The Evolution of Human Government

70:0.1No sooner had man par­tially solved the prob­lem of mak­ing a liv­ing than he was con­fronted with the task of reg­u­lat­ing hu­man con­tacts. The de­vel­op­ment of in­dus­try de­manded law, or­der, and so­cial ad­just­ment; pri­vate prop­erty ne­ces­si­tated gov­ern­ment.

70:0.2On an evo­lu­tion­ary world, an­tag­o­nisms are nat­u­ral; peace is se­cured only by some sort of so­cial reg­u­la­tive sys­tem. So­cial reg­u­la­tion is in­sep­a­ra­ble from so­cial or­ga­ni­za­tion; as­so­ci­a­tion im­plies some con­trol­ling au­thor­ity. Gov­ern­ment com­pels the co-or­di­na­tion of the an­tag­o­nisms of the tribes, clans, fam­i­lies, and in­di­vid­u­als.

70:0.3Gov­ern­ment is an un­con­scious de­vel­op­ment; it evolves by trial and er­ror. It does have sur­vival value; there­fore it be­comes tra­di­tional. An­ar­chy aug­mented mis­ery; there­fore gov­ern­ment, com­par­a­tive law and or­der, slowly emerged or is emerg­ing. The co­er­cive de­mands of the strug­gle for ex­is­tence lit­er­ally drove the hu­man race along the pro­gres­sive road to civ­i­liza­tion.