Political and Leadership Structures

• Humans


  Considered as social animals with a natural tendency to join groups
• Political system


  Establishes power structures to ensure that conflicts are managed
• Political organizations

  • Bands and tribes
  • Chiefdoms
  • Nations and states
• Bands


  Simplest political systems, often perceived as "acephalous" or without a well-defined system of leadership
• Band


  Typically formed by several families living together based on marriage ties, common descendants, friendship affiliations, and members that usually have a common interest or enemy
• Power structure within a band


  Less hierarchical as member families are seen to be equal and there is no class differentiation based on wealth
• Status in a band


  A function of age (elders are accorded respect) or of gender
• Women have higher influence in bands that are considered pedestrian-foragers (gatherers), while men tend to have more leadership roles in bands whose livelihoods depend on hunting or in pastoralist-agricultural bands where food is produced by cultivating the land
• Informal leadership in a band

  Accorded to members who possess certain skills and knowledge such as the gift of memory, hunting or healing skills, or other special ability
• Informal leader in a band

  Does not possess absolute political power, and could not compel others and can only give advice
• Decision making in a band

  Often done by consensus
• Band fissioning


  As bands increase in size, the tendency for conflict increases, which lead to the band splitting along family lines
• Social velocity


  Some leaving the band to form their own
• What usually leads to fissioning and eventual break-up of a band is the presence of social discord that the informal leadership system could no longer contain
• Tribe


  A band that survives fissioning and social velocity, even as it experiences increasing population and a shift from foraging and hunting community to one where there is now a presence of multiple communities engaged in pastoral or horticultural forms of livelihood
• Tribe

  Still considered as an acephalous political system even if it is more complex than a band
• Pantribal associations or "sodalities"


  The manner by which tribes are organized, in the form of councils or tribal elders
• The emergence of more complex ways of organizing a tribe led to the eventual displacement of women leaders
• Village headman in a tribe


  Derives his authority from having a senior position, coupled with an ability to force others to obey him
• Most tribes remain egalitarian, where families and groups are considered politically and economically equal, even those of the headman</b>
• Chiefdom


  A political organization that is more defined, with formal leadership and authority resting solely on the members of a select family
• Social structure in chiefdoms

  Hierarchical, with social classes differentiated according to the level of their power in relation to the permanent ruler
• Simple chiefdom


  Characterized by a central village or community ruled by a single family, with a number of smaller communities surrounding it, each being headed by a subsidiary leader subservient to the central ruler
• Complex chiefdom


  Composed of several simple chiefdoms ruled by a single, paramount chief residing in a single paramount center, with a highly structured and hierarchical political system characterized by a class system where the elites demand tributes in the form of agricultural crops and produce from the commoners
• Research shows that chiefdoms are highly unstable and are prone to cycles of disintegration and reintegration
• Nations


  Groups of people that shared a common history, language, traditions, customs, habits, and ethnicity, and are conscious of their identity and of their potential to become autonomous and unified
• Nations

  Referred to by scholars as either "imagined" or "abstract"
• Chiefdom


  A highly structured and hierarchical political system characterized by a class system where the elites demand tributes in the form of agricultural crops and produce from the commoners to a system that is called a "tributary system"
• Chiefdom


  • Lesser chiefs are obliged to give tribute to the paramount chief
  • The paramount chief carries out rituals and performs functions over which he has sole authority, such as the conduct of symbolic redistribution of material goods, and the awarding of titles and other symbolic rewards
• Nation


  Groups of people that share a common history, language, traditions, customs, habits, and ethnicity, and are conscious of their identity and of their potential to become autonomous and unified
• Imagined nation


  A nation that can exist as a state of mind, where the material expressions seen in actual residence in a physical territory becomes secondary to the common imagined connections emanating from a common history and identity
• Abstract nation


  A nation that is objectively impersonal even if each individual is able to identify with others
• State


  A political unit consisting of a government that has sovereignty presiding over a group of people and a well-defined territory, and is the highest form of political organization
• Nation-state


  A state where the citizens belong to only one nation
• Authority


  The power to make binding decisions and issue commands
• Legitimacy


  A moral and ethical concept that bestows one who possesses power the right to exercise such power since such is perceived to be justified and proper
• Types of legitimate authority (Weber)

  • Traditional authority
  • Charismatic authority
  • Rational-legal or bureaucratic authority
• Traditional authority


  Legitimacy is derived from well-established customs, habits and social structures
• Charismatic authority


  Legitimacy emanates from the charisma of the individual, which can be seen as a "gift of grace", or the possession of "gravitas" or an authority derived from a "higher power"
• Rational-legal or bureaucratic authority


  Draws its legitimacy from formal rules promulgated by the state through its fundamental and implementing laws