Module 9:
Political and Leadership
Structures
Objectives
1. Analyze social and political structures.
2. Differentiate the types of political organizations
3. Differentiate the different forms of legitimacy of
authority
This module is divided into 2 parts:
I. Discusses the types of political organizations created
by humans.
II. Discusses the types of authority and legitimacy
present in human societies that allow for the rise of
leaders.
Political Organization
is any entity that is participating in a political
process.
Elman Service (1962)
- a political anthropologist
- identified four types of sociopolitical
organizations
- argued that these political organizations
function in consideration of their economic
orientation.
Four Types:
Bands
Tribes
Chiefdoms
States and Nations
Is the least complex form of political organization, as it has
neither a rigid form of governance nor a structured form of
leadership.
Typically consists of 20-50 individuals who are usually related
to one another by kinship. Due to the close ties between
members of this group, coercion as form of receiving
compliance is not an option.
Individuals are made to follow group decision through social
mechnaisms such as gossiping, ostracizing, and being
ridiculed.
This society is chiefly based on foraging, which is also known
as hunting and gathering
This type of economic subsistence allows for greater mobility of
the group as they follow animals and other food sources.
Decision-making is often made by the entire group, with the
eldest member acting as the facilitator.
Form of leadership is informal, as the extent of the leader's
power lies only upon his or capacity to influence the course of
dialog in the group. He/She can, by no means, coerce anyone
in the group to do a task that the other does not want to
perform.
Bands are egalitarian in social composition. This implies
that individuals in the group have equal access to resources
and values.
Reciprocity is a primary form of exchange among the
members. Individuals who have lesser capacity to hunt or
gather have equal access to the food that other members are
able to produce.
This arrangement produces a form of an economic safety
net, wherein every member of the group is assured of basic
needs such as food and water. This is observed even if the
member is not able to produce on a particular day, as food and
almost everything else is communally owned.
The drawback of this setting is the creation
of free riders or those who would partake of their
share of the community's resources without any
attempt to contribute. In such cases, bands
would usually employ noncoercive tactics such as
ridiculing and gossiping.
is a political organization that consists of segmentary
lineages.
This type of kinship relation is marked by loyalty per family
cluster or segment.
An individual's loyalty primarily lies on his or her
cousins,then his or her distant cousins. This type of kinship
grouping allows for the creation of interdependent
organizations. This means that the position of the father in the
family as the prime decision maker and his position in society
will most likely be similar.
 The Maasai's have strong segmentary lineages that allow
for generational solidarity of warriors coming from the
same age group.
Tribes are less mobile than bands, as their form of
economic subsistence requires a degree of settlement.
Most tribes are either:
Horticultural (shifting agriculture)
Pastoral (tending animals)
These types of economic systems require individuals to
settle in one area for a specific period either to let their animals
graze (pastoralism) or to harvest their crops (horticultural).
This supports the need to create an informal form of
leadership that is based on need.
The leaders that are chosen are individuals who are
believed to possess special skills or aptitudes that relate to the
economic activity.
Hence, should a younger and an older hunter be in a
debate about a decision, the decision-making power shall be
accorded by the members of the society to the person with
greater skills in hunting without considering age.
Similar to the leaders of bands, the leaders in a tribe have
no concrete political power over their members, except in
areas when group concerns are in place.
A tribute is a form of gift that may consist of
wealth, food, or other materials given to a central
figure who in turn redistributes the accumulated
goods to the other members of society.
Through this process, the products of one
group is shared and consumed by the other
groups.
is more complex than a tribe, as this political organization
consists of a few local communities who subscribe to the power
and rule of a leader who has absolute power on them
This absolute power is derived from the perceived relation of
the leader to supernatural forces and powers, which is a form of
legitimizing factor. As long as their leader is a direct descendant
of their gods, this leader maintains his or her sovereignty in the
land. Once the belief of people shifts, this leader almost
instanteneously loses power
The ancient Mayans were know for their complex and
elaborate political system that incorporated religion, kinship and
politics. The Mayan political organization embodied the
characteristics of a chiefdom, that includes a political leader with
an advisory council, a leader who exercises power that is based
on legitimacy, and the existence of social stratification.
