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Anarchy and its Breakdown
Abstract
Anarchy, defined as a system in which participants can seize and defend resources without regulation from above, is not chaos but rather a spontaneous order. However, anarchy is fragile and may dissolve either into formless "amorphy" or into a more organized system such as hierarchy. Under anarchy, each contestant balances between productive exploitation of the current resource base and fighting to acquire or defend resources. Anarchy is sustainable only when there are strongly diminishing returns to fighting effort (the "decisiveness parameter" is sufficiently low) and incomes exceed the viability minimum. These considerations explain many features of animal and human conflict.
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Citations
Cited by
Commodity Price Shocks and Civil Conflict: Evidence from Colombia
Dube, O., & Vargas, J. F. (2013) · The Review of Economic Studies · doi:10.1093/restud/rdt009 · Cited by 1,187
Esteban, J., & Ray, D. (1999) · Journal of Economic Theory · doi:10.1006/jeth.1999.2549 · Cited by 553
The Cost of Diversity: The Diversification Discount and Inefficient Investment
Rajan, R. G., Servaes, H., & Zingales, L. (1998) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.56108 · Cited by 409
Natural resources and violent conflict: resource abundance, dependence, and the onset of civil wars
Brunnschweiler, C. N., & Bulte, E. H. (2009) · Oxford Economic Papers · doi:10.1093/oep/gpp024 · Cited by 331
Blattman, C., & Ralston, L. (2015) · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2622220 · Cited by 187
Metadata
- Authors
- Hirshleifer, J.
- Venue
- Journal of Political Economy
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1995-02
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 26-52
- ISSN
- 0022-3808 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-534X
- OpenAlex
- W2071437462
- Cited by
- 669
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 25.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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