7: Political Organization

the ability to cause others to act based on characteristics such as honor, status, knowledge, ability, respect, or the holding of formal public office.

authority

a small group of people related by blood or marriage, who live together and are loosely associated with a territory in which they forage.

band

a self-made leader who gains power through personal achievements rather than through political office.

bigman

a society with social ranking in which political integration is achieved through an office of centralized leadership called the chief.

chiefdom

a society in which no individual or group has more privileged access to resources than any other.

egalitarian society

the dominance of a political elite based on a close identification between their own goals and those of the larger society.

hegemony

the ability to direct an enterprise or action.

leadership

a form of managing disputes that uses the offices of a third party to achieve voluntary agreement between the disputing parties.

mediation

a sovereign, geographically based state that identifies itself as having a distinctive national culture and historical experience.

nation-state

the shared beliefs and values that legitimize the distribution and use of power in a particular society.

political ideology

the patterned ways in which power is used in a society.

political organization

the ability to compel other individuals to do things that they would not choose to do of their own accord.

power

a society characterized by institutionalized differences in prestige but no important restrictions on access to basic resources.

rank society

the attempt of a group within society to force a redistribution of resources and power.

rebellion

an attempt to overthrow an existing form of political organization and put another type of political structure in its place.

revolution

a hierarchical, centralized form of political organization in which a central government has a legal monopoly over the use of force.

state

a society characterized by formal, permanent social and economic inequality in which some people are denied access to basic resources.

stratified society

a culturally distinct population whose members consider themselves descended from the same ancestor.

tribe