Mountain Republics

Abstract

It is a well-established tenet of historical political economy that modern territorial states emerged as protection rackets that extracted taxes from vulnerable communities. This paper explores a variety of bargains between communities and their “protectors” based on factors that account for vulnerability to marauding armies, such as terrain and technology. We also consider how a community’s desire for better economic livelihood may cause them to relinquish, voluntarily, some advantages of terrain for prospects of higher average.

Keywords: war and constitutions; bargaining; terrain