01-21-2017, 09:25 PM
(01-21-2017, 11:54 AM)David Horn Wrote:(01-20-2017, 02:44 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:(01-20-2017, 02:02 PM)David Horn Wrote: This is all true, but it avoids the question: can larger, a more complex human society exist without a bureaucracy to organize and manage it? If yes, can it manage that over an extended period of time? A 'no' to either question answers the mail.
The bronze age to iron age transition I mentioned resulted in a decrease in bureaucracy despite increases in population level. The largest iron age empires, such as the Roman Empire, had a more distributed governmental structure that relied less on bureaucracy than the bronze age empires despite being larger. That reduced level of bureaucracy was sustained for over two millenia until the advent of Communism and partially socialist mixed states.
OK then, let's limit our discussion to modernity, since that's the time frame we occupy. There is very little infrastructure that doesn't require standardization, and the days or snake oil remedies, unsafe food and competing fire departments is no longer tolerable by anyone.
Standardization needn't imply bureaucracy. Modern tech standards, for example, were mostly selected by choices of individual users from competing standards for similar purposes.