Violence and Social Orders
A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History

This book integrates the problem of violence into a larger framework, showing how economic and political behavior are closely linked.

Douglass C. North (Author), John Joseph Wallis (Author), Barry R. Weingast (Author)

9781107646995, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 December 2012

346 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

'A demanding but rewarding work, with intriguing echoes of Marx … Highly recommended.' Choice

All societies must deal with the possibility of violence, and they do so in different ways. This book integrates the problem of violence into a larger social science and historical framework, showing how economic and political behavior are closely linked. Most societies, which we call natural states, limit violence by political manipulation of the economy to create privileged interests. These privileges limit the use of violence by powerful individuals, but doing so hinders both economic and political development. In contrast, modern societies create open access to economic and political organizations, fostering political and economic competition. The book provides a framework for understanding the two types of social orders, why open access societies are both politically and economically more developed, and how some 25 countries have made the transition between the two types.

Preface
1. The conceptual framework
2. The natural state
3. The natural state applied: English land law
4. Open access orders
5. Explaining the transition from limited to open access orders: the doorstep conditions
6. The transition proper
7. A new research agenda for the social sciences
Afterword.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Violence in society [JFFE]