I don't see ideals as artificial. The codes, creeds, heroes, narratives serve as the locus of culture. The grain of sand at the center of the pearl. Without which the society will break down and dissipate. Tower of Babel.
Yet ideals are not absolutes, aka, universals. The universal is the elemental, from which we rise, not the ideals we have as focal points.
Science looks to the elements, art looks to the ideals.
It is that reality tends to be inherently dualistic, so there is always that centrifugal dynamic pulling against the centripetal dynamic of the ideal at the center. Like galaxies are energy radiating out, as structure coalesces in.
Imperialism is simply one way for larger societies to organize. The top down model. Yet it has to contend with the bottom up growth dynamic on which it rides, without falling off, killing the growth, succumbing to corruption, etc.
My sense is the monotheists were the monarchists and the pantheists were the democrats, republicans. Given the intellectual evolution and specialization was fairly basic, it stands to reason there was little distinction between culture and civics.
Michael Hudson has done a series of books on the evolution of the Ancient world;
Focused on the tension between nations as unified states and the economic forces, factions, oligarchs, etc. trying to break them down.
Safe to say, the same dynamic is certainly a major factor today.
