons that account for this recognition:
1. The principle of deformed representative democracy: a valid democracy theory does
not exist because we do not live in the classic democracy of Ancient Greeks. Present-day
democracy is far from being adequate especially so because its performance is functionally
weak;
2. The principle of non-democracy in the robe of democracy: the model that has
evolved in the last decades represents such a type of global representative democracy model,
which exceeds the mature principles of representative democracy;
3. The principle of facade democracy: for the time being it is comprehensible only for
a handful of people that the practice of democracy, which is deeply embedded in the social,
12
Alfred J. Ayer (1956): The Problem of Knowledge, Penguin Books
21

22. intellectual and cultural processes and has been defined for instance by Alexis Tocqueville13is
often but a facade democracy;
4. The paradox principle of democracy: various interest groups hold onto power by
subtly shorting out the principles of democracy while exploiting and using the institutional
system of democracy to its fullest;
5. The principle of democratic deficit leads to weakening of action: the global,
continental and national operability is seriously weakened and its legitimacy thereof
drastically questioned due to the new concentration of the dominant interest groups;
6. The principle of exporting ambiguous democracy: the world of developed
democracies export an ambiguous, limited type of democracy to the lesser developed or
undeveloped world;
7. The principle of democracy protection without reflection: many experts and
knowledge groups rightly protect the established principles and practices of democracy while
they do not or very reluctantly accept that the Euroatlantic democracy model needs reform;
8. The principle of lack of democracy awareness: in developed countries self-criticism
and critical thinking in general is superficially developed and therefore there is no proper
oversight of processes which leads to limited or non-existing democracy awareness;
9. The principle of lack of future perspective in democracies: in developed or
moderately developed countries there is no future perspective in people towards democracy
and therefore people have no idea about what is there to come;
10. The principle of democratic minimum that has not been lost: even so most states
attempt or are forced to comply with minimum standards of democracy at all levels, or at least
to keep up the appearance of it;
11. Unfinished arguments: We could list numerous other causes to account for the lack
of new theories.
The problem can also be approached from the angle what is happening right now in
the democracies of the world and in their social realms?
• Reality belongs to a network or system of realities. It is self-evident that paralelly
more realities exist than the one the actual political democracy is based upon;
• The central stage of democracy cannot be limited to the (nation-state)
political/state level; the requirement today is to build an outstretched, multi-level democracy;
• The role of virtual reality has increased in the real orientations and decisions of
democracies. Meanwhile, the issue of democracy in the age of virtual reality has not yet been
raised;
• In order to hold onto power for a shorter or longer period of time, the policial
elits are willing to apply a range of anti-democratic tools and technics, which are contrary to
the ideals of democracy, justice and expedience;
• Democracy once again is not only the public and/or concealed game of the
representatives of dominant power groups, but also terrain where civil and social groups and
organizations who were left out from the political elit fight for power;
• The principles/practices of democracy should not avoid managing the fight
between groups who hold institutionalised power and others who lack such kind of power;
• Democracy does not only consist of rational institutions and set of policies, but a
set or a system of comprehensive knowledge, mentality and consciousness, which goes
against the uniformity of institutions and pocesses to a large extent;
13
Alexis de Tocqueville (1993) Az amerikai demokrácia (The American Democracy), Európa Könyvkiadó,
Budapest.
22

23. • Interest-based policy/democracy is corroded and often ignored by the information
age and age of knowledge just about to commence and its intrinsical change of paradigm;
• Albeit participatory democracy is a social requirement, even civil society actors
are insufficiently prepared for direct, personal participation.
We could go on listing and interpreting the new phenomena for a considerable amount of
time. It is hard to deny, however, that even after the turn of the millenium human civilisation
and culture has remained a military, political, economic power system operated by centralised
states that are controlled by individuals and society to a limited extent. This is the main reason
why global risk society exists. We are simultaneously at a verge of a universal-local
bancruptcy and the dawn of universal-local new alternatives and hopes that have little in
common with old paradigms. The question remains: for how long can this be maintained?
1.8. Information society as the next stage of glocalization
If the information age and within it the model of information, post-information or
knowledge-led society is the latest stage of globalisation or rather the latest development of
glocalisation, then it is evident that the content and concept of the information age is one of
the central categories of the information age. The extended name of the new concept is
sustainable, innovative information society.
It has not been decided yet wheter the political, economic, social or cultural concepts
of a specific period are in themselves useful while giving a comprehensive interpretation of a
certain period. Nevertheless, for the content of information age we find primarily those
categories useful that interpret social processes rather than economic and cultural concepts.
