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This work is concerned with distributed decentralized network structures that are characterized by cooperative interaction among their parts (nodes). Although such decentralized cooperative structures exist in various kinds of systems, emphasis is placed on their role in human society. Network structures are of considerable potential importance in terms of social/political technology: they enable us to establish efficient creative research laboratories, to modernize the educational system, and to establish horizontal interfirm alliances and intrafirm networks. Of special interest in terms of such organizational projects are organizational patterns (network paradigms) that work in various biological systems and can be efficiently applied to set up network structures in various spheres of human society.

Decentralized distributed network structures have much social and, more specifically, economic and political potential. Network structures in business are characterized by non-hierarchical cooperative interaction among their nodes (firms, their subdivisions, or individual businesspeople) that are based upon trust, reciprocity, and social capital. Networks can be subdivided into interorganizational (dynamic or stable), intraorganizational (internal), and small-sized networks; the latter subtype is typified by worker cooperatives. Many networks are characterized by permeable internal and external boundaries and the management without control principle; they creatively use the informal relationships that exist among their members. Regardless of the motivations of the developers of business networks, many networks promote some of the basic principles of a quasi-socialist economy, and this is particularly evident in co-ops. Drawing on the social formation change theory put forward by Karl Marx, it is emphasized that the development of network structures in society ultimately results in the emergence of a new social formation that is referred to as the network (reticular) formation in this work.

Decentralized network structures can be used for carrying out important political projects, including, e.g., the development of non-governmental organizations that form a part of civil society and perform ideological and consulting functions. The successful development of network structures in society and harmonious interactivity between different types of social/political structures are to be promoted by creatively combining (1) the top-down strategy that is feasible provided that network structures enjoy political rights (preferably articulated in the country’s Constitution) and that special mediator organizations are established to regulate network-hierarchy-market interaction and (2) the bottom-up strategy based upon setting up exemplary network structures, demonstrating their potential usefulness in various social/political spheres, and persuading socially active people into joining such networks. The emergent network society implements the principles of network meritocracy in the political sphere because it enables meritorious scholars, scientists, educators, and experts in socially/politically relevant fields of science to exert a strong political influence in present-day society.