The urban civilization of Harappa in southern Asia flourished economically and culturally for seven centuries, leaving archeologists with artifacts galore but with no evidence of wars or threats of war—or even a state. Most likely, Harappa’s archeological uniqueness has to do with the civilization’s having generated purely voluntary government.

AsiaEconomic History and DevelopmentEconomyInternational Economics and Development
Other Independent Review articles by Thomas J. Thompson
Summer 2011 The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia