  Historical narratives are dominated by actions of powerful individuals as
well as competitions for power. Characterizing the origins, types and
competitive strength of different kinds of power may yield a scaffolding for
understanding historical processes and mechanisms for winning or avoiding
conflicts. Michael Mann distinguished four types of power: political, military,
economic, and ideological. We show this framework is justified by four
motivations of individuals to transfer decisions to leaders: Desire to be a
member of a collective, avoiding harm due to threat, gaining benefit due to
payment, acquiring a value system. Constructing models of societies based upon
these types of power enables distinguishing social systems and describing their
dynamics. Dynamics include (a) competition between power systems, (b)
competition between powerful individuals, and (c) the dynamics of values within
a powerful individual. A historical trend is the progressive separation of
types of power to distinct groups of individuals. In ancient empires all forms
of power were concentrated in a single individual, e.g. Caesar during the Pax
Romana period. In an idealized modern democratic state, the four types of power
are concentrated in distinct sets of individuals. The progressive separation
suggests that in some contexts this confers a "fitness" advantage in an
evolutionary process similar to the selection of biological organisms. However,
individual countries may not separate power completely. The influence of wealth
in politics and regulatory capture is a signature of economic leader dominance,
e.g. the US. Important roles of political leaders in economics and corruption
are a signature of the political leader dominance, e.g. China. Ideological
leaders dominate in theocracies, e.g. Iran. Military leaders dominate in
dictatorships or where military leaders select leadership, e.g. Egypt.