This is why we distinguish between global, continental (that is: European), national and local
knowledge(s). In this sense information society is a general concept, which can be deduced
from the category of information age, and which serves as a basis for other categories such as
the e-economy, e-state to be later discussed.
The concept of information society can be equally determined on the basis of
information technology, economy, politics or power, society, ecology or for instance
information theory. If we claimed above that information society is a generative concept, then
in this case none of the approaches that offer partial solutions are useful as a starting point. To
put it the other way around, we have to come up with an interactive category which
summarises and arranges every approach into one system.
The starting point of the first generative approach is that of the information age as
world model, which is a concept that stands above information society. In this case it might
suffice to state that information society designates the social paradigm change of the
information age. Thus it includes the interpretation of global society generated by the new
world structure and with the help of which the concept of new global society that stands
above local and national societies can be interpreted. If this generative approach is a valid
one, then the information society is primarily a global and local, information-based social
paradigm change.
The second valid approach could be to characterise information society with concepts
that name capital goods. This category presents us with some difficulties because we must
give priority to intellectual capital, or to put it differently, knowledge capital and thus the
23

24. analysis becomes a twofold process. One of the processes details the ways knowledge capital
has become a central actor contrary to other, more traditional types of capital such as the
economic and/or financial capital; it can be obviously performed only on the condition that
we consider that knowledge capital has become equal to the other forms of capital and has an
actual exchange value in the financial market-centered new capitalism. The interpretation of
the second process focuses on the contents of intellectual capital and the extent it is applicable
and the ways it becomes personal and social capital. If we hold this logic true, then
information society is nothing but the transformation of knowledge capital into personal and
social capital.
The third concept, which we could hold true is based on information theory. It focuses
on the first element of the complex concept of information theory and it attempts to clarify the
differences between data, information, idea, knowledge and decision. Consequently, it
subscribes to the widely shared view that information society is no more or nor less than the
production, transmission, marketing and exchange of information. This approach, however,
does not distinguish between information, ideas and knowledge therefore it interpretes the age
only at the lowest level, that is: the level of information and data. Moreover, it is this
approach that attempts to define the information age unequivocally as a new technological age
and so the change in the digital, info-communicational network and the system of services and
materials is considered the most important feature of this new state of the world. In our
opinion, however, although their content is accurate and justifiable, the two interpretational
attempts do not cover the full content of information society.
While interpreting information theory and information industry, basic concepts are
essential to define. Data: consciousness-linguistic configuration, carrying the meaning of a
cognition unit; Information: determines the relation between two data items, thus it is an idea
(a message, news, a piece of information about reality); cognition: connected, systematised,
construed piece of information; knowledge: interpreted and integrated system of cognition, a
comprehensive vision on reality and all its dimensions (which simultaneously make up a new
vision of reality); decision: a knowledge system used to alter reality and its application and
change it into social and personal capital for the sake of knowledge.
The unavoidable argument against the logical path just descibed is the following: in
every age information and knowledge are of a significant value and so it is insufficient to
claim that the information age equals the age of information. This is a justifiable counter-
argument. It is the characteristic of this age is that information can be converted into analogue
and digital signs with the help of new technologies. Sign: information transmitted by human
made means. So it is the speciality of information society that both theoretically and
practically indefinite amount of information can be produced and transmitted as signs. Here
comes the turning point which marks this period: the information age this way and by this
means produces information on a never seen before scale and so information trade might
become the main sector of economy in the future. By the same token the large amount of
information/knowledge available revolutionalises so much society as the individual.
The third approach leads us to the concept that information society is the society of
signs transmitted by human made means, and therefore it is potentially merely a cognition
society. It is the realisation of information society at a higher level, while knowledge society
is already the society of interpreted systems of cognition, which potentially does not transmit
information signs, but knowledge signs. Only in this way it has the potential to change the
lives of individuals and societies.
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25. The fourth interpretation clearly distinguishes between between information and
knowledge society from a historical and contentual point of view.
1.9. The history of the three basic categories and their submodels
With the help of the newly clarified concepts we have come to the point where we can
interprete the global-universal models of (recent) past, present and future in a more accurate
fashion. If we take into account the aspects of analysis mentioned above, we are able to
formulate the definition of an integrated information society, which can stand firm both in the
short and long run. The main point thereof is that after the turn of millenium we are
increasingly thinking in terms of sustainable and innovative information society in Europe.
The details only show the spectecular difference between societies led by information
or knowledge although – pay attention! - this difference does not include the basic changes in
the operation of these societies.
The basic, interdiscipliniary concepts may be used as an entry for governmental and
social plans and discourses. First of all let us take a closer look at the concept of the
information society.
