How competition drove social complexity: the role of war in the emergence of States, both ancient and modern

Eduardo Alberto Crespo () and Tiago Nasser Appel ()

Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, 2020, vol. 40, issue 4, 728-745

Abstract: The origin of human ultrasociality – the ability to cooperate in huge groups of genetically unrelated individuals – has long interested evolutionary and social theorists. In this article, we use cultural group or multilevel selection theory to explain how cultural traits needed to sustain large-scale complex societies necessarily arose as a result of competition among cultural groups. We apply the theory at two key particular junctures: (i) the emergence of the first States and hierarchical societies, and (ii) the Rise of Modern Nation-States and the associated Great Divergence in incomes between the West and the “Rest” that began in the eighteenth century. JEL Classification: O43; O1; N00; H56; F59.

Keywords: Cultural evolution; war; social complexity; States; great divergence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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