Paper 70 Overview: The Evolution of Human Government

This paper explores the evolutionary development of human government as a necessary mechanism for regulating human interactions and resolving the inevitable antagonisms that arise between individuals, families, clans, and tribes. Government emerged not as a conscious creation but as an evolutionary response to the practical necessities of social organization. Its genesis is traced from primitive beginnings in family and tribal structures through increasingly complex forms of regulation, illustrating how the struggle for existence propelled the rise of civilization through the establishment of law and order.

The narrative addresses multiple facets of governmental evolution, including the role of war in social development, the formation of early human associations, the rise of clans and tribes, the origins of formal government, the development of monarchial systems, and the formation of social classes. It also examines the conceptualization of human rights, the evolution of justice systems, the codification of laws, and the distribution of civil authority. Over time, government transitioned from negative, prohibitive systems aimed at survival to more positive, directive models that promote human progress, ultimately culminating in representative forms with balanced executive, legislative, and judicial functions.

No sooner had man partially solved the problem of making a living than he was confronted with the task of regulating human contacts. The development of industry demanded law, order, and social adjustment; private property necessitated government. On an evolutionary world, antagonisms are natural; peace is secured only by some sort of social regulative system. Social regulation is inseparable from social organization; association implies some controlling authority. Government compels the co-ordination of the antagonisms of the tribes, clans, families, and individuals.

Government is an unconscious development; it evolves by trial and error. It does have survival value; therefore it becomes traditional. Anarchy augmented misery; therefore government, comparative law and order, slowly emerged or is emerging. The coercive demands of the struggle for existence literally drove the human race along the progressive road to civilization.

War is the natural state and heritage of evolving man; peace is the social yardstick measuring civilization's advancement. Before the partial socialization of the advancing races, man was exceedingly individualistic, extremely suspicious, and unbelievably quarrelsome. Violence is the law of nature, hostility the automatic reaction of the children of nature, while war is but these same activities carried on collectively. Wherever and whenever the fabric of civilization becomes stressed by the complications of society's advancement, there is always an immediate and ruinous reversion to these early methods of violent adjustment of human interassociations. War is fundamentally an animalistic reaction to misunderstandings and irritations, whereas peace accompanies the civilized solution of all such problems and difficulties.

The very concept of war implies some degree of social organization, as it could not exist until society had evolved sufficiently to actually experience periods of peace and to sanction warlike practices. With the emergence of social groupings, individual irritations began to be submerged in collective group feelings, promoting intratribal tranquility but at the expense of intertribal peace. Early humans regarded shedding alien blood as virtuous rather than criminal. War persisted because of humanity's evolutionary animal heritage, with common causes including hunger and food scarcity, competition for women, displays of tribal vanity, the need for slaves, revenge for perceived wrongs, recreational violence, and religious motivations. These early tribal conflicts were often initiated by tribal chiefs who found it necessary to arrange periodic battles simply to entertain their people or to maintain their fighting skills.

In past ages, a fierce war would institute social changes and facilitate the adoption of new ideas such as would not have occurred naturally in ten thousand years. The terrible price paid for these certain war advantages was that society was temporarily thrown back into savagery; civilized reason had to abdicate. War is strong medicine, very costly and most dangerous; while often curative of certain social disorders, it sometimes kills the patient, destroys the society. The constant necessity for national defense creates many new and advanced social adjustments, and society today enjoys the benefit of a long list of useful innovations that were initially military in nature.

War has had social value to past civilizations through several mechanisms: it imposed discipline and enforced cooperation; it placed a premium on fortitude and courage; it fostered and solidified nationalism; it destroyed weak and unfit peoples; and it dissolved the illusion of primitive equality by selectively stratifying society. However, as civilization advances, war must eventually be abandoned. Modern transportation and communication methods better serve the cultural interchange once facilitated by war. Contemporary warfare leads to the disproportionate loss of individuals with advanced capacities and potential, completely reversing war's earlier evolutionary benefits. The industrial mechanism is supplanting the military mechanism, and the competition of industry is much preferable to the contest of arms. Just as medicine has progressed beyond bloodletting to better remedies, society must discover superior methods of addressing national and international challenges without resorting to the primitive method of war.

