UPI: Ancient societies collapsed when leaders ignored social contract

I studied political science so this is of interest surely in that field and certainly if you're a student of history.

Researchers found societies with governments that were reasonably responsive to their people -- governments that met the definition of good governance -- tended to last a bit longer than autocratic governments.

However, researchers found that when good governments turned rotten, the breakup was often uglier than the collapse of autocratic governments.


According to the study, good governments fail more dramatically because the bureaucracy is more intimately integrated with society at large.

"Social networks and institutions become highly connected, economically, socially, and politically," Feinman said. "Whereas if an autocratic regime collapses, you might see a different leader or you might see a different capital, but it doesn't permeate all the way down into people's lives, as such rulers generally monopolize resources and fund their regimes in ways less dependent on local production or broad-based taxation."

Researchers also looked at why exactly good governments fail. They found the collapse of good governments was often triggered by the rise to power of amoral leaders -- leaders who ignored the social contract and abandoned their society's ideals.

Such betrayals often precipitated or accompanied rising inequality, concentration of political power, tax evasion, crumbling infrastructure and the decline of bureaucratic institutions -- a pattern researchers suggest can be observed in modern societies.

What societies did they study you might want to know:

To better understand the role of government on the success and longevity of ancient societies, researchers took an in-depth look at principles that guided the governments of four societies: the Roman Empire, China's Ming Dynasty, India's Mughal Empire and the Venetian Republic.

While I hope not in my lifetime, however, the fall of the American Republic if it ever happens will be very ugly! 

h/t Instapundit