Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Polytheism and Economics -- Part I The Beginnings -- 2 Greeks and Romans: The Religions Without Professional Priests -- 3 Celts and Germans: The Elusive Religions -- 4 Indians and Iranians: The Priestly Religions -- Part II The Endings -- 5 Extinction: Polytheism...

This paper models theocracy as a regime where the clergy in power retains knowledge of the cost of political production but which is potentially incompetent, quarrelsome, or corrupt. This is contrasted with a secular regime where government is contracted out to a secular ruler, and hence the...