Human Dominance Hierarchies
Before diving into the nuances of governance structures, we must explore humanity’s default governance system: The dominance hierarchy. This is the system humans instinctively use when another governing system is not intentionally constructed and agreed upon. This system is core to understanding all other human governance systems, as to some extent it is the default system with which they must compete.
Humans evolved a de facto governance system that shares much in common with the way our closest relatives—chimps and bonobos—organize their troops. This system comes complete with rules for how to choose a leader, how to rise to power, and how to make decisions. That said, the system is so ubiquitous it is practically invisible to us. It is easy to look at your group of friends and not realize that an unwritten governing structure rules your small tribe and comes into effect every time you make a group decision, like where to eat dinner. If you haven’t agreed on another system, such decisions are almost certainly made using a dominance hierarchy.
It is crucial to understand this system not just because it is the single most common governance system you will encounter, but because all governing systems have to build mechanisms to fight against the instinctual impulses this system has bred into the human mind. Unless one puts mechanisms in place to prevent it, a dominance hierarchy governing structure will form on top of other governing structures as a sort of shadow governance that ends up being the real driving force behind the organization’s decisions. This can take place anywhere from a board room to a town council, Congress, or office floor. When dominance hierarchies kick in, you end up adopting the same governing structure chimps use. In such scenarios, all the effort put into constructing an “advanced” governing structure, like a board, is for nothing.
Even if you place the best mechanisms you can conceive to prevent simple dominance hierarchies from overtaking your workplace, family office, or governing structure, they will still bubble up in the background of family politics, office drama, and lunches between politicians. Regardless of whether you, personally, would rather opt out of brute dominance hierarchies, understanding this simplest of governing structures—one used by apes and children—is key to unlocking increased effectiveness in intentionally designed governing structures.