This second of three volumes sets out a general account of the structure
and evolution of human societies. The author argues first that societies
are to be defined as sets of roles whose incumbents are competitors for
access to, or control of, the means of production, persuasion and
coercion; and second, that the process by which societies evolve is one
of competitive selection of the practices by which roles are defined
analagous, but not reducible, to natural selection. He illustrates and
tests these theses with evidence drawn from the whole range of societies
documented in the historical and ethnographic record. The result is an
original, powerful and far-reaching reformulation of evolutionary
sociological theory which will make it possible to do for the
classification and analysis of societies what Darwin and his successors
have done for the classification and analysis of species.