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"Natural Hierarchies"
Zhang, Taisu
Zhang, Taisu
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Abstract
This essay examines the socioeconomics of status hierarchies: how they
respond to external demands, and how, in terms of institutional structure,
they make themselves socially usable and durable. It asks whether there are,
in some sense, "natural hierarchies"-hierarchies that will almost always
emerge in sophisticated societies, regardless of sociopolitical or economic
conditions. It highlights adaptability as the central functional feature that
makes status rankings durable, and employs this measure to identify two
kinds of "natural hierarchies": wealth and seniority. Between the two, the
former has drawn the lion's share of political and intellectual attention, but
the latter possesses similar functional advantages, and is likely just as
pervasive across human societies, historical and modem. Like wealth
hierarchies, seniority hierarchies also serve as generally useful proxies for
most attributes that societies commonly value, are also relatively easy to
use, and avoid direct normative conflict with most sociopolitical value
systems even more adeptly than wealth hierarchies do. The term "natural
hierarchy" is employed here in a purely descriptive sense, without any
normative connotations whatsoever.