Political Order and Social Control

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Political Order and Social Control
Power and Authority Forms of Political Systems co
ntinued Centralized Political Systems Chiefdo
ms States Systems Stratification Disorder a
nd Social Control Informal Means of Social Cont
rol Formal Means of Social Control External
Relations
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CENTRALIZED POLITICAL SYSTEMS In bands and trib
es, authority is uncentralized, and each group is
economically and politically autonomous. Politic
al organization is vested in kinship, age, and c
ommon-interest groups. Populations
are small and relatively homogeneous, with people
engaged mostly in the same sorts of activities t
hroughout their lives. As a society's
social life becomes more complex, however, as
population rises and technology becomes more com
plex, and as specialization of labor and
trade networks pro- duce surpluses of goods, the
opportunity for some individuals or groups to ex
ercise control increases. In such societies,
political authority and power are concentrated in
a single individual the chief or in a body of
individual the state. The state is a form of
organization found in societies where each
individual must interact on a regular basis with
large numbers of people with diversified
interests who are neither kin nor close
acquaintances.
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Chiefdoms
A chiefdom is a regional polity in which two or
more local groups are organized under a single r
uling individual the chief who is at the
head of a ranked hierarchy of people. An
individual's status in such a polity is determin
ed by his or her closeness of relationship to
the chief. Those closest are officially superior
and receive deferential treatment from those in
lower ranks. The office of the chief is usually
hereditary, passing from a man to his
own or his sister's son, depending on whether
descent is reckoned patrilineally or matrilineal
ly. Chief is generally a true authority figure,
and his authority serves to unite
his people in all affairs and at all times.
The chief controls the economic activities of hi
s people. Chiefdoms are typically redistributive
systems the chief has control over surplus
goods and perhaps even over the community labor
force.
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Chiefdoms continued
Thus, he may demand a quota of rice from farmers,
which he will redistribute to the entire
community. Similarly, he may recruit laborers to
build irrigation works, a palace, or a temple.
The chief also may amass a great amount of perso
nal wealth and pass it on to his heirs. Land,
cattle, and luxury goods specialists produce can
be collected by the chief and become part of his
power base. Moreover, high-ranking families of
the chiefdom may engage in the same practice and
use their possessions as evidence of status.
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Case Study Kpelle of Liberia
The paramount chiefs' traditional tasks are
hearing disputes, preserving order, seeing to th
e upkeep of trails, and maintaining "medicines."
They now are salaried officials of the Liberi
an government, mediating between it and their peo
ple. Other rewards a paramount chief receives
include a commission on taxes
collected within his chiefdom, a commission for
laborers furnished for the rubber plantations, a
portion of court fees collected, a stipulated
amount of rice from each household, and gifts fr
om people who come to request
favors and intercessions.
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Case Study Kpelle of Liberia
In a ranked hierarchy beneath each Kpelle
paramount chief are several lesser chiefs one
for each district within the chiefdom, one for
each town within a district. Each acts as a ki
nd of lieutenant for his chief of the next higher
rank and also serves as a liaison between him and
those of lower rank. While the Kpelle politica
l system is relatively stable today,
traditionally chiefdoms in all parts of the world
have been highly unstable. This happens as lesser
chiefs try to take power from higher ranking
chiefs or as paramount chiefs vie with one an-
other for supreme power. In precolonial Hawaii
, for example, war was the way to gain territory
and maintain power great chiefs set out to
conquer one another in an effort to become
paramount chief of all the islands. When one
chief conquered another, the loser and all his
nobles were dispossessed of all property and were
lucky if they escaped alive. The new chief the
n appointed his own supporters to positions of
political power. As a consequence, governmental
or religious administration had very little
continuity.
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A Kpelle town chief settles a dispute
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State Systems
The state, which is the most formal of political
organization, is one of the hallmarks of
civilization. In the state, political power is
centralized in a government, which may
legitimately use force to regulate its affairs of
its citizens, as well as relations with other
states. States are associated with increased f
ood production and increased population.
Leading to improvements such as irrigation and t
erracing, carefully managed rotation cycles,
intensive competition for clearly demarcated
lands, and rural populations large enough to
support market systems and a specialized urban
sector. Under such conditions, corporate group
s that stress exclusive membership proliferate,
ethnic differentiation and ethnocentrism become
more pronounced, and the potential for social
conflict increases dramatically.
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State Systems continued
Given these circumstances, the state
institutions, which minimally involve a
bureaucracy, a military, and (usually) an
official religion, provide a means for
numerous and diverse groups to function together
as an integrated whole. There is an important
distinction to make between nation and state.
Today, there are roughly 181 states in the world
, and most did not exist before
the end of World War II By contrast probably
about 5,000 nations exist in the world today.
What makes each a nation is that its people share
a language, culture, territorial base, and polit
ical organization and history. Today, states
commonly have living within their boundaries pe
ople of more than one nation.
For example, Yanomamö are but one of many nation
s within the state of Brazil and Venezuela.
Nation-state refers to a group the shares both
a common cultural heritage and territory plus a
legitimate political structure.
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Stratification

• State societies are based on stratification.
• The dimensions of social stratification include
• Wealth ? Economic Status
• Power ? Political Status
• Prestige ? Social Status
• This stratification scheme was proposed by the
  influential sociologist Max Weber (1922-68)
  
• Strata groups are known as classes, and
  inequalities
  
• exist between classes with respect to these
  dimensions
  
• of stratification.

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Class
Class is a group of people who have a similar
relationship to the mechanisms of wealth, power
, and social status. A ruling class is compos
ed of people who have wealth and
power. Access to resources by members of other
classes within the same society is limited by
the privileged ruling class, thus
creating inequalities. What are some example
s of classes in the Unites States?
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Disorder and Social Control
Within every society conflicts occur that lead to
conditions of disorder. Conflicts arise when i
ndividuals or groups disagree with others, when
people are murdered or injured, or when property
is damaged or stolen. In other words, disorder
occurs when people deviate from the accepted
norms and rules of the society.
Social control, an issue that must be addressed
whatever the type of political organization--
band, tribe, chiefdom, or state refers to the
way a society ensures that people behave
themselves. Social control involves structures
and mechanisms whose purpose is to ensure that
people do not violate accepted forms of behavior.
Both formal and informal means are used to add
ress issues of deviance (violation of a society's
ideal pattern of behavior).
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Social Deviance
Homicide is an example of a deviant behavior that
occurs in every human society. The killing of
another human being is a serious deviation from
normative behavior that is highly disruptive. We
can view the disruption caused to families and
communities as we watch nightly television news
broadcasts, and we are appalled by crime
statistics that put murder rates in the United
States for the year 1997 at 7.4 persons per
100,000 population.
Bruce M. Knauft (1987)
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Informal Means of Social Control
In societies such as bands and tribes, where
there is no political entity with authority and
there are no formal laws, informal sanctions must
serve to provide control. The most common info
rmal means of social control take place through
the use of social pressures, including ridicule,
gossip, and ostracism. Ex Cephu, a member of
a foraging BaMbuti pygmy band, illustrates the
effectiveness of group pressure to control
behavior.
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Formal Means of Social Control
Law refers to cultural rules that are formulated
by societies and backed up by sanctions. F
ormal means of social control involve consistent
systems of sanctions that are applied when rule
d are violated.
External Relations War
War is a form of conflict resolution that has
been used by humans throughout history. It oc
curs when conflicts between groups and the end
result is aggressive behavior and killing.
Humans are unique in this respect for as
technology increases, so does our efficiency for
killing one another.