E1 Stages of state formation

Topic

There are four stages of state formation—a trajectory of political authority that shifts the nature of power, geopolitics, and conflict with each transition: the diffuse-kinship stage, the patrimonial stage, the bureaucratic-state stage, and the supranational-network stage. What distinguishes one stage from another is the degree of impersonality in the rules governing succession, recruitment, and fiscal extraction—specifically, the extent to which these rules are codified impersonally versus the extent to which they depend on the personal discretion of the ruler.

The degree of impersonality in these rules—succession, recruitment, and fiscal extraction—is the variable that determines which stage of state formation a society occupies: the more impersonally codified the rules, the closer the society is to the bureaucratic-state or supranational-network stage; the more they rely on personal discretion, the closer it is to the diffuse-kinship or patrimonial stage.

This is precisely the variable used in the stage diagnosis and institutional-breakdown analysis to identify a society's current stage of state formation: when the effective impersonality of succession and fiscal extraction rules erodes steadily toward personal discretion—without reversing in the subsequent political cycle—the society exits its current stage of state formation and enters a transition of its authority regime.

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