*tied with horticulture
and pastoralism
*economic distribution
through tribute collection
social stratification
into the elite and the commoner
*Existence of
that segregates society
The elites are often relatives of the ruler and are also
believed to have divinity or connections to the supernatural.
States and Nations
State - refers to a political
organization united by a common
set of laws
Nation - refers to a group of
people sharing similar culture and
political history
A state :
 uses absolute power in directing the path of
a society.
 uses complete political coerciveness to
attain societal goals and objectives, which
may come on the form of armed personnel,
stricter law, and rigid governmental
policies.
The primary form of economic subsistence
in this political organization is market
exchange.
Standardized currencies are used to
exchange commodities, unlike in a band
where a commodity or service is exchanged
with another commodity or service, which are
often deemed by both parties to be of similar
value.
The differentiated access to production and
capital creates the formation and perpetuation of
class and caste systems.
Pyramid of power in ancient states
Social rules are implemented in the form of : LAWS
Laws are created to manage the interaction
among individuals and between the individuals and
the state.
As a citizen of a country, an individual is
subjected to the legal norms in the territory. These
norms may include paying taxes, rendering military
service, and contributing to the political life in the
society.
In South Korea, all males are required to
render military service and undergo training for 21
months despite their gender or social status.
In the Philippines, some of the obligations of
its citizens include:
1) Payment of at most 32% of one's income as
income tax to the government
2) Payment of 12% value added tax (VAT) for all
commodities and services purchased
3) Completion of the National Service Training
Program (NSTP)or the Reserve Officers'
Training Corps (ROTC) while in college
4) Recognition of the authority of government
officials (e.g., police officers, lawmakers)
Being a citizen of a country also entails the
enjoyment of certain priviliges that are labelled as
rights.
TWO TYPES OF RIGHTS
1. Natural rights
- those that are expected to be enjoyed by
all individuals, regardless of citizenship. These
rights are derived from the basic elements of
individuals being humans. Some of these rights
include: the right to life, the right to liberty or
freedom, and the right to property.
2. Legal rights
- are those that are awarded to an individual by
the state as part of its culture, traditions, and
norms.
Hence, a Muslim-dominated state will provide
its citizens a different set of legal rights as
compared to a Christian-dominated state.
Some examples include: the right to vote, the
right to privacy and the right to join formal
organizations.
Authority and
Legitimacy
The extent of leader's power relies on how much
his or her followers accord him or her with it. This
leads to a discussion on the reasons that leaders rise
and how they maintain power over individuals.
According to Max Weber, a 20th century
sociologist, every leader has some form of
justification as to why he or she should be accorded
with such power. He organized these reasons into
three categories of legitimacy of authority: legal,
traditional, and charismatic.
Legal authority
is achieved by a leader through the process of
following established codes and procedures governing
the allocation and distribution of power and resources
within a society.
Leader who are ruling under the clout of this
authority have been either elected or appointed to
office following the existing laws of the land. The
extent as to which this type of leaders can wield
power is limited to what the codified laws of the
society accords him or her
Traditional authority
is achieved by a leadership legitimacy that
highlights the right of a leader to rule based on
inheritance of the title.
People under the leadership of a ruler with
traditional authority accept the latter's exercise of
power as it has been the status quo in the society
since their forefathers.
The rules of monarchs and their allies in both
patrimonial and feudal regimes are examples of this.
Charismatic authority
creates a type of leadership that is based on the
personal attachment of the subordinates to the ruler
whose characteristics, experiences, or even skills are
believed to be extraordinary, or maybe even
supernatural.
Due to this, most of the ruler's followers are
devoted to him or her without regard as to whether
the authority of the ruler is accepted within the legal
work of the society or that he or she has not been part
of a royal lineage.
These types of authority and legitimacy are not
mutually exclusive, as some can be combined to
produce other forms of leadership justification.
INSTITUTIONAL CHARISMA
= Charismatic authority + Legal authority
= observed among religious institutions where
leaders authority is accepted based on his or
her charisma, but his exercise of power is
limited by legal structures of the church
FAMILIAL CHARISMA
= Traditional authority + Charismatic authority
= observed in kingship rules as individuals
recognize the rightof the king to rule based
on his inheritance of the position and his
innate extraordinary capacities
Thank you.