In the most primitive society, the horde was everything, with even children considered common property. The evolving family eventually displaced the horde in child-rearing, while emerging clans and tribes took its place as the social unit. Sex hunger and mother love established the family, but real government does not appear until superfamily groups have begun to form. In the prefamily days of the horde, leadership was provided by informally chosen individuals, as exemplified by the African Bushmen who never progressed beyond this primitive stage of development, lacking formal chiefs in their hordes.

As human organization progressed, families united by blood ties formed clans, which subsequently evolved into tribes based on territorial communities. Warfare and external pressure forced tribal organization upon kinship clans, while commerce and trade contributed to their internal cohesion and peace. The absence of common language impeded the growth of peace groups, but money eventually became the universal language of modern trade, with the gain motive acting as a powerful civilizer when augmented by the desire to serve. Early tribal societies were surrounded by concentric circles of fear and suspicion, leading to the killing or enslavement of strangers. The old idea of friendship meant adoption into the clan; and clan membership was believed to survive death—one of the earliest concepts of eternal life. Various ceremonies of association developed, including blood drinking (later substituted with wine), formal adoptions, and "guest friendship," which established protocols for hosting visitors and maintaining peace between tribal groups.

The first peace group was the family, then the clan, the tribe, and later on the nation, which eventually became the modern territorial state. The fact that present-day peace groups have expanded beyond blood ties to embrace nations represents significant progress, despite nations still investing vast resources in war preparations. The clans functioned as blood-tie groups within the tribe, owing their existence to shared interests such as common ancestry, religious totems, dialect similarities, shared dwelling places, mutual enemies, or collective military experiences. The clan headmen were always subordinate to the tribal chief, with early tribal governments operating as loose confederations of clans.

The native Australians never developed beyond this primitive tribal governmental form. The clan peace chiefs typically governed through matrilineal descent, while tribal war chiefs established patrilineal succession. The courts of tribal chiefs and early kings consisted of the headmen of the clans, whom the ruler would periodically summon to secure their cooperation. Though clans served a valuable purpose in local self-governance, they significantly delayed the development of larger and stronger nations by fragmenting authority and maintaining primacy of local interests over broader tribal or national cohesion. This tension between local autonomy and central authority represents one of the fundamental challenges in governmental evolution, reflecting the ongoing struggle between the efficiency of centralized power and the democratic benefits of distributed authority.

Every human institution had a beginning, and civil government is a product of progressive evolution just as much as marriage, industry, and religion. From the early clans and primitive tribes, successive orders of human government developed and transformed, leading to the social and civil regulations that characterize modern civilization. With the gradual emergence of family units, the foundations of government were established in the clan organization, which grouped consanguineous families. The first genuine governmental body was the council of the elders, composed of men who had distinguished themselves through some form of efficient service. Wisdom and experience were early appreciated even by primitive humans, leading to a long period dominated by the oligarchy of age, which gradually evolved into the patriarchal concept.

In the early council of the elders resided the potential of all governmental functions: executive, legislative, and judicial. When the council interpreted current customs, it functioned as a court; when establishing new modes of social usage, it acted as a legislature; and when enforcing such decrees and enactments, it served as the executive. The council chairman prefigured the later tribal chief. Some tribes had female councils, and certain tribes of the red man preserved the teaching of unanimous rule by a "council of seven." Humanity quickly learned that peace and war could not be effectively managed by a debating society, as an army commanded by a group of clan heads had little chance against a strong one-man army. The early war chiefs, initially chosen only for military service with limited peacetime authority, gradually encroached upon civil governance, ensuring frequent conflicts to maintain their power and status.

Effective state rulership emerged only with the establishment of a chief possessing full executive authority. Humans discovered that effective government required conferring power upon a personality rather than attempting to endow an idea with authority. Rulership originated from concepts of family authority or wealth, with early patriarchal kinglets sometimes called "father of the people." Later kings were believed to have heroic origins, and eventually, rulership became hereditary due to the belief in the divine origin of kings. The hereditary system prevented the anarchy that had previously occurred between a king's death and the selection of a successor, while the concept of royal families and aristocracy derived from clan traditions of "name ownership."

