Another theory is that weaker powers can work together to fend off a stronger power, even if no single weaker power could do it alone. My history professor emphasized this explanation in the context of early modern Europe (c. 1450-1850). This is also one of the justifications for why people are “equal” in a state of nature—another person may be stronger than you, but no single individual is stronger than you plus the allies that you can gather.
A different approach is to see this question as basically asking for the theory of the firm: why is it that some production is organized within a single hierarchically structured firm, while other production involves market transactions between firms? Why not just one all-encompassing firm, or a marketplace of single individuals, or any other balance besides the one that we have? From the Wikipedia page, it looks like there are various proposed explanations which involve transaction costs, asymmetric information, principal-agent problems, and asset specificity. (In the context of countries, I imagine that the analogous question is when to conquer another country and when to just trade with them.)
> another person may be stronger than you, but no single individual is stronger than you plus the allies that you can gather
Why doesn’t the stronger individual bring their allies? It should actually be easier, because people should be more willing to join the stronger guy. I think there is the principal-agent problem here again.
Another theory is that weaker powers can work together to fend off a stronger power, even if no single weaker power could do it alone. My history professor emphasized this explanation in the context of early modern Europe (c. 1450-1850). This is also one of the justifications for why people are “equal” in a state of nature—another person may be stronger than you, but no single individual is stronger than you plus the allies that you can gather.
A different approach is to see this question as basically asking for the theory of the firm: why is it that some production is organized within a single hierarchically structured firm, while other production involves market transactions between firms? Why not just one all-encompassing firm, or a marketplace of single individuals, or any other balance besides the one that we have? From the Wikipedia page, it looks like there are various proposed explanations which involve transaction costs, asymmetric information, principal-agent problems, and asset specificity. (In the context of countries, I imagine that the analogous question is when to conquer another country and when to just trade with them.)
> another person may be stronger than you, but no single individual is stronger than you plus the allies that you can gather
Why doesn’t the stronger individual bring their allies? It should actually be easier, because people should be more willing to join the stronger guy. I think there is the principal-agent problem here again.