Protection and social order
Abstract Consider a simple world populated with two types of individuals, those who work and create wealth (peasants) and those who steal the property of others (bandits). With bandits about, peasants need to protect their output and can do so individually or collectively. Either way protection is costly; it consumes resources and interferes with an individual's ability to create wealth. This study investigates how individuals might make decisions in such circumstances, how those decisions evolve over time, and how broader societal characteristics can emerge from such decisions.