The Concept of Slow Collapse

Societies collapse when their political systems either fail or change dramatically, and the "Great Traditions", the panoply of cultural features that uniquely characterize them, also fail, or change drastically. The Roman Empire and the Classic Maya have both long been regarded as the best examples of societies that have collapsed. This "slow" collapse explains why it is possible to deny that there has been a collapse at all, and why the process whereby a complex culture, that changes into a different form and recovers from collapse to highlight human resilience and continuing cultural complexity, can look and feel more like a transition or transformation. In essence, the concept of slow collapse is intended to reconcile the arguments of those who favor transition and those who favor collapse. The loss of population and lower population density of the survivors are important aspects of the slow collapse.