This paper addresses the following question: Does characterizing the state to be an agent of its citizens provide a useful “as if” framework for positive analysis of economic policy? Or, can we understand economic policy only by explicitly characterizing the state as proprietary, the...

This essay develops an economic theory of insurrections. The decision-making agents in this theory are an incumbent ruler, a potential leader of an insurrection, and a large number of peasant or worker families. The essay distinguishes insurrections that attempt only to appropriate current...