Economic Systems Theory

The first report by Club of Rome, The limits to growth (D.H. Meadows et al.), appeared in 1972 and contributed considerably to the opening of the eyes of the world to the seriousness of the present-day’s environmental problem. It convinced many scientists of the significance of “systems thinking”, in both quantitative and qualitative terms, for solving problems in the field of interactions between economy and natural environment. This way of thinking was mainly mechanistic, which put a stamp on its conclusions. Jay Forrester (1971) supplied the basic model. His son, Nathan Forrester (1973), and D.L. Meadows et al. (1974) made it clear that such models can have an organic trait, giving attention to “life cycle” aspects. The Club of Rome’s second report had a clear organistic dimension (Mesarovic and Pestel, 1974).