Theories

In 1962, Elman Service got published his defined four classifications of the stages of social evolution which are also the four levels of political organizations: band, tribe, chiefdom, & state.

He also developed the "managerial benefits" view that states that chiefdom-like society developed because it was apparently beneficial, because of the centralized leadership. The leader gives benefits to the followers, which, over time, become more complex, benefiting the whole chiefdom society. This submits the leader in power, & gives the bureaucratic company to grow.

He also had an integration theory. He believed that early civilizations were not stratified based on property. They were only stratified based on unequal political power, non because of unequal access to resources. He believed there were no true classes conflicts, but only energy to direct or creation struggles between the political elite in early civilizations. The integration component of this image was that monuments were created through volunteering, not the leaders forcing it upon the populace.

Elman Service also coined what he called “Law of Evolutionary Potential” in report to cultural evolution. This law posited that the more specialized and adapted a realize in a condition evolutionary stage, the smaller its potential for passing on to the next stage.