Politics Organization & Power

4 - Types Of Political Systems• Uncentralized systems

– Bands (foraging groups)

– Tribes (horticulturalist & pastoralists)

• Centralized systems (intensive agriculture)– Chiefdoms – States

Shoshoni tepies, circa 1890.

The state's (government's) position in the economy

Bands

• Small group of politically independent, though related, households.

• The least complicated form of political organization.

• Found among foragers and nomadic societies.

• Small, numbering at most a few hundred people.

Foragers of the Agta people in the Phillippines

Camp of Australian Aborigines: taken in 1895 in the Grafton district, New south

Wales, by G.W. Wilson

Bands - Continued• No need for formal

political systems.

• Decisions are made with an emphasis on achieving consensus.

• Those unable to get along with others of their group move to another group where kinship ties give them rights of entry.

– Flexible membership

Bushmen in the Kalhari

• Egalitarian: no social stratification between leaders and followers. no real . – Everyone has access to the skills & materials needed to survive.

Tribes• Tribes consist of small, autonomous

local communities, which form alliances for various purposes.

• Economy based on crop cultivation or herding.

– Horticulturalists – Pastoralists

• Leadership among tribes is informal.

– General leader = “head man” or “big man” or woman.

Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota (Sioux)chief and

holy man, circa 1885.

The Big (Head) Man or Woman

• Part-time leader.

• Decides when to move the heards; when to plant; when to harvest; when to have feasts.

• Responsible for handling internal and external conflicts.

• Each smaller group usually has it’s own “head man” and acts autonomously for that group.

Big Man from New Guinea, wearing his official regalia.

Pashtun Tribes

Pashtun tribes men from Zarghun, Quetta, Pakistan - November 2004

• Pashtun society consists of many tribes and clans which were rarely politically united, until the rise of the Durrani Empire in 1747.

• The are characterized by the practice of Pashtunwali and have been the dominant

group in Afghanistan for more than 250 years.

• They are the world’s largest (patriarchal) lineage ethnic group with an estimated population of 42 million.

• There are 60 major Pashtun tribes & more than 400 sub-clans.

Ahmad Shah Durrani established the Durrani

Empire in 1747.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLCf-A9IvB4

Navajo Tribal Council

• Shown here is a meeting of the Navajo Tribal Council, a nontraditional governing body created in response to requirements set by the U.S. government in order for the Navajo to exercise national sovereignty.

Question

• In the band, disputes are settled informally through ___________

A. gossip.

B. ridicule.

C. direct negotiation.

D. mediation.

E. all of these choices

Answer: E

• In the band, disputes are settled informally through gossip, ridicule, direct negotiation and mediation.

Chiefdoms• The chief is at the head of a ranked hierarchy

of people.

• The office of the chief is usually for life and often hereditary.

• The chief’s authority serves to unite his people in all affairs and at all times.

• Highly unstable as lesser chiefs try to take power from higher ranking chiefs.

Chiefdoms• Usually intensive

agriculturalists.

• Transitional between tribes & states.

• Office of Chief is independent of the person.

• Shared common lineal descent.

Mbop Mabiinc maMbeky (ruled 1939-1969),

King (Chief) of the Kuba, Nsheng,

Belgian Congo

Kuba Art from the Congo

Georgia Chiefdoms• Approximately 900-1200 A.D.

Agricultural chiefdoms developed in Georgia (Macon Plateau, Woodstock, Vining, etc).

• Approximately 100,000 people distributed in (perhaps) a dozen independent chiefdoms.

• Both Patralinial & Matralinial hereditary chieftains.

• 95% of the indigenous people were wiped out within two centuries after European contact (plagues & slavery).

State• The most formal of political

organizations.

• Political power is centralized in a government, which may use force to regulate the affairs of its citizens and its relations with other states.

• Since their first appearance 5,000 years ago, states have shown a tendency toward instability and transience.

Political Satire – Monty Python

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76WQzVJ434

Politics & Control• Niccolo Machiavelli - Italian

diplomat & political philosopher in Florence. – Key figure in the Italian Renaissance.

• The Prince, Discourses and History made his name synonymous with ruthless politics, deceit & the pursuit of power by any means.

• “it is best to be both feared and loved; however, if one cannot be both it is better to be feared than loved.”

• the greatest moral good is a virtuous and stable state, and actions to protect the country are therefore justified even if they are cruel

Machiavelli (center right) depicted with: (from left to right) Cesare Borgia, Pedro Luis de Borja Lanzol de Romaní, and Don Micheletto Corella

Niccolo

Machiavelli

1469-1527

Settling Disputes• A dispute may be

settled in two ways:

1. Negotiation - the parties to the dispute reach an agreement with or without the help of a third party (mediator).

2. Adjudication - An authorized third party issues a binding decision.

• Having a song duel is the traditional approach to dispute resolution among the Inuit of northern Canada & Greenland.

Song Duels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro_fAj571j8

Question

• In _____________, two parties present their grievances, but do not take part in the resolution of the dispute.

A. deception.

B. the development of a court system.

C. negotiation.

D. mediation.

E. adjudication.

Answer: E

• In adjudication, two parties present their grievances, but do not take part in the resolution of the dispute.

Religion & Politics

• Iran and Great Britain permit a closer relationship between political and religious affairs.

• Shiite Muslim religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei is Iran’s supreme spiritual leader and his country’s highest political authority.

• In England, Queen Elizabeth is her country’s nominal head of state and head of the Anglican Church.

Theocracy is a form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the state's supreme civil ruler, or in a broader sense, a form of government in which a state is governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided.