Liberty Fund Books
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State, The
By Anthony de Jasay
With a New Preface
Pub Date |
Mar 1998 |
Notes |
Preface, author's note, introduction, index. |
| Format | Size Pages | ISBN-10 ISBN-13 | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloth | 6 x 9 | 0-86597-170-6 978-0-86597-170-7 | $24.00 | |
| Paperback | 6 x 9 | 0-86597-171-4 978-0-86597-171-4 | $14.50 |
Description
Strikingly original. . . . De Jasay offers the most compelling account of what is wrong and dangerous about the state."
—Alan Ryan
The State is an idiosyncratic and brilliant analysis of modern political arrangements that views the state as acting in its own interest contrary to the interests of individuals and even of an entire society. As Nobel laureate James Buchanan has observed, Jasay subjects the state to a "solid, foundational analysis, grounded in an understanding of economic theory, informed by political philosophy and a deep sense of history." The results include a "devastating critique of the absurdities of modern welfare economics." Jasay traces the logical and historical progression of the state from a modest-sized protector of life and property through its development into what he believes to be an "agile seducer of democratic majorities, to the welfare-dispensing drudge that it is today." Can, Jasay wonders, this seemingly inexorable expansion of the state be stopped? Or, "Is the rational next step [for the state] a totalitarian enhancement of its power?"
Anthony de Jasay is the author also of Social Contract, Free Ride (1989) and Against Politic (1997).
Table of Contents
Preface ixAuthor's Note xi
Introduction 1 Chapter 1
The Capitalist State 16
Violence, Obedience, Preference 16
Title and Contract 22
The Contours of the Minimal State 30
If States Did Not Exist, Should They Be Invented? 35
Inventing the State: The Social Contract 38
Inventing the State: The Instrument of Class Rule 52
Closing the Loop by False Consciousness 65 Chapter 2
The Adversary State 73
Repression, Legitimacy and Consent 73
Taking Sides 85
Tinker's Licence 96
The Revealed Preference of Governments 103
Interpersonal Justice 112
Unintended Effects of Producing Interpersonal
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