"Let us first focus on what once was called the "natural state." What are the

fundamental problems, from which morality, law and politics could have

originated? Following Parsons, I presume that social interactions occur under

conditions of double contingency. The actors expect of one another that each

can decide both in one way and in the other. As a consequence, every social

order with relatively stable behavioural patterns has to rely on mechanisms for

action coordination: basically on influence and on processes of reaching

understanding. If such coordination is not forthcoming, anomic sequences of

actions arise'.

         Habermas