№ 3 - 2003
Sergeyev V.M., Sergeyev K.V.
Mechanisms of Evolution of Societal Political Structure: Social Hierarchies and Social Nets

The article presents an attempt to systematize the existing visions of the social nets and hierarchies as components of the environment in which the functioning of political institutions is going on. Having demonstrated, among other things, that net elements within hierarchical structures are a sort of “reserve mechanisms” that get engaged, first of all, when vacancies are being filled, the authors then point out that the degree of interpenetration of these two varieties of “social body” — hierarchies and nets — is rather high. The hierarchical structure exploits the net elements as a means of stabilization; in its turn, the net structure, under certain circumstances, may get transformed into a hierarchical one, after it has taken the place of a hierarchy collapsed following a cognitive crisis. So, these two forms of social integration, as the authors conclude, complement each other, thus securing conservation of the social reality of which they are components.