All societies must deal with the possibility of violence, and they do so in different ways. This study integrates the problem of violence into a larger social science and historical framework, showing how economic and political behavior are closely linked ...

The paper lays out a new framework for understanding problems of development. It emphasizes that all societies must solve the problem of violence and distinguishes between two ways in which societies solve this problem. Limited access orders, covering most developing countries today, solve the...

A good reputation can be an effective bond for honest behavior in a community of traders if members of the community know how others have behaved in the past - even if any particular pair of traders meets only infrequently. In a large community, it would be impossibly costly for traders to be...