Information society:
Information society is the symbolic name of an era in which the economy, society and
the culture is predominantly based on the production, exchange and marketing of information;
that, however, in itself is not sufficient for the information society to come into existence. The
great novelty of the age of information society is that the information, whether analogue or
digital, can be produced and utilesed as signs and so we could with good reason call
information society sign society, too. This is why information society simultanuously means
large amount of information or digital content, new information communication technology,
new information-driven economy and new information-based society. The global and local
society and its structure is fundamentally changing due to the joint and wide application of
new technology, the spread of new economy and the trade in new types and large amount of
information. Information-based economy and the information system organizes social groups
into a system all around the world, and by such means different and new junctions are created
in the new, dynamic global system. All the same, information-based economy and the
information system rejects those social segments, states and regions that are less succesful in
producing and trading information. A basic condition of a successful information society and
economy is the advanced state of the social receptive agent and the social embededness of a
developed information economy and infrastructure. Information society and economy comes
into existence only on the condition that the majority of society has access to new information
and communication technologies, and possesses the necessary knowledge and skills needed to
use these means. Information society as actual state is attractive and has a dynamic impact
only if it is on the one hand sustainable and the other hand innovative.
Knowledge society:
Knowledge society produces unequivocally new types of economic, social and
knowledge markets all around the world. Moreover, it also creates economic and social
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26. structures that are based on networks. Following the information communication revolutions
in creating new technologies, human civilisation has become a globally standardised
functional system at the beginning of the third millenium, which in itself constitutes a new
stage of social development.
In this era the structure and operation of society is determined by the movement and
distribution of knowledge as well as its processing and correct application. Knowledge society
is stratified based on the ways this knowledge has been acquired; knowledge that is limitless
and potentially equally open to everyone creates equal opportunities. On the contrary,
differences in opportunities are created along lines of possessing knowledge or lacking
knowledge. As a norm knowledge is a new social quality: knowledge society is organized
efficiently, filling the individual and community with content and quality. It is a new social
system in which innovative learning turns information into knowledge, knowledge into
action, or at least it opens up an opportunity to do so. This is why the future prospect of
information society is the model of knowledge society, which is a potential new quality: it is
not information, but knowledge-based, a network, it is the name of a type of society that
tempers the glocal digital gap. Knowledge society brings positive changes not only in the
external factors such as economy and society, but also in the consciuousness and awareness
of individuals and communities.
Knowledge-based economy:
It is the name of a new economic model, which simultaneously fulfills and changes the
industrial – post-industrial and financial economy. In the knowledge-based economy the most
important element of economic growth and productivity is knowledge, which is embodied
primarily in the intellectual capital of technology and humans alike. The expression
’knowledge-based society’ was born from the acknowledgement and recognition of the effect
of knowledge and technology exercised on economic growth. The production processes of
knowledge society are based on the utility and distribution of information and knowledge.
Knowledge-based economy is invariably a market economy and the most important
coordinational factor is the knowledge market. In the knowledge-based economy growth in
welfare, efficiency and employment is determined by knowledge intensity and the dynamic
development of high technology. The first step in the changes initiated by the post-industrial
economic model: modern economy, stepping out of its own medium, makes non-economic
subsystems such as education, healthcare, society, etc. part of the economic subsystem. The
second step of the change: knowledge producing, stepping out of its own medium, occupies
the expanded economy, which is currenlty led by the knowledge market. There is no
knowledge-based economy without knowledge-based society. This holds true also vice versa.
Moreover, in the information age knowledge production, knowledge-based economy and
knowledge society are the driving force behind one another.
The history of the concept
A new opportunity of defining information society comes from no other source than
historical modelling or by analysing the development of historical models. Some elements
have already been mentioned. If we describe the last two to three thousand years of human
development with the help of concepts such as feudalism, industrial age (and its sidetrack:
Socialism) and information age, then we can draw a few important conclusions from history.
First of all, information age is as big and important period in human history as feudalism was;
secondly, the replacement of industrial age by information age is approximately as big a
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27. change in terms of world models as, when at the end of the Middle Ages the first formations
of industrial age replaced feudalism; the third consideration being that in this case we have to
give a broader definition of information age than any of its internal phases, such as
information society.
