political organization

• Bands and tribes are considered as the simplest political systems. These groups are often perceived without a well-defined system of leadership.
• A band is usually small, formed by several families living together; oftentimes moving from one place to the other to search for food.
• egalitarian, meaning, all families are equal.
• Bands are egalitarian, meaning, all families are equal. There is no class differentiation based on wealth; however, status differences based on gender and age is well-defined.
• Tribes are larger than bands but smaller than chiefdoms or states. They have more complex social structures with defined leaders who hold power over their people.
• Chiefdoms are societies that have centralized government headed by a paramount chief. The paramount chief controls the distribution of resources within the society.
• band has no formal leadership, instead, those who possess exceptional skills and knowledge can be raised to become informal leader.
• As the population of bands increases, the tendency of conflict also increases
• The conflict leads to “band fissioning” or band splitting.
• Some leave the band to form their group (social velocity)
• The band who survives fissioning and social velocity eventually becomes a tribe.
• A tribe is more complex and bigger than a band.
• in tribes, As the population increases, there is a shifting from a basic form of livelihood to a multiple way of living.
• Tribe is organized through pan-tribal associations in the form of councils, tribal leaders, elders, etc. due to the presence of various communities in a tribe.
• Tribes are commonly headed by a village headman who perform leadership roles but has limited political power.
• Most tribes remain egalitarian.
• A chiefdom has a more defined political organization
• n. Chiefdoms have more or less permanent, full time leader with real authority to make key decisions.
• in chiefdom their leaders are referred to as the “chief”
• in chiefdom, Formal leadership exists and power rests solely on the members of a select family.
• chiefdom is composed of a number of communities that is ruled by a permanent paramount chief coming from this elite family. Power is inherited.
• Chiefdom can either be simple chiefdom or complex chiefdom
• Simple chiefdom is characterized by a single village or community rules by a single-family
• A complex chiefdom is composed of several simple chiefdoms ruled by a paramount chief residing in a single paramount center.
• nations are groups of people that shared a common history, language, traditions, customs, habits, and ethnicity.
• state is a political unit consisting of a government that has sovereignty presiding over a group of people and a well-defined territory and has the highest form of political organization.
• The task of organizing a political community requires the existence of leaders.
• In order to be effective, leaders need to possess authority that is considered legitimate by the community
• Authority is observed when an individual has a command to make a person do things. Such act is a response to that person’s perceived power.
• example of authority can be your boss, your superiors, or those who hold high positions in the society
• Authority is more than power. Authority is guaranteed by legitimacy in a formal manner.
• What makes authority binding and worthy of obedience is its legitimacy.
• Legitimacy gives form to authority.
• Legitimacy is a “value whereby something or someone is recognized and accepted as right and proper
• For authority to be binding and stable, it must be legitimate.
• According to the sociologist Max Weber, there is a category as to how authority is legitimated as a belief system. These are traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational.
• Traditional is Legitimized from wellestablished customs, habits, and social structures
• Leadership Style of traditional authority is Historic personality
• Example of traditional authority is Monarchical rule or the rule of elites in a chiefdom
• source of power of charismatic authority is Legitimized from the charisma of the individual