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Books
The Liberales Institut presents and recommends a choice of significant classical and current books part of a pluralistic liberal tradition. All books ordered through this page with our partner Amazon also contribute to financing the Liberales Institut.
We wish you a pleasant and stimulating read.
Economics
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Political Economy, Public Policy and Monetary Economics: Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian Tradition
"Given the current global economic crisis, with its origins in a credit crisis, and the failure of modern macroeconomics to provide an adequate theory for the links between the credit markets and the economy, the economics profession badly needs new insights into the role of credit and expectations in causing economic fluctuations. It could learn from the ideas and policy recommendations of those economists who lived through the Great Depression. Von Mises was one of those great economists. This book is a welcome invitation to examine the ideas of von Mises and the Austrian school on such vitally important subjects." Jagdish Handa, McGill University
"In an era in which we are seeing increased interest in studying economic theorists from the Great Depression, Ebeling has done a great service in writing a fresh work on a figure who has been greatly neglected in recent years. Ludwig von Mises merits more attention whether one ultimately agrees with him or not." James E. Hartley, Mount Holyoke College
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Anarchism/Minarchism: Is a Government Part of a Free Country?
It is well known that the radical libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick sharply distinguished his vision of the free society from egalitarian liberals such as John Rawls. Less remarked upon is the distinction he drew between the free society governed by a strictly limited government, commonly referred to as 'minarchism', and the society without any government at all - anarchism.In this volume, the editors, Long - an anarchist, and Machan - a minarchist, have brought together a selection of specially commissioned essays from the key theorists actively involved in this debate. Each tackles the question of whether or not a government forms a legitimate part of a free society from a variety of perspectives or whether anarchy/minarchy is merely a distinction without a difference.
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Institutional Competition
Why is competition between institutions usually viewed in a negative light, when competition is considered positive in most other economic contexts? The contributors to this volume introduce new perspectives on this issue, analytically and empirically exploring reasons for this perception. Negative assessments of institutional competition emphasize that such competition may lead to a race to the bottom in terms of eroding government revenues, redistributing wealth from workers to capitalists, and limiting democracy by forcing politicians to prioritize international investment capital rather than working for their voters. In this volume, however, many of the essays draw attention to the positive learning and information effects. The contributors conclude that competition may actually lead to institutions becoming more efficient in allocating resources.
Contents:
Foreword
Preface
Andreas Bergh and Rolf Höijer1. The Concept of Institutional Competition
Rolf Höijer2. A History of Thought on Institutional Competition
Roland Vaubel3. Learning Through Institutional Competition
Michael Wohlgemuth4. Institutional Competition: International Environment, Levels and Consequences
Peter Bernholz5. Can Competition Between Governments Enhance Democracy?
Viktor J. Vanberg6. Tax Competition and Tax Cartels
Rolf Höijer7. Fiscal Competition and the Optimization of Tax Revenues for Higher Growth
Victoria Curzon-Price8. A Race to the Bottom for the Big Welfare States?
Andreas Bergh9. Fiscal Federalism and Economic Growth in OECD Countries
Lars P. Feld10. Asia's Giants in the World Economy: China and India
Erich WeedeIndex
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The Ethics of Liberty
This work is a rigorous and philosophically sophisticated exposition of the libertarian political position. It roots the case for freedom in the concept of natural rights and applies it to a host of practical problems. It concludes that a social order that strictly adheres to the rights of private property must exclude the institutionalized violence inherent in the state.
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Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This is the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constitutes a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presents her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the student rebellion, and the evils of altruism.
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Human Action: A Treatise on Economics
Mises attributes the tremendous technological progress and the consequent increase in wealth and general welfare in the last two centuries to the introduction of liberal government policies based on free-market economic teachings, creating an economic and political environment which permits individuals to pursue their respective goals in freedom and peace. Mises also explains the futility and counter-productiveness of government attempts to regulate, control, and equalize all people's circumstances: "Men are born unequal and...it is precisely their inequality that generates social cooperation and civilization."
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Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics
Austrian-born economist Ludwig von Mises (who died in 1973) was a professor at New York University for nearly 25 years, until 1969. A free-market advocate who believed in the power of the consumer, Mises was one of the leading members of what is called "the Austrian school of economics." There are already any number of scholarly works that examine Mises' life and his theories. This latest book, though, is part of a new series called Library of Modern Thinkers, which is designed to make the ideas of less well known sociologists, political scientists, and economists accessible to a more general audience. Kirzner, author of Discovery, Capitalism, and Distributive Justice (1989), was a student and ardent admirer of Mises. He sketches a brief biographical portrait of his former professor to provide "the human and historical context within which Mises' intellectual contributions emerged." Kirzner then examines Mises' impact on contemporary economics, outlines his methodology, and summarizes his key ideas--focusing on the market process, money, cycles, interest, and free markets.
