Social and system integration: Habermas' view.

This article explores the notions of system and social integration in Habermas' theory of communicative action. It points out that Habermas links the above concepts both with the action/system distinction as developed by Lockwood and with a distinction between two modes of action co-ordination: one based on communicative rationality and the other on coercion. The conflation of the two distinctions and Habermas' attempt to link both of them to Parsons' AGIL scheme create serious problems which affect his overall theoretical project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]