In regards to Arno Tausch's question/suggestion,
it seems to me it is very hard to distinguish--from the midst of the
process--between a more-or-less normal cycling of the system, and a
significan change/transformation of the system.
A good read is Joseph Tainter's Collapse of Complex Societies (1988).
His argument is that under conditions of declining marginal returns the
overhead of organization is too expensive, so collapse can happen.
An interesting class aspect of his analysis is that while collapse is
disastrous for elites, commoners may actually benefit--atleast those who
survive.
tom
Thomas D. [tom] Hall
thall@depauw.edu
Department of Sociology
DePauw University
Greencastle, IN 46135
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