Researchers tested four models of leadership for qualities and correlates that could predict the transmission of leadership cross-culturally. Researchers sampled 60 societies from the Probability Sample Files, coding for 24 variables. Support was found for the prevalence of the collective action model and the prestige model, with a lack of support found for the dominance leadership model.

The present study attempts to replicate the Ember, Ember, and Russett (1992) worldwide finding that fighting rarely occurs between democracies in a sample of eastern African societies. Following the earlier study, the authors considered internal warfare to be an analog of international warfare and measures of political participation analogous to democracy. The researchers also explore if there is an association between political participation and committing atrocities. Contrary to past findings, internal warfare was not predicted by the same set of variables as the 1992 study, but there is an inverse relationship between committing atrocities and political participation. However, when additional variables were added, internal warfare was significantly predicted by less political participation.

This article examines direction of succession and inheritance as they relate to culture area and kinship system. Several hypotheses are presented and all are supported.

This study examines the relationship between political participation and warfare, suggesting that checks on power, removal of leaders, extent of political participation, and absence of fission will be negatively associated with the frequency of warfare. This hypothesis was supported with empirical analysis.

This article uses pre-defined criteria to sample 22 archaeological climate-related disasters from 9 distinct regions from eHRAF Archaeology. It quantitatively tests four hypotheses regarding change in conflict following climate-related disasters using multiple regression analyses and backwards stepwise regression. Findings demonstrate association between political strategy/authority decision making and degree of post climate disaster conflict.

Using a new expert survey, the authors explore the democraticness of traditional political systems (TPS) in 159 ethnic groups in Africa. Their initial analysis finds that measures of public preference input and political process control are particularly strong contributors to the degree that a society may develop democracy in their TPS. They also find that societies with powerful elders are more likely to be democratic, while more hierarchically organized political systems and those with kings, chiefs, and segmentary lineages are less likely.

The present study investigates whether there is resilience variability following climate-related disasters in societies that are corporate-oriented, which promote participatory and inclusive structures, and exclusionary-oriented, which limit political authority and power. The findings offer modest support for social resilience theory that more flexible (i.e. more participatory) societies would be more resilient after a disaster than less flexible societies. Although only 5 of 14 correlations are significant, the direction is significant by a binomial sign test.

The authors examine correlations between slavery and variables that can potentially be detected archaeologically. The authors do not test specific hypotheses, but aim to explore the variables in a broader sense. As such, the authors use a grounded theory approach to data analysis in order to examine trends that emerge from the data itself.

The author analyzes conditions that might favor social resilience during the Late Antique Little Ice Age (ca. 536-556 CE). The assumption is made that climatic conditions in the Northern Hemisphere during this period of time are very similar to those that would occur during a nuclear winter. These conditions include a drop in temperature and decreased solar radiation from volcanic eruptions. Measures for social resilience come from multiple variables for social change, which are tested against measures for type of political engagement. It is argued that broad political participation is correlated with resilience.

In this study, the authors examine pathways to social inequality, specifically social class hierarchy, in 408 non-industrial societies. In a path model, they find social class hierarchy to be directly associated with increased population size, intensive agriculture and large animal husbandry, real property inheritance (unigeniture) and hereditary political succession, with an overall R-squared of 0.45. They conclude that a complex web of effects consisting of environmental variables, mediated by resource intensification, wealth transmission variables, and population size all shape social inequality.