The UK wants to leave the regional cooperation of the EU. Scotland responds by wanting to leave the "regional cooperation" inside of the UK. A similar effect, repeating the next level of scale. That is the essence of fractals.
20 July 2016
World politics - fractal characteristics
By: Karsten Riise
World politics has fractal characteristics. The same pattern is repeated on different scales.
A coastline is an object in nature with fractal characteristics. A typical rugged coast line will look the same kind of pattern (seen from above) over a wide range of different scales.
Traditionally, politics were divided into a micro-level of“politics of the state” with one set of rules and characteristics – and a macro-level“international relations”where states were viewed as identical units (billiard-ball theory) but different size as the building block of international politics. Typically, the intermediate level consisting of the political order of regions is jumped (no place for “regions” as international building blocks) and going directly from the intra-state level to the international level. Very simplistic.
On the contrary to traditional theory, the multiplex political order exhibits similar characteristics on a variety of scales.
Let me exemplify this:
On a global scale, the Multiplex world order consists of a an interaction of political units much more different in scale than hitherto theorized – going from conglomeration of state-actor units (“regions”) to single states, even some sub-states and cities with global power and down to non-state actors and super-influential individuals. So the sub-levels mix up into the supra-level of the global. This is a totally different, and most more complex, picture than traditional international theory a-lá Kenneth Waltz.
On a more “detailed” regional scale, the Multiplex regional order looks nearly exact the same as the global multiplex world order: A totality of different unlike units, from sub-regions of states, regions and cities within state playing a role on state level. Units of the “global” scale even mix directly down into the “regional” scale – making it very difficult or near impossible to keep those two level “global” and “regional” truly apart.’
The new EU will be truly Multiplex – even perhaps with a state UK of which some substate actors (England) will be outside, but other parts (Scotland) may be inside. And with the Parliament in Westminster in a truly new role which has in that form never has existed before in history. Denmark already has to manage a “realm’s commonwealth” where Greenland has its own government inside Denmark, but outside the EU, but the British experience will be a much more drastic turn.
Now going down to the “state” level – again we see the same picture as above: Sub-subentities, i.e. entities below the substate entities, mix into the multiplex state order, and again in very different non-symmetrical ways. Take the United Kingdom. Since 1700 the United Kingdom was a unitary state with only on acknowledge nationality: “British”. But since 1998, both Scotland, Northern Ireland (even with a say through an accord with another state unit, the Republic of Ireland) and Wales have through devolution got their own parliaments, even with different asymmetrical levels of competence, whereas England has no such “English Parliament”. Being British is no longer unitary – the Scotch have their own nationality, and the North Irish have special rights and duties and a totally different (very special) rule of government. We see that the Multiplex“state-level”is even interfered legally by an international level, through the Good Friday Accord of Northern Ireland in 1998, which entitles the Republic of Ireland to have a say in intra-state matters of the UK in Northern Ireland.
Regions within regions within regions....
The EU is a region... and now regions of countries are forming within the region of EU:
http://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/brexit-pushes-eu-towards-multiple-unions/
Within the above regions within the region of EU... other regions form. Also this way, the new Multiplex world exhibits fractal patterns. Fractal patterns look similar across different scales of detail.
Precedence for fractal structures within social sciences
Stock-exchange prices are fractal.
If you take a historic chart of the development in the US-dollar to Canadian-dollar exchange rate (or take the price of oil, IBM shares, whatever) - if you take away the numbers of scale of amount and time, and just look at the graph as a pattern, you cannot say if that graphic pattern you see is by month, by week, by day, by hour or by minute. The same type of fractured pattern on all levels of scale.
The political world has the same fractal characteristics.
Karsten Riise
Partner & Editor
CHANGE NEWS &
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
