Discussion questions related to chapter on Trading With Bandits

1. What is the difference between peaceful theft and violent theft?
2. Why is the discipline of repeated dealings and multilateral punishment strategies don't work in the case of violent theft?
3. What is the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium in presence of threat of violent theft when producers and middlemen interact? Why could this equilibrium be undesirable?
4. What are the two mechanisms that were used by producers and middlemen to escape this Nash equilibrium? Describe how these mechanisms work. What were their effects from an incentive viewpoint on the part of middlemen?
5. Based on your reading of your chapter, explain why the government is a form of bandit.

Discussion questions related to chapter on Efficient Plunder

1. Why is violent theft even more socially inefficient than theft?
2. When is plundering more socially costly? Why?
3. What is or are the conditions that should be satisfied for plunder to be efficient?
4. Explain how this worked in the case discussed by Peter Leeson: Privateering.
5. Relate what you read in this chapter about efficient plunder and our relationship with the government (the police) in general. Use a personal example or from the medias to illustrate your explanation.

Discussion question related to chapter on Criminal Constitutions

1. The theory behind criminal constitutions:
   1. What do criminal constitutions do?
   2. What's their purpose?
   3. Why do criminal organizations have to come to write/develop them?
2. Discuss in detail the mechanisms of "La Nuestra Familia."
3. Apply what you have read to the U.S. Constitution:
   1. What does it do?
   2. How effective is it?
   3. Give an example in which you believe a US Supreme Court decision undermined the U.S. Constitution.
   4. Famous law professor and libertarian Richard Epstein, in the context of the war against the Islamic State, wrote that under some circumstances the US president shouldn't respect the principles of the U.S. Constitution. If you think it's a problem, explain why and what implications this could have (https://www.hoover.org/research/declaring-war-isis(Links to an external site.)).