Who Needs Government? Pirates, Collapsed States, and the Possibility of Anarchy

Everybody seems to know we need government … But pirates didn’t! How did they manage without the state? In this issue’s thought-provoking lead essay, Peter T. Leeson, the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at George Mason University, explores what pirate “constitutions,” credit institutions among 19th century African bandit traders, and the well-being of Somalians after the collapse of the Somalian state have to tell us about the possibility of practical anarchy. Can organizations solve complex problems of coordination without government coercion? Can voluntary bands provide public goods? Are there conditions under which groups really are better off stateless? Leeson will be joined by three eminent commentators: Florida State economics professorBruce Benson, author of the seminal The Enterprise of the Law: Justice without the State ; Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at Harvard’s Kennedy School; and Randall Holcombe, another distinguished Seminole economist and current president of the Public Choice Society.

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