Centralized Ones Research Articles

L'analyse structurale des lois

The Structural Analysis of lawRules of law can be considered as “planned” orders which prescribe relations of control between social actors. From a network perspective, control is defined as constraints on the variety of social communication. It bears upon the transmission of norms, of status, of human and material resources, of informational resources, and of controls themselves. Each of these dimensions allows for a structural analysis where different types of structures can be identified from the more centralized ones to the less centralized ones. These different types are named: coarchy, stratarchy, hierarchy, and anarchy.The electoral representation rule which was adopted by the Quebec National Assembly in 1979 is analyzed to illustrate such a method of analysis. It appears, as a result, that the structures of the more important control relations (those bearing on the transmission of norms and status) generally speaking are more centralized than the structures of less important ones (those bearing on the transmission of resources).Such a structural analysis can be applied to other “planned” orders: for example, regulations and decrees, constitutions and statutes of organizations. It also can be applied to “live-in” orders, that is to say to operative control relations, which are subject in various degrees to the “planned” orders.

Internal War: A Cross‐Cultural Study1

In this study, three categories of variables—social structure, political organization, and intersocietal relations—are examined for their influence upon the occurrence of internal war (warfare between culturally similar political communities). A sample of fifty societies is used to test hypotheses that relate variables drawn from the three categories to the frequency of such war. It is demonstrated that fraternal interest groups and unauthorized raiding parties influence the frequency of internal war in uncentralized political systems, but not in centralized ones. It is also shown that the frequency of external war (warfare between culturally different political communities) does not influence the frequency of internal war. In conclusion the results of this study are compared with those obtained in a cross‐cultural study of feuding.