By Peter F.

Drucker
This book
-Attempts to define … that will be realities for years to
come
 Concerns
 Issues
 Controversies
 Focuses on what to do today
 In consideration of tomorrow
 Attempts to set the agenda
 Faulted for
1- Political Realities
2- Government and Political Process
3- Economy, Ecology and Economics
4- The Knowledge Society
-

Political Realities
 The divide
 Organizing political principle
 No more salvation by society
The end of FDR's America

 When the Russian Empire is gone
 Now that arms are counterproductive
 Arms race
 Army No More School of the Nation
 Military Aid and Political Malperformance
 Cutting arms is not enough
- Government and Political Process
 Government
 Not the only power center
 From supreme government to privatization
 What can governments do?
There are functions which only govt. can perform like
i. Govt. Monopoly on defense & arms
ii. Maintain law & order & justice
iii. Govt. can set rules that are equally binding on everybody.
iv. Taxes the power of tax is the power to destroy.
 The limits of the fiscal state
 Society and polity has become pluralist
 Developed non-Communist countries
 Both are now full of power centers
 Pose major challenges to political process & political leadership because
i. It is a political
ii. It is political to the exclusion of everything else.
  New pluralism of society
 New pluralism of the polity.

 The new pluralism challenges us

i. Social responsibility of pluralism institutions (To do their jobs)

ii. Their community responsibility ( social problems)
iii. Their political responsibility ( their own behavior & values)
iv. Individual rights & responsibilities
v. Role & function of Govt. in pluralist society
 The changed demands of political leadership
 Forces politics and politicians to be “dull” i.e. task focused rather than
issue focused
 Public distrust of traditional leaders

 Competent leaders vastly preferable

• Tremendous political tasks ahead
i. There is urgent task of reversing the arms race to
free the world altogether from the increasing
counterproductive burden of arms spending.
ii. There is common interest to save environment from
pollution
iii. There is need to think through the limits &
functions of govt.
iv. In these new tasks the enemy is not somebody else.
The enemy is us.
Economy, Ecology and Economics
 Transnational economy
Everybody talks about the world economy. It is quite different from
what most people, businessmen, economists, politicians talk about.
In transnational economy there are four units that are capable of
effective economic policy.

i. national state
ii. the regions
iii. world economy of money, credit & investment flows
iv. Transnational enterprises as one location both to produce & to
sell goods & services.
 Manufacturing is increasingly becoming uncoupled from labor

 The raw material economy and the industrial economy have

become “uncoupled”
  The economy is becoming less material-intensive
 From international to transnational
 No more superpower (Countries or companies)
 Adversarial trade and reciprocity
 Protecting the transnational economy
Transnational ecology
The final new reality in the world economy is
the emergence of transnational ecology.
 The endangered habitat of the human race
 The crucial environmental needs
Economic development
 The successes
 The Dismal Failures
 The Policies That Worked
 The end of the development promise
- The Knowledge Society

 The post-business (knowledge) society

 Shift to the knowledge society

 Shift to the post-business society

 Management

 Schools of business of management

 Knowledge workers and business

 University diploma

 Two countercultures
 The information-based organization
 Management as social function and liberal art