Looks like the author Peter Leeson has done some books on "The Economics of (Ocean) Piracy":
Quote
"The idea of the invisible hook is that pirates, though they’re criminals, are still driven by their self-interest. So they were driven to build systems of government and social structures that allowed them to better pursue their criminal ends.... The reason that the criminality is driving these structures is because they can’t rely on the state to provide those structures for them. So pirates, more than anyone else, needed to figure out some system of law and order to make it possible for them to remain together long enough to be successful at stealing."
Reminds me of the US government... The US government people have their own little internal rules and incentive structures allowing them to work together to achieve their criminal ends...
