"Natural state" of societies

We Americans tend to think of our society as the natural way of things. We expect everyone in the world will just naturally desire liberty, impartial justice, the rule of law, and equal rights. Here's an article by Arnold Kling which discusses a couple of papers. The main point made in those papers is that the natural state of a culture – the most stable form of culture – is marked by a small privileged elite, and an unfree majority.

NWW claim that there are three types of societies. Primitive orders are small bands of hunter-gatherers, and they are of little concern here. Limited-access orders are societies that provide meaningful political and economic rights only to narrow elites. Open-access orders are capitalist democracies that give political and economic rights to most citizens. NWW argue that limited-access orders are the "natural state:" they are stable, they resist economic progress, and they only rarely make the transition to open-access orders.

As applied to Iraq, we have the question of how to take a society that's solidly "limited access" and turn it into an "open access" society. What conditions make this possible?

NWW argue that three conditions are necessary before a transition from a limited-access order to an open-access order is even conceivable. These three "doorstep conditions" are: 1. rule of law for elites

(Meaning elites maintain or lose their power through due process, and not through changes in personal loyalty relationships)

2. perpetual life for organizations

(Meaning organizations can be expected to outlive their key members, and thus are not held together only by personal loyalty)

3. political control of the military

Meaning...

...the NWW standard of political control of the military is very difficult to obtain. It requires a consolidated military force, separate from each faction, with the individual factions disarmed. To attain this outcome, a balanced coalition of powerful elites must agree on a set of rules and procedures that govern the use of military forces, and the coalition must have mechanisms that can ensure that such rules and procedures will be followed.

Arnold Kling blogs here.