Page 485 - Cultures and Organizations

450 IMPLICATIONS

not possibly know one another personally required new mechanisms for
legitimizing group identity. A strong symbolic identity that transcended
blood relationships was a precondition for continued existence of a state.
The ancient states along the Indus, Nile, and Tigris-Euphrates all evolved
systems of legitimation in which their leaders were directly related to
their deities. They also tended to develop male-centered, monotheistic
religions. A single god is a strong asset to provide continuity of existence
for a numerous people surrounded by enemy peoples: a dangerous power
vacuum that could lead to civil war need not occur when consecutive rul-
ers pledge alliance to the same god, and religious rulers can be active in
transferring leadership when a monarch dies. So, worldly leaders of states
and empires have always tended to seek support of religion, even in secular
countries.
A state-level identity can still be problematic if there are divided loyal-
ties within the state, even if religion is not involved. This, as discussed in
Chapter 7, is the case in many parts of Africa, where tribal ties prevail. As
the extreme example of a failed state, we mentioned Somalia, where only
the clan loyalties typical of a pastoral society survived.
The phenomenon of cultural legitimation occurs in all walks of life.

When the first slave ship visited the port of Vlissingen in the Netherlands
in the seventeenth century, the local inhabitants were shocked to see the
inhuman conditions in which the slaves were kept, and they proceeded to
set the slaves free. Soon afterward, though, priests were convincing the
people of the Netherlands that slavery was in the best interest of these
lesser creatures, and it took generations before it was fi nally abolished. 27
All peoples that go to war believe that God is with them. We justify what

we do, rather than doing that which is a priori justifiable. All the while, few
of us are aware of this dynamic; apparently, being aware that our beliefs

serve the continuation of the existence of the groups to which we belong
has not been advantageous for group survival.

Bureaucratic Organization
The Greek philosopher Plato (427–347 b.c.), to whose ideas we referred
in Chapters 3 and 5, wrote his principles of organization of the State in
28
the treatise Politeia. This is the root of the words politics, polity (political
unit), and, in the communist world, politburo for the highest body of gov-
ernment. The latter term leads us to bureaucracy, which we described in
Chapter 9 as Max Weber’s ideal of an impersonal organization, combining
small power distance and strong uncertainty avoidance.