What I referred to in our discussion was one of the fundamental laws of Systems Theory, namely the law of requisite variety, which says: "The variety of a control subsystem must be equal or superior to the variety of the controlled system". Variety is a measure of the number of distinct states a system can be in.

Applied to a complex system like a human society, which is fractal (i.e. the level of complexity remains the same at any level of the system), the law of requisite variety means that a small number of persons (for example a government), even highly skilled and informed, cannot master the variety/complexity of the system it has to govern, hence will not be able to tackle a number of situations.

The only case in which the law of requisite variety is respected is when the control system and the controlled system coincide, i.e. when every element of the controlled system is at the same time part of the control system. Democracy is an (imperfect) answer to this question. Further improvements mean empowerment of the systems actors at all levels. Self-organisation is one of the ways.

General System theory, first formulated by Ludwig von Bertalanffy. It started with Cybernetics and evolved  towards the theory of complex systems (or Complexity Theory) and Autopoiesis.

has been developed by many thinkers, such as Gregory Bateson, Herbert Simon, Edgar Morin and Jean-Louis Le Moigne.

Here are Jean-Louis Le Moigne's  Théorie du Système Général (in French) and an Exposition of Jean-Louis Le Moigne's Systemic Theory by a swedish researcher. (in English).

Here is a gift for you, Ventriloquist: a general analytical framework (perspective) for viewing an organization

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet