DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL-ECONOMIC

INSTITUTIONS

When humans lived by gathering nuts and herbs, there was little need for either trade or government.

Each society developed institutionalized ways of meeting needs for food, clothing, housing, and whatever else it needed.

Food sharing, for example, was an institutionalized practice in many simple societies, especially if they hunted large game.

Economic institutions emerged from people’s trial-and-error efforts to meet their needs(functional analysis), or sometimes, economic institutions emerged from the success of one group in imposing duties or obligations upon another group (conflict analysis).

Trade developed when people wanted something thier neighbors produced; gradually the process of exchange became standardized, orderly, and predictable hterefore, institutionalized.

Economic institutions emerged as people developed orderly routines for exchanging goods, assigning work tasks, and recognizing claims upon one another.

The domestication of animals, the establishment of settled agriculture with claims to land, and the eventual development od industries all led to developent of economic and governmental systems.

We learn from anthropologists that simplest societies had no government.Polar Eskimo, did not even have recognized “family heads” although some respected persons might have more influence than others [Murdock, 1936, p. 210] .

Where Sharing is Institutionalized

When one Eskimo gives to another in his band, he is usually giving to a realtive or to a partner. An exchange among those in close relationship is not a gift, and that is why the receiver does not offer thanks. An Eskimo praises a hunter for the way he hurled the harpoon but not for the way he sahred the meat from the seal the harpoon killed. Sharing is a kinsman’s due, and it is not in the category of a gift

The Arctic explorer Peter Freunhen once made the mistakes of thanking an Eskimo hunter, with whom he had been living, for some meat. Freuchen’s bad manners were promptly corrected:”You must not thank for your meat; it is your right to get some

parts. In this country, nobody wishes to be dependent upon others. With gifts you make slaves

just as with whips you make dogs!”

An important thing about exchange in the life of the Eskimo is that he alternates between feast and famine. One Eskimo hunter may be seccesful in killing seal after seal while another hunter is having a long streak af bad luck. Anyone who has been molded by a capitalistic culture knows what he might well do in similar circumstances– if he were the fortunate hunter and the others were in need. He would jack up prices.

Such a thing could never be happen in Eskimo is innately nobler than you or I, but because an Eskimo knows that despite his plenty today, assuredly he will be in want tommorow. He knows also that the best place for him to store his surplus is in someone else’s stomach, because sooner or later he will wanrt his gift repaid. Pure selfishness has given the Eskimo a reputation for generosity and earned him the good opinion of missionaries and of all others who hunger and thirst after proof of the innate goodness of man.

The word “civilized” implies a system of civil law in place of traditional authority, administered by certain designated officers. Trade and economic development created the need of the government.

Feudalism was a set of economic and political institutions which developed in a number of places as an intermediate stage between tribal and societies and national state.

It was based upon a set of reciprocal rights and duties. The lord, in his castle with his retinue of knights, provided security, protecting the vassal’s person, property, and right to use a piece of land. The vassal gave service and loyalty(“fealty”) to the lord.

Feudalism was thus a way of organizing life and work at particular moment in history. It passed when increasing trade, growth of towns,and development of the centralized national state made feudalism an obstacle rather than useful institution.

Intersting enough, the rise and fall of eudalism neatly fits the functionalist perspective ( institutions arise because they are funtinally useful and pass when they cease to be useful) but also fits the conflict perspective ( institutions arise because they serve the interests of rh powerful and fall when new interest gruops appear to contest them).

The Mercantilist system of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries assumed that it was the resposibility of the state to control and direct all economic activity, and modern capitalism is, in the part, a reaction against mercantilism.

Specialization creates different groups with competing interests-farmers versus middlemen versus consumers, for example– and government mediates the conflicts between them. Thus, economic development spurs the growth of government.

Warfare also feeds the growth of government. A desciplined army can defeat an unorganized horde many times its size. All warfare demands organization. Modern warfare demands the organization of masses of personnel and mountains of supplies of a thousand different kinds.

Political-economic institutions are more than standardized ways of doing things. As with all institutions, they also include supporting ideas, sentiments, traditions, and values

Canoe building among the Polynesians, the warlus hunt among the Eskimos, rice planting in the wet rice culture of Southeast Asia, the ground-breaking ceremony for the new government building, and the christening of a new aircraft carrier– all these involve ascribed roles, traditions, and elaborate rituals. These rituals solidify the cooperation of humans and bring the blessing of God or the gods on the undertaking.

Modern governmants are supported by a panoply of flag-waving, martial music, and impressive buildings. Even modern business makes use of tradition, ritual, and sentiment. The signing commercail, sotories of charismatic business leaders, gifts to charity and public services, the recognition banquet for retiring employees --- all these seek to give the business system the appearance of a warm-blooded collection of human beings rather than simply a cold economic machine

prepared by:

Jesus Berdin