SESSION 1: NOTES ON POWER, AUTHORITY, TYPOLOGIES OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS

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1 SESSION 1: NOTES ON POWER, AUTHORITY, TYPOLOGIES OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS Coercion and Authority COERCION power that is regarded as illegitimate by those over whom it is exerted AUTHORITY power that is regarded as legitimate by those over whom it is exercised, who also accept the authority's legitimacy in imposing sanctions or even using force if necessary Weber s three types of authority: 1. Legal-Rational Authority: upholding and implementing rules in an impersonal manner; power vested in offices and institutions 2. Traditional Authority: rooted in the assumption that the customs of the past legitimate the present that things are as they always have been, and should remain that way 3. Charismatic Authority: derives from a ruler s ability to inspire passion and devotion among followers

2 Typologies of Power and Political Systems 19 th century Evolutionary Approaches: Lewis Henry Morgan: Ancient Society (1877) contrasted two forms of government, the earlier based on social organization through descent group and tribe, the later based on political organization through territory and property (Morgan 1877:61). Maine (1861) distinguished between the structuring of societies by status and by contract Engels (1972 [1884]) distinguished between societies based on kinship and those based on territory

3 Structural-Functionalist Approaches: Meyer Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1940:5-6) divided societies of sub-saharan Africa into two forms of polity: primitive states operating on basis of kinship and office stateless societies organized primarily on principles of descent

4 20 th century Cultural Evolutionism Band Tribe Chiefdom State Uncentralized Type of Subsistence Type of Leadership Type and Importance of Kinship Major Means of Social Integration Centralized Band Tribe Chiefdom State Huntinggathering; little or no domestication Informal and situational leaders; may have a headman who acts as arbiter in group decision making Bilateral kinship, with kin relations used differentially in changing size and composition of bands Marriage alliances unite larger groups; bands united by kinship and family; economic Extensive agriculture (horticulture) and pastoralism Charismatic headman with no "power" but some authority in group decision making Unilineal kinship (patrilineal or matrilineal) may form the basic structure of society Pantribal sodalities based on kinship, voluntary associations and/or age-grades Extensive agriculture; intensive fishing Charismatic chief with limited power based on bestowal of benefits on followers Unilineal, with some bilateral; descent groups are ranked in status Integration through loyalty to chief, ranked lineages, and voluntary associations Intensive agriculture Sovereign leader supported by an aristocratic bureaucracy State demands suprakinship loyalties; access to power is based on ranked kin groups, either unilineal or bilateral State loyalties supercede allow lower-level loyalties; integration through commerce and specialization of function

5 Political Succession Major Types of Economic Exchange Uncentralized Centralized Band Tribe Chiefdom State interdependence based on reciprocity May be hereditary headman, but actual leadership falls to those with special knowledge or abilities Reciprocity (sharing) Social Stratification Egalitarian Ownership of Property Law and Legitimate Control of Little or no sense of personal ownership No formal laws or punishments; right to use force is No formal means of political succession Reciprocity; trade may be more developed than in bands Egalitarian Communal (lineage or clan) ownership of agricultural lands and cattle No formal laws or punishments; right to use force belongs to Chief's position not directly inherited, but chief must come from a high-ranking lineage Redistribution through chief; reciprocity at lower levels Rank (individual and lineage) Land communally owned by lineage, but strong sense of personal ownership of titles, names, privileges, ritual artifacts, etc. May be informal laws and specified punishments for Direct hereditary succession of sovereign; increasing appointment of bureaucratic functionaries Redistribution based on formal tribute and/or taxation; markets and trade Classes (minimally or rulers and ruled) Private and state ownership increases at the expense of communal ownership Formal laws and punishments; state holds all legitimate access to

6 Uncentralized Centralized Band Tribe Chiefdom State Force communal lineage, clan, or association Religion No religious priesthood or fulltime specialists; shamanistic!kung Bushmen Recent and (Africa) Pygmies Contemporary (Africa) Eskimo Examples (Canada, Alaska) Shoshone (U.S.) Historic and Prehistoric Examples Virtually all paleolithic societies Shaministic; strong emphasis on initiation rites and other rites of passage that unite lineages Kpelle (W. Africa) Yanomamo (Venezuela) Nuer (Sudan) Cheyenne (U.S.) Iroquois (U.S.) Oaxaca Valley (Mexico), B.C. breaking taboos; chief has limited access to physical coercion Inchoate formal priesthood; hierarchical, ancestor-based religion Precolonial Hawaii, Kwakiutl (Canada), Tikopia (Polynesia) Dagurs (Mongolia) Precolonial Ashanti, Benin, Dahomy (Africa) Scottish Highlanders use of physical force Full-time priesthood provides sacral legitimization of state Ankole (Uganda) Jimma (Ethiopia) Kachari (India) Volta (Africa) Precolonial Zulu (Africa) Aztec (Mexico) Inca (Peru) Sumeria (Iraq) Sources: Abrahamson 1969; Carniero 1970; Eisenstadt 1959; Fried 1967; Levinson and Malone 1980; Lomax and Arensberg 1977; Service 1971.