Dominant elements of the Historical-social submodels
1960s-1980s: decades of the information (technological) society
1980s-1990s: decades of the information economy (new economy)
2000 - 2010s: decades of the information society
2010 - 2020s: decades of knowledge led society
Table 3. Historical submodels of the information age (Csaba Varga)
According to this logic, the internal phases and stages of development of the near
future are already visible. The information age started out as a technological change in the
third quarter of the twentieth century. As far as we are concerned, we prefer to call this era
information society, although we must add that it was in the 1960s and 1970s that the dreams,
utopia and future prospects of the information age were drafted. It was a time when
technological changes were enthusiastically greeted. The next developmental phase
commenced sometimes in the 1980s and 1990s: at this stage the information age saw itself
primarily as new economy and it was in this way that the money-centred global economy of
new capitalism tried to aggregate a much larger than average profit. The development of
information age as society became possible only in the mid-1990s and even nowadays it only
takes place fragmentarily.
It was only in the second part of the 1990s that the question whether the information
age had primarily changed into a knowledge-based age became part of the agenda and its
veritable efficiency could be measured by understanding to what extent new knowledge, new
science and new ways of thinking aggregated by human civilisation were taken over and used
in the information age. (This is when the concept of e-content was introduced in the ideology
of information society. This concept is partally narrower and partially broader than knowledge
industry, which serves to name and develope content industry). We can talk about continental
and state ambitions only after the turn of the millenium, which grasp and interprete
information age as a new social model or social change in standards. It will take a
considerable amount of time until information societies that follow or exist along each other
are going to compile an integrated, information age model, which in turn is probably going to
lead to knowledge age.
From the reviewed stages and arguments we can conclude that one can distinguish
between at least two large models within the information age: the age of information society
and/or knowledge society. The information age and the knowledge age. The two ages cannot
be sharply separated from one another; they exist side by side. It is only in the optimal
scenario that information society is followed by the model of knowledge society. A new
world model is generally born on ruins two-three hundred years old. The knowledge-based
world is on the one hand part and parcel of the information age; on the other hand, if history
permits it is going to prepare the real model change. The new era can either be called
knowledge age, although that still does not mean that history comes to an end because the
knowledge-based world model can be possibly followed by a newer universal phase: the era
of the consciousness society.
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28. Presently we cannot go into detail about the coherent yet altogether different set of
problems of the global and local world, or to use a new concept how and to what extent the
integrated and complex crisis situations slow down the unfolding knowledge-based economy
and society models. Nowadays the disadvantage of a social (and knowledge) strata or group is
multipled because on the other hand the economic-financial, regional-local, social, ecological,
cognitive-knowledge or media advantages are also integrated and act together.
We would like to put forward a few more arguments to the sceptics, the disillusioned
ones, those who eagerly imagine a negative scenario. The present-day old-age glocal
aggreations of negative states may expand at least fivefold the social and moral gaps of the
age. A general social conflict can break out between (1) the technologically poor and wealthy,
(2) information poor and information rich, (3) knowledge poor and rich, (4) awareness rich
and poor and (5) the increasingly different experience of God between the rich and poor. It
was Europe that recognised it for the first time the converting power of information in social
structure and it hastily has generated a program to combat this continental danger. However,
neither the designers nor the analysts of the situation understood it adquately that this is not
only a conflict between the technologically reach and poor. The issue is not limited to access
to technology, which in some European countries, regions and social groups is less than in
other ones. This is why we should not exclusively focus on the the development of the
hardware-software capacity or knowledge-centered services.
A recent development: for some reason the development order is not good. So far we
could always come up with a reason why the correct order should be to give computers to
people first, then connect them to the internet, then offer them new digital services, which
altogether somehow, in our minds at least, would automatically enforce the intellectual and
mental changes necessary. (It is altogether another question that in Hungary where
theoretically speaking this logic has been followed even the ICT-sector did not receive the
necessary economic-social and state budget). However, the old logic is all of a sudden no
longer valid and a new order is required. One of the dominant causes for this is that, as we
have already demonstrated it, the new global world is dually attached: it has a glocal nature.
Moreover, it is definitely culture-dependant and when several dominant matters are in
conflict, it becomes obvious that cultural dependence is stronger. It is only of local interest
that the success of the new development and implementation order interferes with the old-
fashioned government structure of member states. Moreover, within governments it is
invariably the actions with economic-financial portfolios that are in decision-making
positions. Thus we should not pay attention exclusively to the fact that the universal-global
directions have a huge impact on the chances of small states, in both a negative and positive
sense, but we should also focus on the social-cultural identities, intellectual and mental
resources of small states, small regions, small groups that have the potential of becoming
pulling factors and indicators.
In the information age the future of Hungary should be interpreted in the global future
perspective while at the national and local levels the parallel economy, social, intellectual and
mental developments could also bring about success.
1.10. A new understanding of knowledge society at the end of the
information age
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