[Evaluating values: social structures and handling values (author's transl)].

Abstract

Expectations regarding justice and legislation have been lagging behind developments in society. The (enforcement of) the law is no longer a matter of morals but rather of efficiency and is one of (several) means available to the state to make the population do (and omit) what it considers to be necessary because of 'Sachzwang'. In the final (technocratic) stage (Ellul) of the technological phase, the control of social processes is the main objective, implying, among others, making all positions and professions official and making all actions uniform. In his cyclic theory of the law, Ellul describes the appearance of groups having entirely new values as a counter-force. These are sub-cultures which turn away from thinking in terms of economic efficiency, i.e. they refuse to take part in those types of performance on which technocracy is base ('Leistungsverweigerung', Böll). To get to know which part is merely protest and which are germs for the future, the evolutionary phase will have to be considered in addition to the cyclic phase. Of particular importance is the fundamental sociological law (Steiner) which implies that there is a trend in society, which is marked by the fact that institutions are increasingly becoming only acceptable to the extent to which they are conductive to the individual development of members. Whatever the concrete forms of future social structures may be, if they are to maintain themselves, they will have to possess the basic characteristic of individual development without power.