Language : ENGLISH

The present book deals with two types of illegal behavior widely practiced in a variety of historical and geographic settings: predation by power holders on the population at large and terrorism directed both towards citizens of foreign nations and towards the own population. Many rulers throughout history have been concerned above all with their own welfare and standard of living, while their interest in how the population at large fares has been minimal. They, and the people next to them - their ministers, leading bureaucrats and militaries - live in fabulous wealth, while in the worst case the population is starving. The state had degenerated into a predatory state, run by kleptocrats. The second type of illegal or deviant behavior dealt with here is terrorism - as employed in three different contexts: as ingredient in warfare, as an instrument for predatory rulers to extort revenue from the population and as used by contemporary extremist religious movements. Exactly like the predatory state, terrorism has a long and geographically diversified history. It has been used regularly during wars and conquests, but also by political underdogs who do not stand any chance to threaten their political or religious adversaries by other means. The book provides numerous examples of predators and terrorist and analyses the economic logic behind the behavior or bot, with the aid of simple economic theory. It also provides an empirical account of the different methods used by kleptocrats and terrorist to achieve their goals, the consequences for society at large and the possible mechanisms of change.