The concept of system appears throughout the social and natural sciences and has generated a body of literature of its own (general systems theory). A system is any pattern of relationships between elements, and is regarded as having emergent properties on its own over and above the properties of its elements.
the people in a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships; "the social organization of England and America is very different"; "sociologists have studied the changing structure of the family"
the people in a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships