The object of this article is to inquire into the heuristic capacity of Easton's model of analysis. If one accepts that from an epistemological point of view there is an articulation between historically situated social practice and the formulation of concepts which attempt to represent and explain a particular situation, one is then led to question whether a theory produced in this way is capable of comprehending a different social reality which corresponds to other parameters of time and space and which is therefore characterized by a totally different problematic.

After having set out the hypotheses and the logic inherent in the Eastonian model, the authors apply these to a stateless society—that of the Adioukrou. They then proceed to suggest the limitations of the definition of the “political” contained in this model which is based on a specific definition of the division of labour. Without denying the existence of the political in stateless societies, the authors argue that the hypothesis of functional differentiation cannot be applied in all cases and therefore cannot be taken for granted; that one cannot identify the boundaries of the “political” in such societies and finally that one cannot speak of the specialization of functions within different systems in any transferable or automatic sense. In a society based on lineages such as that of the Adioukrou where the organization of production is based on the village community and where there is absence of the appropriation of the means of production on a private basis, it is impossible to identify the specificity of the “political” as opposed to other areas of social interactions.