Royal succession eventually acquired supernatural significance, with royal bloodlines supposedly extending back to divine origins. These fetish kings were often kept secluded and considered too sacred for common viewing except during ceremonial occasions, necessitating representatives who became the first prime ministers and cabinet officials. The first cabinet officer was a food administrator, followed by others managing commerce and religion. This development of cabinet positions represented an initial step toward depersonalization of executive authority, as these assistants became the recognized nobility, while the king's wife gradually rose to the status of queen as women gained higher esteem. Despite the often despotic nature of early monarchy, rulers faced certain constraints, including the fear of assassination and the check provided by medicine men, priests, landowners, and aristocracy. When tyrants became excessively oppressive, clans and tribes would periodically rise up to overthrow them, establishing a primitive form of accountability for even the most absolute rulers.

Blood kinship determined the first social groups, while association expanded these kinship clans. Intermarriage further enlarged groups, with the resulting complex tribe becoming the first true political body. Religious cults and political clubs followed, initially appearing as secret societies that were wholly religious before becoming regulatory organizations. Originally formed as men's clubs before women's groups developed, these societies eventually divided into sociopolitical and religio-mystical categories. There were numerous motivations for the secrecy of these organizations, including fear of rulers' displeasure for violating taboos, protection of minority religious practices, preservation of valuable trade or spirit secrets, and enjoyment of special charms or magical knowledge.

The very secrecy of these societies conferred upon members a sense of mystery and power over non-initiates, appealing to vanity and creating a social aristocracy of the initiated. Following puberty ceremonies, boys joined the men in hunting rather than gathering vegetables with women—being denied initiation was considered a humiliating tribal disgrace. These primitive societies taught adolescent males sexual restraint, with controlling young men and preventing illegitimate children being primary functions of the clubs. After years of rigorous discipline and training, marked by self-torture and painful initiation rites, young men were briefly released before marriage and lifelong submission to tribal taboos—the ancient origin of the modern notion of "sowing wild oats." These organizations eventually evolved from secret societies into the first charitable organizations and later into religious societies, the forerunners of modern churches. Finally, some became intertribal, representing the first international fraternities.

The mental and physical inequality of human beings ensures that social classes will appear in all but the most primitive or most advanced worlds. A dawning civilization has not yet begun the differentiation of social levels, while a world settled in light and life has largely effaced these divisions of mankind, which are so characteristic of all intermediate evolutionary stages. As society emerged from savagery to barbarism, its human components tended to become grouped in classes for various reasons. Natural distinctions arose based on sex, age, and blood kinship with the chief. Personal distinctions emerged through recognition of ability, endurance, skill, fortitude, language mastery, knowledge, and general intelligence.

Chance factors such as war and emigration powerfully influenced class formation, with conquest significantly impacting social stratification. Economic factors related to wealth and slavery created genetic bases for social division, while geographic distinctions arose between urban and rural settlements. Social classes formed according to popular estimation of different groups' social worth, vocational differences created castes and guilds, religious distinctions preserved priestly classes, racial factors established color castes, and age differences separated youth from maturity. Flexible and shifting social classes remain indispensable to an evolving civilization, but when class becomes caste, social stability is purchased at the expense of individual initiative. Society will eventually achieve the evolutionary obliteration of artificial class distinctions through three primary mechanisms: biological renovation through selective elimination of inferior human strains; educational enhancement of increased brain capacity resulting from such biological improvement; and religious awakening of feelings of mortal kinship and brotherhood.

Nature confers no rights on humans, only life and a world in which to live it. Nature does not even guarantee the right to live, as evidenced by what would likely occur if an unarmed human encountered a hungry tiger in the primitive forest. Society's primary gift to humanity is security, which forms the foundation for all other rights to develop. Gradually, society has established and asserted various rights that now include assurance of food supply, military defense, internal peace preservation, sex control through the family institution, property ownership, individual and group competition, education and youth training, trade and commerce development, labor improvement, and religious freedom.

When rights have existed beyond memory of their origins, they are often called natural rights, but human rights are entirely social constructs rather than natural endowments. They represent the rules governing the ever-changing phenomena of human competition and thus continue to evolve with society. What constitutes a right in one age may not be recognized as such in another. The survival of large numbers of defectives and degenerates in modern society represents not their natural right to burden civilization but simply the current decree of social customs.

During the European Middle Ages, few human rights were recognized, as most individuals belonged to someone else, with rights existing only as privileges granted by state or church. The revolt against this error led to the equally mistaken belief that all people are born equal, ignoring the natural inequality of humans. Society cannot offer equal rights to all but must administer the varying rights of each individual with fairness and equity, providing everyone with a peaceful opportunity for self-maintenance, self-perpetuation, and self-gratification—the components of human happiness.

