A state society is a centralized political system with formal institutions and hierarchy. It has a government that collects taxes, makes laws, and claims a monopoly on legitimate force. States are stratified. Power, wealth, and status are distributed unequally and often inherited. The earliest states arose around 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, and Mesoamerica. They grew out of earlier chiefdoms, usually in areas with fertile land and irrigation.

States need records. Writing, accounting, and bureaucracy developed alongside them. They also need legitimacy. Rulers justify their power through religion, descent, or claims of divine favor. States expand. They absorb neighboring peoples, build roads and armies, and standardize weights, measures, and language. They also collapse. Environmental stress, rebellion, and external invasion have brought down many states throughout history.

Common features

• Centralized government with formal offices.
• Taxation and tribute collection.
• Social stratification and hereditary elites.
• Writing, law codes, and standing armies.

States are not the only way to organize large populations. But they are the most common form of political organization in the world today.