Independent Review articles from January 2004

Independent Review archives from January 2004

Government: unnecessary but inevitable.
January 1, 2004... Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman, perhaps the best-known twentieth-century academic defenders of liberty, envisioned a role for limited government in protecting liberty. (1) Friedman's (1962) defense of freedom includes...

Is discourse relevant for economic development?
January 1, 2004... "As much as it might like, the IMF, in its public rhetoric at least, could not be completely oblivious to the widespread demands for greater participation by the poor countries in the formulation of development strategies and...

The problem of "dirty hands" and corrupt leadership.
January 1, 2004... "Be sure, gentlemen of the jury, that if I had long ago attempted to take part in politics, I should have died long ago, and benefited neither you nor myself. Do not be angry with me for speaking the truth; no man will survive...

An original omission? Property in Rawls's political thought.
January 1, 2004... John Rawls has been hailed recently as "the most distinguished political philosopher" of the twentieth century (Nussbaum 1999, 424). In large part, this accolade is based on the Harvard philosopher's originality as a political thinker. Rawls's...

Regulation by litigation: diesel engine emission control.
January 1, 2004... In the past few years, a form of federal regulation has emerged that makes the established rulemaking process look almost benign by comparison. Besides producing a steady flow of new rules to regulate the behavior of firms and industries...

The secret ballot protects the incumbency advantage.
January 1, 2004... "No man has ever placed his money corruptly without satisfying himself that the vote was cast according to the agreement, or, in a phrase which became only too common during the last campaign, without proof that "the goods were...

The individualist legacy in Latin America.(Reflections)
January 1, 2004... It is often said that the root of Latin America's underdevelopment lies in its statist tradition. (1) That tradition goes as far back as the pre-Columbian states, under which masses of laborers toiled for the benefit of the ruling classes; it...

Can the past and the future coexist?(Review Essay)
January 1, 2004... Change is a modern phenomenon. Modernist scholars from Smith to Hegel to Marx viewed change as one of the defining characteristics of modern society. The idea of "change" became synonymous with the idea of "progress": modern advanced from...

The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... By Kenneth Pomeranz Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000. Pp. x, 382. $20.00 cloth. Why did the "Industrial Revolution" occur in northwestern Europe but not in China? This simple question has proven to be nightmarishly...

Benjamin Franklin.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... By Edmund S. Morgan New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002. Pp. xi, 339. $24.95 cloth, $16.00 paper. In 1818, John Adams wrote a letter to Hezekiah Niles that was destined for a long and famous life as commentary on the causes...

To Form a More Perfect Union.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... By Robert A. McGuire Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. xii, 395. $39.95. In To Form a More Perfect Union, Robert A. McGuire attempts to provide the first solid modern analysis to quantify the impact of the personal economic...

Armageddon Averted: the Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... By Stephen Kotkin Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. xi, 224. $25.00 cloth. I begin with a personal anecdote. In the fall of 1982, I was attending college in my hometown and living with my parents. On the morning of November...

Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... By Ted Galen Carpenter New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Pp. iv, 282. $24.95 cloth. Ted Galen Carpenter's new book is an indispensable, up-to-date examination of "Washington's futile war on drugs in Latin America," as its subtitle...

The Moral Foundations of Politics.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... By Ian Shapiro New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003. Pp. xii, 289. $25.00 cloth. As Ian Shapiro makes clear in the preface, his Moral Foundations of Politics grew out a lecture course of the same name that he has been...

Smoke-Filled Rooms: a Postmortem on the Tobacco Deal.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... By W. Kip Viscusi Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Pp. viii, 263. $27.50 cloth. Anybody who followed the literature on the "social cost" of smoking over the past two decades must have been deeply puzzled about how state...

The real scandal of "janitors insurance".(Etceteras ...)
January 1, 2004... The past year has brought extensive media coverage of apparent corporate wrong-doing. High-profile bankruptcies, such as Enron's, and the "perp walk" arrests of corporate officers have been most prominent, but attention also has been given to...