Locus Theory & the Theory of Economic Systems

Systems Economics Lexicon · Foundations of the Locus Language · Root term

Locus Theory is the comprehensive systems theory of all activities and resources used in an economy, stated in two branches: the Theory of Economic Systems — covered across Chapters 1 through 6 of the 2019 textbook, and confirmed as the dominant, primary logic of the theory — and the Theory of People, covered in Chapter 7, which extends that same theory to people specifically as a secondary branch: individuals as their own Economic System, and laborers as a resource inside someone else’s.

Branch structure: resolved

Both branches remain part of Locus Theory, but they are not co-equal. The Theory of Economic Systems — the Activity Cycle, the six resource categories, and the one-level and multi-level models of a system’s internal structure — is the dominant logic the rest of the theory builds from. The Theory of People applies that same underlying logic to a specific case rather than standing as an independent second pillar. This resolves the framing question that previously sat open on this term: the two-branch structure from the 2019 textbook stands, weighted rather than restructured.

Lineage: Locus Theory draws on general systems theory

An earlier draft of this material described Locus Theory as having reached its conclusions “independently” of general systems theory — a field that predates this work by roughly sixty years. That claim does not hold. Locus Theory draws upon general systems theory; it is not a parallel, independent arrival at the same structure. Stating that lineage plainly is the more defensible position, not a weaker one — the same principle that applies elsewhere in this vocabulary, where disclosing what a term borrows from and what it doesn’t strengthens the parts of the claim that are genuinely original rather than obscuring them behind an overstated novelty claim.

Current standing

With both items resolved, Locus Theory carries a confirmed Grade B: clean comparator and prior-art results, with its lineage now disclosed rather than left as an open question. The independence claim that could have supported a stronger grade doesn’t survive scrutiny, so B is the settled grade going forward, not a placeholder pending further confirmation.

See also: Why Systems Economics Exists · Theory of People: Individuals and Laborers

Part of Foundations of the Locus Language, the first course in the Locus Theory series. For the full term-by-term specification, see the Lexicon.