Hydraulic Society

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According to the sociologist Karl A. Wittfogel, a hydraulic society ( ancient Greek ὑδραυλική hydrauliké from ὕδωρ hýdor , German 'water' and αὐλός aulós , German 'pipe, flute' ) is a culture and society whose (agricultural) economic and political continuity and development potential is decisive from a successful networked hydraulic - United technique (especially by dyke construction , sewer systems , flood regulation , locks ) depend.

Central sociological characteristics

For this purpose, centralized typical forms of rule (" hydraulic empire ", " water monopoly empire ", "hydraulic despotism") with a planned economy that are more powerful and technically based on hydraulic engineering, including geodesy and mathematics, have historically and religiously supported by a state cult (often with a powerful priesthood ) specialized bureaucracy (in the sense of Max Weber ) and high legal security . It explains e.g. B. the special character of a god-kingship with simultaneous early written culture , urbanization , advanced division of labor ( social differentiation ) and high development of mathematics, astronomy and engineering .

Occurrence

Classical for this are already in antiquity the Chinese empire to tame the Huang Hes , the high culture that appeared early in the Punjab on the Indus , the regulation of the Euphrates and Tigris in Mesopotamia (see Babylonian Empire), the Egyptian pharaohs on the middle and lower Nile , the Khmer -rich of Angkor and - to a lesser extent - the Aztecs in Mexico (see FIG. Tenochtitlán ) or Inca state in Peru from destruction by the Spanish conquest and colonization .

The Netherlands (as the first major political power of the European bourgeoisie ) give a limited example within Western cultures , which was not only based on long-distance trade and manufacture , but also heavily on the common cultivation of the Rhine Delta and the constant fight against the " blank Hans " ( cf. the storm surges of the North Sea) and thus also had to rely on the efficient bureaucratic union of city republics .

discussion

Wittfogel's concentration on the individual traits of “ oriental despotism ” with a strong priesthood has been criticized several times (for example by Joseph Needham using the example of China ), but the term “hydraulic society” is used to describe this (ideally) typical social structure well into the 21st century .

See also

literature

  • "The hydraulic society and the specter of the Asian restoration." Conversation with Karl August Wittfogel. In: Mathias Greffrath (ed.): The destruction of a future. Talks with emigrated social scientists. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1989, pp. 263-310.
  • Comparison of literature and criticism of Wittfogel's thesis of a “hydraulic despotism”, according to which the early oriental empires based their power primarily on water regulation technology, in:
    Stefan Breuer : Max Weber's rule sociology . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 110f., ISBN 3-593-34458-0