The logic of a systemic paradigm in economics (On the book by G. B. Kleiner and M. A. Rybachuk “Systemic balance of the economy”)

The key methodological aspect of the monograph under discussion is the principle of consistency. The authors develop the logic of systemic interaction of four types of substances — environment, object, process and project, the unity of which they call a tetrad. That quadruple principle of consistency is applied to various socio-economic systems — from enterprises and their units to the global economy. At the same time, the authors reveal a certain cyclicity in the development of economic systems of any level associated with the alternation of four basic phases, each of which is associated with one of the four basic substances. The monograph also explores the principle of nesting economic systems into each other, characterizing the presence or absence of fractality, self-similarity. Although this self-similarity has a substantial basis, but decision-making is influenced by the inner structure of utility functions of agents at different levels, aggregation of which is an independent and very complex task. Special attention is paid to “dismanagement”, i.e. decision-making based on the use of managerial dysfunctions. The authors advance the “animalistic” direction in the theory of a firm, trying to comprehend theoretically the category of the “soul of a company”.