Abstract:
It is widely argued that hierarchy is the most important feature of an agricultural society, in which the ruling class at the top rules those at the bottom. However, whether the governance system of an agricultural society is a hierarchical structure is worthy of discussion. Compared with the industrial society, an agricultural society is a society of undifferentiated chaos, where such elements as power, realm and organization are not differentiated. Therefore, this paper argues that the governance structure of an agricultural society is a stereo structure, which incorporates the two features:hierarchy and chaos. These two seemingly incompatible features are essentially complementary in the stereo structure of an agricultural society.