Shall We Kill or Enslave Caesar? Analyzing the Caesar Model

Abstract:     
When a society overthrows a ruler - call the ruler Caesar - what determines whether Caesar is killed or enslaved? This paper presents a model of killing versus enslaving Caesar, based on a new theory which unifies justice, status, and power. The model pertains to societies which value ordinal goods like bravery, yielding predictions for three of the five types of societies - justice-nonmaterialistic, status, and power-nonmaterialistic. Results cover members' gains, effects of own rank and group size, and relative gains from killing or enslaving Caesar. Further results suggest that Caesar will be killed only in a justice-nonmaterialistic society, and from the noblest of motives - to achieve equal gains for members.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 23

Keywords: civil strife, coup d'¿tat, regicide, tyrannicide, assassination, imprisonment, exile, sociobehavioral theory, justice, comparison, status, power, identity, happiness, personal qualitative characteristics, hierarchy, equality

JEL Classification: D6, I3, N40

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