Anarchy, warfare, and social order: Comment on Hirshleifer.

HERSHLEIFER, John; HIRSHLEIFER, Jack

The points raised in the paper about the economic impact of anarchy, warfare and social disorder by researcher, Jack Hirshleifer are examined. The study fails to consider peaceful anarchy by seting out an economic model of conflict and then investigating the stability of the resulting conflict equilibrium. The problem with the approach is that it deals only with a particular group of anarchy. Moreover, the economic implications of peaceful anarchy is also important for two reasons: 1) the parties involved in disputes have incentives, often strong ones, to resolve them by peaceful means and 2) there are many historical examples of peaceful anarchy. If conflict is costly, the parties involved have some incentive to seek alternative means of resolving disputes. Finally, Hirshleifer acknowledges that agents may be influenced in a peaceful direction by the benefits of economic cooperation.