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A comment on The real roots of early city states may rip up the textbooks. Parent comment

Re:The real roots of early city states may rip up the textbooks by chongli on Sunday October 15, 2017 @12:56AM (#15475957)
As with many things, the line is blurry. I think governments really start to take shape once you get past Dunbar's number [0]. When people no longer know everybody, they need to rely on rules and designated authority figures to settle disputes. I don't know of any way around that.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

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Re:The real roots of early city states may rip up the textbooks by trhway on Sunday October 15, 2017 @01:50PM (#15478170)
>I think governments really start to take shape once you get past Dunbar's number [0].

and from the wikipedia:

"British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who found a correlation between primate brain size and average social group size."

that brings us to possible effect of social networks (which either help to overcome brain size limitation of social group size or help that brain function to atrophy - the exact effect on the brain is yet to be determined) on the government.

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Re:The real roots of early city states may rip up the textbooks by icebraining on Sunday October 15, 2017 @08:18AM (#15476827)
The seems suspect; after all, the parliaments and other legislative chambers of most countries are larger than Dunbar's number.
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Re:The real roots of early city states may rip up the textbooks by chongli on Sunday October 15, 2017 @08:56AM (#15476913)
Parliaments operate based on rules with a central authority, usually called the speaker, who acts to settle disputes. Parliaments do not operate like an extended family.
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Re:The real roots of early city states may rip up the textbooks by icebraining on Sunday October 15, 2017 @09:49AM (#15477092)
The speaker doesn't really settle disputes, only helps the parties do that between themselves. They're mediators, not arbitrators. And they don't even set the mediation rules. The disputes are settled by vote.

As a member of a bellicose family, I can assure you that family members (often older and respected by both sides) acting as mediators are pretty common :)

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