Ilie Badescu and Joseph Livni follow the footsteps of two giants who pioneered the field: H. H. Stahl of Romania, who studied the sociology of communal societies, and D. J. Elazar of the United States, who studied the political science of covenantal societies. This collection sheds light on obscure corners of the field, gathering up thoughts and concepts of many other sources of past and contemporary research in the field. In this volume, the reader will find answers to difficult questions like: How did acephalous societies penetrate civilization? How did they manage to preserve their egalitarian ethos? Why did powerful hierarchies work in partnership with them? And, most importantly, how did covenantal societies work around the constraints of a civilized reality? The history of civilization consists of various degrees of stratified configurations ranging from oligarchic city states to powerful pyramidal empires.
Ilie Badescu is Director of the Institute of Sociology (Romanian Academy). Joseph Livni is independent scholar.
Introduction Chapter 1: Nomadism and the Sociological Seed of Pre-Monarchic Israel by Joseph Livni Chapter 2: Power Structure within Autonomy in Roman Palestine by Zeev Safrai Chapter 3: Jewish Diaspora Communities by Joseph Livni Chapter 4: Communal Society and the Societal "Dual System": Equality and Inequality in Carpathian Valleys by Ilie Badescu Chapter 5: The Covenant as Ideal Type, A Sociological Study of a Covenanted Community Model by Madalina Mandita Chapter 6: Romanian Traditional Society:Social Control and Social Order by Adela Serban Chapter 7: From Covenant to Compact to Contract: The Legal Transplantation of Puritan Jurisprudence to America by Peter Mazzacano Chapter 8: The Salem Witch Trials and the Decay of the Great Puritan Experiment by Rachel Christ Chapter 9: The Catholic Hierarchy and Clerical Sexual Abuse by Jo Renee Formicola About the Contributors
A Civil Society with no Hierarchy: The Covenantal Societal Model is an extremely interesting book, edited by Livni and Badescu - who also contributed with their main research chapters - about the role of covenants in the historical, sociological, and legal development of various societies since antiquity and until modern times. The relationship between covenants, assembly and self-government, and federalism adds further interest and contemporary relevance to the reading of this excellent book. -- Mario Sznajder, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
