Economic Systems, Modes of Production, and Coordination

This chapter is about social order and crisis from an economic viewpoint. An endogenous theory of social crisis warrants an understanding of the inner dynamic of social order. Two broad approaches have been distinguished in explaining this dynamic: economic and institutional. The Marxian concept of ‘modes of production’ provides an economic explanation of social crisis based on productive forces. In this approach, institutional factors play a secondary role. By contrast, in an institutionalist perspective, ‘modes of coordination’ as mediators between fundamental institutions (political regime and form of property) and economic performance are the key to explain both social order and social crisis. A social crisis arises when coordination mechanisms fail to ensure their mediating role. In this chapter, three well-known modes of coordination, namely market, authoritative, and cooperative coordination will be introduced based on social forms of integration, appropriation, and corrective mechanisms. An original mode of coordination that I coin ‘destructive coordination’ will be discussed and added to this list.