Anthony de Jasay
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The State
An 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. The text traces the logical and historical progression of the state from a modest-sized protector of life and property through its development into what the author believes to be an "agile seducer of democratic majorities" and "the welfare-dispensing drudge that it is today".
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Ordered Anarchy: Jasay and His Surroundings
Anthony de Jasay's work has been enormously influential, describing both a theoretical philosophical model for a stateless, liberal, free market order and offering analysis of and solutions to many of the technical economic problems associated with such a vision of society - most notably his work on the free rider and his return. In this book, ten significant scholars in philosophy and political economy, including Nobel laureate in economics James Buchanan, pay tribute to the man and his work in a series of essays at once both respectful and critical."Ordered Anarchy" focuses on three fundamental questions of libertarian thinking. Which are the basic libertarian principles and how do rights and liberties relate to each other? Is order possible and durable in an anarchic or quasi-anarchic society, and if so, under which preconditions? How and to what extent are the pillars of politics, such as the constitution, institutions and government, detrimental or beneficial to an enduring free society?While Narveson, Palmer and Bouillon focus on the first of these questions, the late Radnitzky and van Dun address the second.
Benson, Holcombe and Kliemt provide answers to question number three, while Buchanan and Little highlight the role of Anthony de Jasay in this debate and the inspiration that his thinking has given to the authors of this volume.
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Against Politics
Government depends on collective decision making. Even in peaceful democracies, some decide for all. Challenging the morality of this position, this text argues that it is not different political systems that are at fault so much as the very nature of politics itself. This text pulls together de Jasay's key work in this area over the last ten years. In the first section of the book de Jasay attacks contractarian thought and the very notion of the legitimacy of politics. In the final section he outlines an alternative vision, a form of ordered anarchy based on social virtues, achievements and institutions which exist prior to government and which are not contingent on political arrangements. The book provides an insight into a radical form of libertarianism which renders even the most minimal form of state redundant.
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Social Contract, Free Ride
This book provides a novel account of the public goods dilemma. The author shows how the social contract, in its quest for fairness, actually helps to breed the parasitic 'free riding' it is meant to suppress. He also shows how, in the absence of taxation, many public goods would be provided by spontaneous group co-operation. This would, however, imply some degree of free riding. Unwilling to tolerate such unfairness, co-operating groups would eventually drift from voluntary to compulsory solutions, heedless of the fact that this must bring back free riding with a vengeance. The author argues that the perverse incentives created by the attempt to render public provision assured and fair are a principal cause of the poor functioning of organised society.
Climate change
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Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media
Why is news about global warming always bad? Why do scientists so often offer dire predictions about the future of the environment? In Meltdown, climatologist Patrick Michaels says it's only natural. He argues that the way we do science today - when issues compete with each other for monopoly funding by the government - creates a culture of exaggeration and a political comunity that then takes credit for having saved us from certain doom. Michaels starts with a succinct discussion of climate-change science and then unrolls a litany of falsehood, exaggeration, and misstatement. He cited hundreds of errors and exaggerations in scientific papers, new reports, and television sound bites.
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Cool It!: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
Global warming has become one of the permanent concerns of our time, with ever stronger calls to combat it via drastic programs, like the Kyoto Protocol. In this highly controversial book, Bjorn Lomborg (author of the bestselling "The Skeptical Environmentalist") claims that the arguments for such action are little more than scare mongering and exposes this wide range of disinformation. Global warming is happening. It's a serious and important problem and we need to deal with it in a responsible way. But in order to do so effectively, Lomborg argues we need to look at the cost and benefits of the proposed measures against global warming. He demonstrates that drastic, here-and-now measures is the worst way to spend our money. Climate change is a 100-year problem - we should not try to fix it in 10 years. This important book explodes myths and places the global warming debate into a broader view.
Novels
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Atlas Shrugged
Published in 1957, "Atlas Shrugged" was Ayn Rand's greatest achievement and last work of fiction. In this novel, she dramatizes her unique philosophy through an intellectual mystery story that integrates ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics, and sex. Set in a near-future U.S.A. whose economy is collapsing as a result of the mysterious disappearance of leading innovators and industrialists, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life - from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction to the philosopher who becomes a pirate to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad to the lowest track worker in her train tunnels. Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, "Atlas Shrugged" is a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller.
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The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead has become an enduring piece of literature, more popular now than when published in 1943. On the surface, it is a story of one man, Howard Roark, and his struggles as an architect in the face of a successful rival, Peter Keating, and a newspaper columnist, Ellsworth Toohey. But the book addresses a number of universal themes: the strength of the individual, the tug between good and evil, the threat of fascism. The confrontation of those themes, along with the amazing stroke of Rand's writing, combine to give this book its enduring influence.