1. Political system or polity is concerned with the distribution of power in a society. In each social relationship, there are some who exercise power over others. Even in a group of two individuals (what is technically called a dyad), one of them exercises power over the other. Thus, no human relationship is without the exercise of power. For sociologists, power is a universal characteristic of human society.
2. Political system is that system of society which defines the roles that human beings occupy in order to maintain law and order on the one hand, and supervise the functioning of the society on the other One of the functions of political system is to maintain the legal order, and this, in fact, is its main function in simple societies. In complex societies, along with this function, its other function, is to distribute resources for social and economic development.
3. An important component of the political system is the state. Here, we should note that there have been societies in the world which did not have the institution of state. Hunting and food-gathering societies, several types of pastoral and agricultural societies do not have a king, chief or lord who is the center of power. These societies do not have a centralized authority. Neither do they have governments or legal systems. Nor is there a division of society into classes of rich and poor, or privileged and unprivileged. These societies are known as stateless.
4. They are different from those societies that have a centralized authority, government, legal system and classes. They are the state societies. The prominent examples of stateless societies are the Australian Aborigines, the Yako and Ibo of Nigeria, the Masai and Nandi of East Africa, the Nuer of Sudan. Among the simple societies an outstanding example of the political state comes from the Zulu of South Africa.
5. Absence of political state does not imply that these societies lack an orderly existence. They certainly are not in a state of anarchy. They have other institutions that try to maintain order in society.
6. For instance, the elders may resolve the conflicts between individuals. Or, there may be persons occupying religious offices who are approached for their intervention in conflicting situations. The Nuer, for example, have religious chiefs, known as leopard-skin chiefs, because they wear leopard skin and are approached in matters of homicide, that is, a man accidentally killing another man. In other words, no society is free from conflicts and violations of rules of behaviour. And, each society, in some or the other ways resolves these conflicts.
