In legal systems, a contract is an agreement having a lawful object entered into voluntarily by two or more parties. A contract is a legally enforceable promise or undertaking that something will or will not occur. The word promise is a legal synonym for contract. Societal living is ‘Social Contract.’ Societal collapse is the disappearance of human societies. Societal collapse includes both abrupt societal failures such as that of the Mayan Civilization or gradual declines of superpowers like the Roman empire. The general subject arises in ‘complex systems science.’ What distinguishes failures of human societies from long term decline of a culture, its civil institutions is not widely agreed. Factors that contribute to societal collapse are economic, environmental, social and culture. A natural disaster effects like a whole system out of balance. In some cases inequity with lack of loyalty to a central power results in an oppressed lower class rising. ‘Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed?’ is a book by Diamond. In writing the book Diamond intends that its readers learn from history. According to Jared Diamonds theory, five interconnected occurrences reinforce each other: 1. Non-sustainable exploitation of resources 2. Climate changes 3. Diminishing support from friendly societies 4. Hostile neighbors, 5. Inappropriate attitudes for change Joseph Tainter theorizes that ‘societies exhausted their own designs and were unable to adapt to natural diminishing returns for what they knew as their method of survival.’ Toynbees idea is that ‘they find problems they cant solve’.. According to Joseph Tainter three models work in the ‘face of collapse’: 1. The ‘Dinosaur’, is a large-scale society in which resources are being depleted. In this type of society, rulers favor intensification and commit an increasing number of resources to their present plans, projects, and social institutions. 2. The ‘Runaway Train’ is a society that depends on constant growth. This type of society is based exclusively on acquisition, pillage or exploitation and cannot be sustained indefinitely. The Assyrian and Mongol Empires collapsed when no new conquests were forthcoming. 3. The ‘House of Cards’ is a society that has grown so large and includes so many complex social institutions that it is inherently unstable and is prone to collapse. Eastern bloc collapsed. Alexis de Tocqueville observed ‘when voluntary and private associations are allowed to flourish and gain legitimacy at an institutional level, they complement and often even supplant governmental functions. They provide a safety valve for dissent, assist with resource allocation, provide for social experimentation without the need for governmental coercion, and enable the public to maintain confidence in society as a whole even during periods of governmental weakness.’
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 12:09:01 +0000