Pre-Modern Checks and Balances: an Analysis of Hunter-Gatherer Cultures

Although support for democratic values remains high across the world, political scientists report the erosion of institutional checks and balances. Why do citizens allow dismantling of democratic institutions? Does it mean that contemporary institutions for constraining authorities do not resonate with our human minds? In this paper we take the first steps to identify the pre-modern "original" mechanisms to constrain and empower authorities by investigating hunter-gatherer communities. Through the analysis of ethnographic records in the eHRAF World Cultures database, we examine (1) under what conditions hunter-gatherers empowered and constrained their leaders and (2) what mechanisms they used to prevent the abuse of power. In this pilot study, we analysed 1,106 paragraphs describing six cultures from different regions of the world and with different socio-political organization. Our analyses point to a set of possible political intuitions triggered by the challenges faced by a subset of hunter-gatherer communities. Preliminary findings show aversion towards domination, vigilance and punishment of rule violations, preference for competence-based leadership and majority decision-making. Our results suggest that democratic backsliding might not be due to the general incompatibility of checks and balances with the human intuitions about politics, but rather that the combination of the design of our institutions and the specific circumstances might enable democratic erosion.