Conjecture

Agriculture changed who a risk belongs to, and that is why states exist. Part I: instead of individual risks like wild animals, personal violence, exposure, hunger and thirst, most people in agricultural societies die from collective risks, and widespread famines, plagues and the depredations of war are not the fate of individuals alone and cannot be solved by individuals acting alone. They needed coordinated and often centralised responses, and the inability of single people to reduce them contributed to the growth and spread of large political bodies with effective governance. The dominant risk class selects the institutions that follow it.

Risk landscape