James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg Simon & Schuster, 1997 These notes are arranged according to the book's topics, not necessarily by the book's chapters or chronology. Overlap exists. ### Violence [[202006052109 The logic of violence]] [[202006031831 Changes in the logic of violence]] [[202006031843 The control of violence in society affects how scarce resources are used.]] [[202006102216 Exceptional moments of collective violence]] [[202006062047 Anarchy is not satisfactory.]] [[202006051917 When gunpowder came along, it was impossible to be powerful without being rich.]] ### Collapse and Transition [[202006031756 Apocalypse means unveiling.]] [[202006031939 Transitions in history]] [[202006022022 Similarities among empire declines]] [[202006032129 In turbulance, people crave stability over freedom.]] [[202006032136 Transitions involve social chaos and heightened violence.]] [[202006032138 Corruption, moral decline, and inefficiency signal the end of a megapolitical system.]] [[202006081857 Megapolitical transitions entail changes in societal organization.]] [[202006051858 Disdain is a leading indicator of megapolitical transition.]] [[202006110004 Rise in organized crime during the end of empire days]] [[202006081609 Megapolitical transitions have been associated with changes in money.]] [[202006052016 The price of exiting a system]] [[202006110015 Politics is a pseudoreality constructed by the public.]] ### Nation States, Governments [[202006041852 Politics emerged from the struggle to control the increased spoils of power.]] [[202006051902 What politicians do, at great societal cost, is futile.]] [[202006041633 Societies become crisis-prone when institutions become ineffectual.]] [[202006062003 Government and the logic of violence]] [[202006062044 Government as a protection racket]] [[202006062119 Government does not totally monopolize force.]] [[202006082042 Coercion underlies all politics.]] [[202006081634 Governments cannot unfairly commandeer resources with the end of inflation.]] Roman Empire [[202006031753 The powers-that-be denied that Rome had fallen.]] [[202006031944 The fall of Rome]] [[202006041820 After the Roman Empire's collapse, small farmers were freer.]] The Church in the Middle Ages [[202006051907 The Church in the Middle Ages versus the Nation State today]] [[202006052027 The nation state is the new religion, displacing the Church.]] [[202006051946 In suppressing the printing press, the Church assured it was put to its most subversive use.]] [[202006051958 The printing press lowered the cost of reproducing information.]] ### Nature of Work [[202006041651 The nature of work changes social organization.]] [[202006041657 The agricultural shift in the nature of work changed the organization of society and economy.]] [[202006041752 Farming increased coercion, that is, use of violence.]] [[202006041756 Farming and inventory accounting made taxation possible.]] [[202006062012 Assembly-line technology standardized work.]] [[202006081812 Changes in the nature of work and employment]] [[202006062115 Industrial technology made taxation easier.]] [[202006081749 Devolution will be intense where incomes are stagnant or falling.]] ### Money, Wealth, Markets, and Cybereconomy [[202006031840 Market forces will compel societies to reconfigure themselves.]] [[202006032125 People respond to incentives.]] [[202006051953 Money was not so important during the feudal centuries because land was the primary wealth holding.]] [[202006041843 Leveraged violence in a cybereconomy is more difficult, less effective.]] [[202006110053 The cybereconomy will value efficiency.]] [[202006081626 Barter will increase thanks to cyber money and cyber commerce.]] [[202006081826 Honesty and trust will be more valuable in cybereconomic relations.]] [[202006082046 The variability of output means asymmetric reward.]] [[202006110059 Low interest rates and bailouts make firms artificially competitive.]] [[202006041815 High savings are a self-insurance for risk taking.]] [[202006041845 Markets pressure weak hands.]] [[202006081640 Wasting resources makes you poor.]] [[202006022216 The middle class has assets that are the easiest to seize.]] ### Information Technology and the Information Age [[202006031757 Fourth stage of social organization is information societies.]] [[202006031811 Ideas are wealth.]] [[202006031150 Knowledge is abundant, but the ability to use it is scarce.]] [[202006062019 Information technology increases the mobility of ideas, persons, and capital.]] [[202006062025 Information technology's megapolitcal implications]] [[202006081452 Government force in the cyber knowledge domain]] [[202006061956 Information technology and complex systems]] [[202006052228 Extortion versus protection in cyber space]] [[202006081504 Internet versus the nation state]] [[202006081507 Information is the most important source of profit.]] [[202006081509 Information age versus knowledge age]] [[202006081516 The rise of customized curated media]] [[202006082108 Privatization of education via technology]] [[202006082109 Information technology will subvert citizenship.]] [[202006102344 Transmission of information]] [[202006081742 Information revolution means governments matter less.]] [[202006062039 The inability to make a real economic contribution]] ### Sovereign Individuals [[202006031828 Individual autonomy will emerge.]] [[202006081737 Sovereign individuals will have specialized skills.]] [[202006081848 Control over economic resources will shift away from the state to smart people.]] [[202006110034 The merchant is the archetype of collaborative competition.]] [[202104271514 A migratory way of life is the price of getting ahead.]] ### Morality [[202006110020 Morality and prosperity are linked.]] [[202006110041 Social morality in essential matters, tolerance in personal decisions]] [[202006110048 An erosion of collective morality threatens liberty.]] Some primary sources: - Lane, 1966, "The Economic Meaning of War and Protection," Collected Papers - Olsen, 1987, "Diseconomies of Scale and Development" - Coase, 1996, "The Nature of the Firm" - Williamson, "The Organization of Work: A Comparative Institutional Assessment" - Cyert and March, 1983, "A Behavioral Theory of the Firm" - Bridges, 1994, "How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs" - Rifkin, 1995, The End of Work - Billig, 1995, "Banal Nationalism" - Morrall, 1958, "Political Thought in Medieval Times" - Hirshleifer, 1987, "Economic Behaviour in Adversity" - Hobsbawm, "The Nation as Invented Tradition" - Olsen, 1982, The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities - Linz and Stephan, The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes - Cassirer, 1946, The Myth of the State - Putterman and Kroszner, 1996, The Economic Nature of the Firm - Garfinkel and Skaperdas, 1996, The Political Economy of Conflict and Appropriation - Tilly, "War Making and State Making as Organized Crime" - Tilly, "Collective Violence in European Perspective" - Bennett, 1996, "Cyberspace and the Return of Trust" #book