• @samus12345@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Good question! The oldest government still in operation appears to be San Marino, a tiny country near Italy, at around 415 years. Considering that even at a small size it’s only been around that long despite civilization being around 6000 years old, I think it’s safe to say we haven’t managed a system that has real staying power yet.

    • AbsentBird
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      4 months ago

      There’s hunter-gatherer tribes that have been more or less stable for over a thousand years. It’s said that the Nez Perce have lived on the Columbia River for 11,500 years.

      • @samus12345@lemmy.world
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        44 months ago

        Yeah, but for the purpose of looking at stable governments in cities, hunter-gather societies aren’t a helpful comparison.

        • AbsentBird
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          83 months ago

          I think it’s possible that nation states are inherently unstable. An improvement on monarchy, but still vulnerable to oligarchy.

          I’m not sure what the future holds, or what comes next, but I suspect that federation will play an important role.