Introduction to World History to 1600 - #18

[abe-no-seimei.livejournal.com]

Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)
Monday 1:00-3:00 pm

“My apologies for canceling classes last week. I hope everyone made use of the time wisely. And we’re ready to continue with our lessons,” Seimei said as he glided into class. His fan waved toward the front of the classroom and the discussion question on the scroll.

Discuss contributing factors for the early Indus civilization collapse.

Comments

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Tainter’s analysis of decline of complex societies:

1. human societies are problem-solving organisations

2. socio-political systems require energy for their maintenance

3. increased complexity carries with it increased costs per capita

4. investment in socio-political complexity as a problem-solving response often reaches a point of declining marginal returns

Socio-political control and bureaucracy - investment in complexity leads to declining marginal return because:

• increasing size of bureaucracy
• increasing specialisation of bureaucracy
• cumulative nature of organizational solutions
• increasing taxation
• increasing cost of legititimizing activities
• increasing cost of internal control and external defence