Building Blocks for Society
This chapter describes the elementary structures of society. It draws its findings from the elaboration of the previous comparative literature and more specifically on varieties of capitalism view, discussion of politics and administration, and studies on social capital.
In this report, the primary questions to be answered are: What are the basic parts of the society and how they influence development of societies. First, it describes three parts of society: the economy, polity and civil society, which, combined, form all of society. Advanced market economies may be coordinated, liberal or mixed. This examination of polity emphasises the policy aspect of government; that is, it emphasises public administration. There are several types of bureaucracy in which the most important separation has to do with the integration and separation between civil servants’ and politicians’ careers.
Civil society consists of bridging and bonding social relationships, which form the basis for interaction within communities and between different social circles. The following discussion shows that government capacity is dependent not only upon the nature of its administrative structures, but also upon the nature of the economy and civil society. In conclusion, Nordic countries comprise of functional parts of their societies as well as beneficial interconnections between these parts.
