Hydraulic Empire

使君子

Hydraulic Empire

A hydraulic empire, also known as a hydraulic despotism or water monopoly empire, is a social or government structure which maintains power and control through exclusive control over access to water. It arises through the need for flood control and irrigation, which requires central coordination and a specialized bureaucracy.

Civilizations

A developed "hydraulic civilization" maintains control over its population by means of controlling the supply of water. The term was coined by the German American historian Karl August Wittfogel (1896 – 1988), in <Oriental Despotism> (1957). Wittfogel asserted that such "hydraulic civilizations" — although they were neither all located in the Orient nor characteristic of all Oriental societies — were essentially different from those of the Western world.

Most of the first civilizations in history, such as Ancient Egypt, Sri Lanka, Mesopotamia, China and pre-Columbian Mexico and Peru, are believed to have been hydraulic empires. The Indus Valley civilization is often considered a hydraulic empire despite a lack of evidence of irrigation (as this evidence may have been lost in time due to flood damage). Most hydraulic empires existed in desert regions, but imperial China also had some such characteristics, due to the exacting needs of rice cultivation.

Analysis

Wittfogel argues that climate caused some parts of the world to develop higher levels of civilization than others. He is known for claiming that climate in the Orient led to despotic rule.

The typical hydraulic empire government, in Wittfogel's thesis, is extremely centralized, with no trace of an independent aristocracy -- in contrast to the decentralized feudalism of medieval Europe. Though tribal societies had structures that were usually personal in nature, exercised by a patriarch over a tribal group related by various degrees of kinship, hydraulic hierarchies gave rise to the established permanent institution of impersonal government. Popular revolution in such a state was impossible: a dynasty might die out or be overthrown by force, but the new regime would differ very little from the old one. Hydraulic empires were only ever destroyed by foreign conquerors.

Wittfogel's ideas, when applied to China, have been harshly criticized by scholars such as Joseph Needham who argued essentially that Wittfogel was operating from ignorance of basic Chinese history. Needham argued that the Chinese government was not despotic, was not dominated by a priesthood, and that Wittfogel's perspective does not address the necessity and presence of bureaucracy in modern Western civilization.

In Fiction

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• The most famous hydraulic empire in fiction is probably described in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, which describes a traditional hydraulic empire on the planet Arrakis, as well as a galactic empire controlled by the limitation of the spice drug produced on Arrakis.
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• The society described by Larry Niven in his 1998 novel, Destiny's Road, is classified as a hydraulic empire. In the case of the story, though, a rigid bureaucracy holds the sole reliable source of potassium, and without it people will see increasing cognitive issues until they die. The hero of this novel, Jeremy Bloocher (under various pseudonyms) discovers the status quo and at the end of the novel actively works to upset the balance.
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• The protagonist in Larry Niven's 1976 book, A World Out of Time, describes the concept of a water-monopoly empire to the antagonist. This becomes a major plot point.
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使君子

东方专制主义

　　魏特夫的「东方专制主义」理论沿用了马克思的「亚细亚生产方式」的讲法。魏特夫认为在东方社会，社会生产方式并没有像马克思所讲的那样经历了不同的阶段，而是一直停留在亚细亚生产方式的水平上。而在魏特夫看来，亚细亚生产方式也可以叫做「东方专制主义」，也就是说，东方传统社会从周朝开始到20世纪为止，并没有经历过所谓的封建制和资本主义，而一直是以东方专制主义为特征的亚细亚生产方式。这种东方专制主义社会的特征有以下几点：

　　第一， 这种社会是一种「水利社会」（Hydraulic Society）, 也就是说，东亚大陆的水利工程十分艰巨，所以必须要有劳动力，生产资料，科学技术和管理体系的高度集中才能完成这些水利工程；

　　第二， 其次，正因为这种高度的集中，造成政治权力的集中和专制，所以东亚社会一直就是专制、大一统；

　　第三， 就是这种君主制，造成生产资料，如土地，江河等等，完全归皇帝天子所有，真正的土地公有、私有制度均没有出现；

　　第四， 东方社会只有皇帝控制下的贵族，并没有相对独立的贵族阶级；

　　第五， 东方社会的政府对国家的经济实行垄断；

　　第六， 东方社会没有法律，专制君主意志就是法律；

　　第七， 东方社会的专制特点具有十分强烈的稳固性，人民的文化心理对其高度认同。

[ 本帖最後由 使君子 於 2009-8-22 16:51 編輯 ]

使君子

Wittfogel On The Hydraulic Civilization

Civilizations whose agriculture was dependent upon large-scale waterworks for irrigation and flood control were called "Hydraulic Civilizations" by the German-American historian Karl A. Wittfogel in his book Oriental Despotism (1957).

Wittfogel believed that such "hydraulic civilizations" – although neither all in the Orient nor characteristic of all Oriental societies – were quite different from those of the West. He believed that wherever irrigation required substantial and centralized control, government representatives monopolized political power and dominated the economy, resulting in an absolutist managerial state. In addition, there was a close identification of these officials with the dominant religion and an atrophy of other centres of power. The forced labour for irrigation projects was directed by the bureaucratic network. Among these hydraulic civilizations, Wittfogel listed ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China and pre-Columbian Mexico and Peru.（在欧洲人的世界观中   美洲印第安人也属于「东方」）

The extreme importance of the role of irrigation in social development has been disputed by other writers. Not all of the features that Wittfogel linked are necessarily found together, and they also may appear without large-scale irrigation. The static nature of his model has also been criticized. The U.S. anthropologist Robert McCormick Adams suggested that archaeological evidence fails to support Wittfogel's contention that irrigation is the primary cause of the formation of coercive political institutions but conceded that, as part of a larger system of subsistence techniques, political structure, and economic relationships, it may help consolidate political control.

Work organization of the ancient world 

The first general theory advanced to explain the development of ancient civilizations with systematic organization of work on a large scale, the emergence of social classes, and widespread specialization was elaborated in the United States by the historian and political scientist Karl Wittfogel in his seminal book <Oriental Despotism> (1957). Wittfogel believed that the development of irrigation works in such areas as Mesopotamia and Egypt led to the use of mass labour, to an organizational hierarchy for coordinating and directing its activities, and to government control for ensuring proper distribution of the water. Though tribal societies had had some form of government, this was usually personal in nature, exercised by a patriarch over a tribal group related by various degrees of kinship. Now, for the first time, an impersonal government as a distinct and permanent institution was established.

Irrigation increased the food supply, allowing larger numbers of people to agglomerate into towns and cities. Because farmers were vulnerable to attack, armies were needed, with the implication of an officer class. Town specialization of labour brought the emergence of potters, weavers, metalworkers, scribes, lawyers, and physicians, while the new surpluses also created the basis for commerce. The more complex economy required records, so writing, of which the first examples come from the bookkeeping records of the storehouses in ancient Mesopotamia, was born.

Wittfogel's theory has been modified by scholars who point to the emergence of urban civilizations in some areas without the presence of large-scale irrigation works. In their view, several factors, including geographic features, natural-resource distribution, climate, kinds of crops and animals raised, and relations with neighbouring peoples, entered into the response to the environment. These scholars might be said to apply a "systems" approach to the interpretation of the origins of organized societies.