Natural justice is a human-made theory, not an objective reality. In nature, justice exists only as the inevitable conformity of results to causes. Justice, as conceived by humans, means receiving one's rights and has evolved progressively throughout history. While the concept may be inherent in a spirit-endowed mind, it did not emerge fully formed in the material worlds. Primitive humans attributed all phenomena to personal agents rather than natural causes, asking who killed a person rather than what caused the death. Accidental death was not recognized, and judgment was rendered based on the injury inflicted rather than the perpetrator's motives or intentions.

In early primitive society, public opinion operated directly without formal law enforcement officers. There was no privacy in primitive life, as a man's neighbors were responsible for his conduct and claimed the right to scrutinize his behavior. Early belief systems attributed justice administration to ghosts working through medicine men and priests, making these figures the first crime detectors and law officers. Their methods of detecting crimes involved ordeals of poison, fire, and pain—primitive forms of arbitration that rarely produced truly just outcomes.

The ancient practice of vengeance killing evolved into the paying-back attitude of retaliation, epitomized by the principle of "an eye for an eye, a life for a life." The transition from personal vengeance to punishment by society began when blood feuds were taken over by tribes, though exceptions often remained for crimes within families. The administration of true justice began when revenge was removed from private individuals and kin groups and placed in the hands of the state as the larger social group.

It is challenging to draw sharp distinctions between mores and laws, just as it is difficult to pinpoint precisely when dawn transitions to daylight. Mores represent laws and police regulations in their formative stages. When long-established, undefined customs tend to crystallize into precise laws, concrete regulations, and well-defined social conventions. Law is initially negative and prohibitive but becomes increasingly positive and directive as civilizations advance. Early society operated negatively, granting individuals the right to live by imposing upon others the command not to kill. Every grant of rights or liberty to individuals necessarily curtails the liberties of others, accomplished through taboos—primitive law. The entire concept of taboo is inherently negative, reflecting the wholly negative organization of primitive society.

Law represents the codified record of long human experience, with the mores providing the raw material from which later ruling minds formulated written laws. Ancient judges had no formal laws to reference; when rendering decisions, they simply stated, "It is the custom." Reference to precedent in modern court decisions represents judges' attempts to adapt written laws to changing social conditions, providing progressive adaptation while maintaining the impressiveness of traditional continuity. Early methods for resolving property disputes included destroying contested property, force, third-party arbitration, and appeals to elders or courts.

The first courts functioned essentially as regulated physical contests, with judges serving as referees, ensuring adherence to established rules. The primary objective of primitive justice was not fairness but dispute resolution to prevent public disorder and private violence. The status of any civilization can be accurately determined by the thoroughness, equity, and integrity of its judicial system.

The great struggle in governmental evolution has centered on the concentration of power. Universe administrators have learned through experience that evolutionary worlds function most effectively under representative government with a proper balance of power between well-coordinated executive, legislative, and judicial branches. While primitive authority was based on physical strength, the ideal government is a representative system where leadership derives from ability. However, during humanity's barbaric stages, there was too much warfare for representative government to function effectively. In the long struggle between division of authority and unity of command, the dictator typically prevailed, with the diffuse powers of primitive elder councils gradually concentrating in absolute monarchs.

After the emergence of actual kings, the elder groups persisted as quasi-legislative-judicial advisory bodies, eventually evolving into legislatures with coordinate status, followed by the establishment of supreme courts separate from these legislatures. The king functioned as the executor of the mores, the unwritten law, and later enforced legislative enactments representing crystallized public opinion. Popular assemblies, though slow to develop, marked significant social advancement.

Urantia mortals deserve liberty and should create appropriate governmental systems with constitutions establishing civil authority. After choosing their charter of liberty, people must provide for its wise, intelligent, and fearless interpretation to prevent various threats to freedom, including power usurpation, machinations of ignorant agitators, scientific retardation, mediocrity dominance, vicious minority control, ambitious dictators, panics, exploitation, taxation enslavement, church-state union, and loss of personal liberty. These concerns represent the purposes of constitutional tribunals acting as governors of representative government on evolutionary worlds.