A new paradigm in social science does not replace necessarily an old one; various paradigms might exist side-by-side. The main attributes of the system paradigm are as follows. 1. Concern with a system as a whole. 2. Not confined to any partial discipline, but a school of general social science. 3. Focus on institutions. 4. Understanding the historical process which creates human organizations. 5. Special attention to the determinants of preferences. 6. Strong interest in transition from one system to the other. 7. Recognition of system-specific dysfunctions. The paper discusses the explanatory and predictive power of the system paradigm.
