1. Introduction; 2. The meaning of predation; 3. Domination, manhunting and conflictual costs and benefits; 4. Rational conflict theory, paradox of war and strategic manhunting; 5. Appropriation, violent enforcement and transaction costs; 6. Appropriation, the state space and the economics of escape; 7. Predatory nature of the state and democracy; Epilogue.
This book analyses conflict theory through one type of conflict in particular: manhunting, or predation.
Mehrdad Vahabi is Associate Professor at the University of Paris VIII and associate member of Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne (CES). His interests include political economy, economics of conflict, institutional economics, post-socialist transition and comparative economics. He is the author of The Political Economy of Destructive Power (2004) and has published in many peer journals including Public Choice, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Bulletin of Economic Research, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Louvain Economic Review and Revue d'économie politique.
'Standard economics has long assumed a society of free, contracting
individuals with equal legal rights. Power and authority are
understood in contractual terms. In his most powerful statement to
date, Mehrdad Vahabi challenges all that. Violence and subjugation
are brought back into the picture. We are forced to rethink
everything.' Geoffrey M. Hodgson, University of Hertfordshire
'Mehrdad Vahabi is an exceptional thinker. His truly
interdisciplinary book draws on a deep knowledge from diverse
disciplines. It promises profound insights on predation, which is
one of the most fundamental aspects of human interaction.' Kai A.
Konrad, Managing Director, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and
Public Finance
'The dark aspects of life (conflict, violence, predation, manhunt,
enslavement, aggression) are studied by various disciplines and
research programs, including history, psychology, mathematical game
theory, criminology, political philosophy, and economics. Mehrdad
Vahabi's book is unique, as he, a genuine interdisciplinary
thinker, overviews the so far separated analyses and enriches them
with important new ideas.' János Kornai, Professor of Economics
Emeritus, Harvard University, Connecticut and Corvinus University
of Budapest
'A fascinating and provocative analysis of predators and their
prey. Mehrdad Vahabi's book will stimulate the minds of all who
have been intrigued by the political economy of coercion.' Peter T.
Leeson, Duncan Black Professor of Economics and Law, George Mason
University, Virginia
'In this compelling book, Mehrdad Vahabi delivers an in-depth
analysis of the logic of conflicts and predation. In doing so he is
proposing a new and much needed economic perspective on violence as
a core component of human societies.' Claude Ménard, University of
Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne)
'In this book Mehrdad Vahabi examines one-sided conflicts in many
different settings. In many such situations, despite the seeming
helplessness of the prey, he shows many possibilities for escape
that are surprising (and gives hope for the condition of the less
powerful). Vahabi draws upon - and usefully integrates - vast and
diverse literatures, ranging from economics and the other social
sciences to the history of thought and biology.' Stergios
Skaperdas, University of California, Irvine
'A work of great originality and ambition. Mehrdad Vahabi's concept
of predation is an illuminating lens through which to see different
forms of rule. The idea of domestication as a 'prolonged' form of
predation, compatible with the survival (indeed, possibly thriving)
of the object (plant, mammal, homo-sapiens) of that predation is, I
think, very good to think with.' James C. Scott, Sterling Professor
of Political Science and Anthropology, Yale University,
Connecticut
'In this ambitious work, which stands at the crossroad of Public
Choice and New institutional Economics, Mehrdad Vahabi relies on
the concept of predation to revisit the analysis of the genesis of
the state, states conflict and the transition from autocracy to
democracy.' Bertrand Crettez, Œconomia
'Some books appear quite surprising, disturbing or even pretty far
from what economists can expect. This is particularly the case when
authors look beyond traditional methodology in order to challenge
existing research agendas. Nevertheless, few of such books provide
a true renewal of thought. Mehrdad Vahabi's The Political Economy
of Predation: Manhunting and the Economics of Escape belongs to
such category. This book represents an ambitious and disturbing
work, but in a positive way. It really provides new perspectives of
research agenda with regard to the place of violence as an
intrinsic feature of human interactions.' Renaud Bellais, Defence
and Peace Economics
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