General Systems Theory is closely connected with the work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, and his book General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications (1968). Bartalanffy used Ilya Prigogine’s Nobel Prize-winning work that showed that the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy in an open system is always growing, and importing energy into a social system can stop the rise of entropy. That allows society to grow in complexity. Bartalanffy also studied the information in thermodynamic systems.

James Grier Miller in his Living Systems (1978) also studied entropy and information in social systems, and in the end come up with seven hierarchical levels and 19 subsystems, which he later expanded to eight levels and 20 subsystems. Two subsystems – the boundary and reproducer – process both „matterenergy“ and information, while the remaining 18 subsystems process either „matterenergy“ or information. Eight hierarchical levels are positioned in such a way that each higher level includes all of the lower ones. These subsystems are: 1) cell, 2) organ, 3) organism, 4) group, 5) organization, 6) community, 7) society, and 8) supranational system. When one subsystem is missing, it can endanger the survival of a larger subsystem, so it has to be replaced.

Books:

Bertalanffy, Ludwig von. General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications (1968);

Miller, James Grier. Living Systems (1978).