1. Political Organization and Social Control
Chapter 12
Political Organization and Social Control

2. What We Will Learn
What are the different types of political organization?
What are the various theories concerning the origins of the state?
In the absence of kings, presidents, legislatures, and bureaucracies, how is social order maintained in stateless societies?
What are the causes of war?

3. Three Dimensions of Political Organization
Extent to which political institutions are distinct from other aspects of the social structure.
Extent to which authority is concentrated into specific political roles.
Level of political integration (the size of the territorial group that comes under the control of the political structure).

4. Four Types of Political Structures
Band societies
Tribal societies
Chiefdoms
State societies

5. Band Societies Least complex form of political arrangement.
Characterized by small, nomadic populations of food collectors.
Most bands number between 30 and 50 people.

6. Band Societies
Little concept of individual property ownership with a high value on sharing, cooperation, and reciprocity.
Little role specialization and highly egalitarian.
Thought to be the oldest form of political organization.

7. Characteristics of Band Societies
There is a high value placed on “getting along” with one another.
Bands are independent of one another and are not part of a larger political structure.
Political decisions are often embedded in the wider social structure.
Leadership roles in band societies tend to be informal.

8. Tribal Societies Found most often among food producers.
Tend to have populations that are larger, denser, and somewhat more sedentary.
Leadership is informal and not vested in a centralized authority.
Have certain pan-tribal mechanisms that cut across and integrate all of the local segments of the tribe into a larger whole.

9. Chiefdoms
Political authority is likely to reside with a single individual, acting alone or in conjunction with an advisory council.
Integrate a number of local communities in a formal and permanent way.
Made up of local communities that differ from one another in terms of rank and status.
Chiefships are hereditary, and the chief and immediate kin are a social and political elite.

10. State Systems Most formal and complex form of political organization.
Authority of the state rests on two important foundations.
The state holds exclusive right to use force and physical coercion.
The state maintains authority by means of ideology.

11. Voluntaristic Theory of State Formation: Childe
Development of intensive agriculture during the neolithic period created food surpluses.
Food surpluses allowed a segment of the population to engage in new occupations such as weavers, traders, potters, and metalworkers.
This required political integration to mediate between special interest groups and provide an economic superstructure.

12. Hydraulic theory of state formation: Wittfogel
Small-scale irrigation farmers in arid or semiarid areas saw economic advantages in merging their small communities into a larger political entity capable of large-scale irrigation.
Though archaeological evidence indicates that certain states developed before the introduction of large-scale irrigation, centralized political governments appear to be functional for agricultural systems dependent on irrigation.

13. Coercive Theory of State Formation: Carneiro
Suggests that the existence of the state is the direct result of warfare.
Although warfare is the mechanism of state formation, it operates only in areas that have limited agricultural land for expanding populations.

14. The Modern Nation-State
A nation is a group of people who share a common symbolic identity, culture, history, and often, religion.
A state is a particular type of political structure distinct from a band, tribal society, or chiefdom.
The term nation-state refers to a group of people sharing a common cultural background and unified by a political structure that they all consider legitimate.

15. Changing State Systems of Government
According to Freedom House, an organization that tracks political trends throughout the world:
Over the last two decades the world’s population living in “free” societies increased from 36 to 41%.
Those living in “partly free” societies increased from 22 to 24%.
Those living in “not free” societies decreased from 42 to 35%.

16. Variations in Political Aspects of World Cultures

17. Variations in Socioeconomic Aspects of World Cultures

18. Social Control
Every society must ensure that most of the people behave themselves in appropriate ways most of the time.
Social norms are normal, proper, or expected ways of behaving.
Deviance is a violation of social norms.
Sanctions are institutionalized ways of encouraging people to conform to the norms.

19. Social Norms in the U.S.

20. Informal Social Control
Socialization
Public Opinion
Corporate Lineages
Supernatural Belief Systems
Age Organizations

21. Age-Graded Society

22. Formal Social Control Verbal competition Intermediaries
Councils of elders
Oaths
Ordeals
Formal court systems
Warfare

23. Why A Society Will Go to War
It blames another society for its own social problems.
It believes it is threatened.
Wants to further its own ends.
Is defending a moral position.

24. Quick Quiz

25. 1. _______ refers to the way in which power is distributed within a society so as to control peoples' behavior and maintain social order.
Political organization
Social order
Gender stratification
Religion

26. Answer: a
Political organization refers to the way in which power is distributed within a society so as to control peoples' behavior and maintain social order.

27. 2. The least complex form of political arrangement is the ________, characterized by small groups of food collectors.
chiefdom
band
tribe
state

28. Answer: b
The least complex form of political arrangement is the band, characterized by small groups of food collectors.

29. 3. In societies known as ________, political authority is likely to reside with a single individual, acting alone or with an advisory council.
bands
states
chiefdoms
tribes

30. Answer: c
In societies known as chiefdoms, political authority is likely to reside with a single individual, acting alone or with an advisory council.

31. 4. The ________ system of government is the most formal and most complex form of political organization.
band
tribe
state
chiefdom

32. Answer: c
The state system of government is the most formal and most complex form of political organization.

33. 5. All societies have some form of ________, which involves teaching the young what the norms are and that they should not be violated.
normalization
public opinion
socialization
coercion

34. Answer: c
5. All societies have some form of socialization, which involves teaching the young what the norms are and that they should not be violated.