Practice question · Put in order
Order the forms by increasing political centralization.
- Chiefdom: hereditary office and ranked lineages
- Band: a headman who can only persuade
- State: bureaucracy and the monopoly of legitimate force
- Tribe: a big man whose prestige is earned and mortal
Hints
- Order by how concentrated decision-making becomes.
- The final form adds institutionalised compulsion.
Show the answer
- Band: a headman who can only persuade
- Tribe: a big man whose prestige is earned and mortal
- Chiefdom: hereditary office and ranked lineages
- State: bureaucracy and the monopoly of legitimate force
Why
Each step concentrates decision-making further: from influence, to earned prestige, to inherited office, to institutionalized compulsion.
Practise Political Organization
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