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Principles and Forms of Organization of Societies as Systems of Institutions (The “Conceptual Frame” of This Book)
Societies are systems composed of a great number of various social institutions. Societies are changing as a result of institutions appearance, transformation, and interaction. As systems of social institutions, societies have a fundamental characteristic that can be called a “basic principle of societal organization.” The principle of organization a society embodies depends on the way its institutions are arranged with respect to one another. Two basic principles can be distinguished: heterarchical, at which institutions interact being unranked with respect to one another or can be ranked in different ways, and the opposite principle, homoarchical, at which institutions interact being rigidly ranked in the only way and have no or very limited potential for being unraked or ranked in other ways. Societies of the same level of overall cultural complexity and basic principle of organization can take different specific forms, as alternativeness exists not only between but also within the heterarchical and homoarchical macrogroups of societies: heterarchy and homoarchy are not only not stages, but also not lines of social evolution. The division of societies into predominantly heterarchical and homoarchical is a constant fact of human sociocultural history; its appearance even precedes its beginning. The dichotomy of heterarchy and homoarchy has considerably determined the non-linear and alternative nature of the global sociocultural process. An adequate understanding of the past, present, and future of the humankind does not seem possible without taking into account of the alternativeness of the basic principles of organization of societies, their complementary and competitive coexistence, and their mutual dynamics throughout human history.
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