Politics as a biological phenomenon

Abstract

This chapter argues that a comprehensive approach to human behavior, bridging the existing gaps between the various social sciences and linking them to the natural sciences, is not only necessary but possible. Contemporary biology indicates the untenability of a sharp dichotomy between nature and culture. The biological function of politics, then, would seem to arise from the insufficiency of other modes of regulating social interaction. Laws— whether customary or written— do not suffice in all situations, for as common experience has long indicated they are all too easily broken. Politics is not merely what ethologists have called “agonistic” behavior: competitive rivalry for dominance exists in sports, on school playgrounds, and in business without thereby deserving the name “politics.” Political behavior, properly so called, would seem to be those actions in which the rivalry for the perpetuation of social dominance impinges on the legal or customary rules governing a group.

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