ABSTRACT
States, the legitimacy of which is not maintained on theocratic, patriotic, ethnic or similar supervening normative grounds, are usually regarded as necessary to effect P-optimal pay-offs in public goods. The state appears to be an objective requirement for civil society. Heterodoxy as to forms of state there undoubtedly is but that we have to have a state of some sort to regulate behaviour in order to safeguard the distribution of public goods is seldom questioned. In a relatively stable society, not faced with a major disaster such as the Ik were, the number of “favours owed” will exceed the number called in. Developed economies create surplus as an essential feature, traditional economies can be undermined by it. A modern acephalous community’s economy is going to have to manage surplus, in all likelihood, and somehow stall propulsion towards the peon relationship.
