In Austrian economics terms, villages are like extremely small pockets of self-regulated, trading-oriented covenant communities occurring between them, with the villagers mutually agreeing on defense by using the iron golem. The communities rely on voluntary association, as villagers can leave if they want to, but that rarely happens. A key part of covenant communities is that they can decide who leaves, and the iron golem as part of defense will naturally remove intruders by killing enemies. The main goal of defense is to keep trading between the villagers happening.