The Collapse of Multilayer Predation and the Emergence of a Monolithic Leviathan

TL;DR

This paper models how multilayer predatory systems collapse into a single strongman regime due to conflicts between rent dissipation and survival constraints, leading to social stagnation.

Contribution

It introduces a recursive game model illustrating the transition from multilayer predation to a monolithic strongman system driven by entropy dynamics.

Findings

Hierarchical predatory structures tend to collapse into a strongman system.

The rise of a strongman is driven by entropy reduction strategies.

Social complexity diminishes as order is imposed through force.

Abstract

This paper constructs a multilayer recursive game model to demonstrate that in a rule vacuum environment, hierarchical predatory structures inevitably collapse into a monolithic political strongman system due to the conflict between exponentially growing rent dissipation and the rigidity of bottom-level survival constraints. We propose that the rise of a monolithic political strongman is essentially an "algorithmic entropy reduction" achieved through forceful means by the system to counteract the "informational entropy increase" generated by multilayer agency. However, the order gained at the expense of social complexity results in the stagnation of social evolutionary functions.