If the calculations of a Bolivian ayllu or Basque council – or presumably a Neolithic village administration like that of Tell Sabi Abyad, and its urban successors in Mesopotamia – produced an obviously impossible or unreasonable result, matters could always be adjusted. As anyone knows who has spent time in a rural community, or serving on a municipal or parish council of a large city, resolving such inequities might require many hours, possibly days of tedious discussion, but almost always a solution will be arrived at that no one finds entirely unfair. It’s the addition of sovereign power,
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