Metasystem

1. A system that constrains another system logically, said to be in a higher class since it may frame propositions, criteria and rules for the lower system.

2. A cybernetic control system.

3. More generally a system that is presupposed by another, e.g., the international trade system (comprising buying, selling, shipping and delivering) presupposes the international monetary system with its financial instruments (letters of credit, drafts, etc.). Another example is the printed mass media system, which depends on literacy and therefore on the metasystem of education. In a cybernetic model education would be a 'control' on printed media.