Or what is required for the system to run?
There was such a joke in the Soviet era. Even though I didn’t see, those who live at that time say that the joke is somewhat real. Once, the US representatives come to the USSR. During the discussions, the US guests were informed that Saturday will be “subbotnik”. Americans were asking what the subbotnik means. It is said that in the days of subbotnik, people are working for free in social works. The US officials were surprised and do not believe that thousands of people can work without payment. Soviet officials are asked to invite them to the subbotnik. Americans come to the work field on Saturday and observe that hundreds of men and women plant a tree.
As they approach the working field further, they see that one of the (wo)man digs the ground and the other fills it. The guests do not understand what is happening, what the people do here. The Soviet representative who accompanies the Americans explains that in fact, there had to be three groups of workers. The first group had to dig the ground, the second one had to place a tree seeding, and the third had to fill the bottom of the tree. Since the second group did not come to the work field, only the first and third group works.
If we see this joke as a system, it seems that 66.6% of the work is done in this context. In fact, not only there is no result in this activity, but even a negative figure emerges if we take into consideration the spent labour.
Another example. A hand of wrist-watch is 0.3-0.7% of the watch (depending on the brand). We know that the watch is a small but result oriented system. Imagine that the clock does not have a hand. 99.7% of the system works perfectly, but in fact, there are no results. So, the system does not achieve its goal - to show time in the case of wrist-watch.
The same logic can be implemented to the social systems we frequently face, such as the education system, the healthcare system, the agriculture, the transportation system, and so on. Before that, let's see what the concept of "system" is. Usually, scholars state that the system is a joint activity of the elements involved in the relationships and mutual interdependence, which is aimed to reach single or multiple objectives. In other words, the collection of the elements, regardless of their designation, can be called a system where the elements are in a relationship, there is interdependence, and a core objective(s).
A question appears: how the educational system, the healthcare system in different countries, regardless of the level of development and their location, does exist but does not work as a system? When it comes to social systems where sometimes have millions of stakeholders, participants, or elements, their analysis, planning, and system-building are very difficult. As it can be seen from the definition given here, the relationship should be assessed and considered, dependence and level of it should be clarified, goals should be defined, and joint activities should be organized. For example, there are universities in the education system, secondary education, kindergartens, research centres, centralized management elements, but problems are not fully resolved. So, then how can we make a system that works… From the examples, it seems that the existence of elements, the work being done is not the result yet, and sometimes quantitative and qualitative results of such systems are expressed in negative figures.
Let's look at the nature we live in. There are thousands of examples of perfectly-working systems in nature. I will describe only one example. There are millions of tiny hairs in the feet of a lizard, which creates a vacuum with the surface for rapidly moving vertical surface. A small mistake, or a non-functioning element, makes this action impossible. This system has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years and continues to improve. The mechanism that improves the systems in nature also exists in society. The economy calls it a competition, biology calls it a struggle for survival. Human-generated systems are constantly evolving, updating, or abolishing. In other words, in order to establish a working education system, millions of people, institutions and communities should be formally interconnected to ensure that the interests of each stakeholder will be fulfilled. In addition, the interests of the system should be maintained.
It does not end there, as the definition of the system highlights, interdependence between the stakeholders needs to be maintained. That is, the power, responsibility, and distribution of tasks among millions of people should be well-organized. Then the goals should be determined. Here, too, millions of people, sub-systems (e.g. universities, colleges, and gardens) need to be convinced. How will the joint activity be organized? In general, is it possible to regulate such complicated interests? Can any of the most perfect artificial intelligence, computer program, mathematical model answer all these questions? Given that a human body is organized in thousands of systems (heart, brain, etc.), it is possible to answer these questions as NO. How can human-based social systems well-organized? Maybe after years, humanity will answer this question more correctly with more advanced tools using much better computing power. But the only mechanism that exists today is COMPETITION. The competitive environment allows the elements to find their place in the society, and to determine an objective for the elements. In other words, competition is a prerequisite for the system's effectiveness.