Three forms of social coordination

Modernization brings with it a rapid process of differentiation which increases the dynamism of society but also aggravates the phenomena of disintegration and fragmentation. These opposing sides of the process give rise to uncertainty and a sense of defencelessness. The protective aura of the State fades away, while at the same time the very notion of society becomes empty and unsubstantial. There is a general feeling of uneasiness, in which all evils tend to be blamed on "bad government" and the imperfections of social life are seen as the direct consequence of political ineptitude. However, the natural concern to tackle the (very obvious); problems of governance may prevent us from seeing the real underlying conditions. We must ask ourselves: what is the structural context in which the question of the democratic governance of Latin American society is currently posed? Perhaps we should take one step back and ask ourselves how society ensures a certain degree of basic coordination among the different processes and actors (both individual and collective); that make it up. Put in this way, the question implies a very far-reaching reconstruction of all our theories. Basically, it is a question of forming a whole new conception of social coordination under the new conditions, but before we can do this it is necessary to place the problem of social coordination within the present context. The following notes are merely designed to sketch out a broad picture in which coordination is seen as a crucial problem in the current reorganization of Latin American societies.