Anthony De Jasay

Series statement from jacket. Includes bibliographical references and index. Property or "property rights"? -- "Design faults" in Locke's theory of property taint ownership with guilt -- Is ownership a myth? -- How to get a free lunch? Just apply for it -- The problem of contract enforcement -- The public goods dilemma -- Trying a free market -- The statist legacy -- Your dog owns your house -- The Yakoubovich syndrome, or lies, damn lies, and economic policy -- Winning policy battles but losing the war against economic realities -- Paying ourselves more of their money -- The doctrine of "unequal exchange" : the last refuge of modern socialism -- Corporate managers : are they going to kill capitalism? -- When the economy needs morals -- The political economy of force-feeding -- Hostile to whom? -- Mannesmann's courtesy could prove rare -- Can Putin build a real economy from oil and rigor? -- Russia and the new Europe : growing apart -- Russia hopping along on clay feet --^ The French tragicomedy -- How the French "social model" could self-destruct -- A little bit of history repeating -- There is no French exception -- The hobbling of private France -- The capitalism they hate -- Striving to get richer and poorer -- "Bread and circuses" in the modern welfare state -- Who minds the gap? -- Float or sink? The millstone of the "social market" in Germany -- How Germany and France, the sick men of Europe, torture themselves -- Shall we borrow from the children? -- Low pay -- Freedom to strike or right to strike? -- Stamp your feet and demand a fair deal -- Paternalism and employment -- The things labor unions are up to -- The instability of the welfare state -- Some bad news could be good news -- Built-in unemployment: social protection costs more than it is worth -- Let's throw this model away -- How to stifle employment by "social protection" -- Workable alternatives -- A tale of two models -- A vicious circle of social kindness --^ The economic consequences of a United States of Europe -- A giant free-trade area or a political counterweight to America? -- European crosscurrents and the federalist drift -- How confederacy could turn into a federal superstate -- Majority rule by any other name -- What now for "Europe"? Why the people failed their masters -- Free-riding on the euro -- Some democratic economics -- The Soviet legacy -- A war of attrition between economic reality and political dreams -- A brightening of the economic skies over Brussels? -- Turkey knocking on Europe's door -- Turkey and the EU club -- Europe : more secular and more Islamist -- A bill of rights Europe did not need -- Europe's social-democratic "government" -- Power corrupts, so let's make it absolute -- What price pride? On the hidden costs of economic illiteracy -- On the economics of protecting employment -- The costly mistake of ignoring opportunity costs -- "Globalization" and its critics : mutual gain vs. cloud-cuckoo land --^ Are high oil prices a form of exploitation? -- Immigration : what is the liberal stand? -- More nonsense on stilts : Mr. Bentham is at it again -- Risk, value, and externality.

"The author challenges what many of today's social and political philosophers widely accept: that social injustice is identified with inequality and social justice with equality. Rather, Jasay argues that justice preempts so-called social justice, so any attempt to adorn equality in the robes of social justice is an illusion, a sleight of hand, 'much as the Indian rope in the notorious trick is made to stand up skyward on its own.' The fifteen articles in this collection include both published and unpublished papers written over the years 2008 to 2012."--from publisher description.

The relationship of the individual and the state is the central theme of Anthony de Jasay's distinguished career. Here he discusses the concepts of power, politics, and freedom that led to such seminal works as The state.