I'm wondering if social and political organizations must go through stages as we were taught in history, feudalism, mercantilism, capitalism, etc. and the lesson here is you can't skip steps.

I do not really believe this. I think it is possible to attempt to do a thing that's worth doing, but do it so haplessly, unluckily, etc. that things get worse.

I do not think that history recapitulates destiny. I think Homer Simpson was more to the point when he said: "History is just stuff that happens."