Independent Review articles from June 2009

Independent Review archives from June 2009

Some problems with spontaneous order.(Critical essay)
June 22, 2009... F. A. Hayek's famous observations about the nature of social order are a cornerstone of much conservative and libertarian thought. Hayek's arguments are frequently cited not only as a useful description of how social orders evolve, but also to...

With friends like these, who needs enemies? Aiding the world's worst dictators.(Essay)
June 22, 2009... On April 2, 2008, the Zimbabwe Election Committee publicly confirmed that President Robert Mugabe and his party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), had lost control of the Parliament to the main opposition party, the...

The modern health care maze: development and effects of the four-party system.(Essay)
June 22, 2009... Our national health care system is so dauntingly complex that reform efforts seem hopelessly adrift. How should we proceed in reforming that system? As a rule, any "realistic" reform project must begin with a survey of its principal...

Selling slave families down the river: property rights and the public auction.(Essay)
June 22, 2009... Historians, sociologists, and economists have long emphasized the detrimental effects of slave owners' power to sell their slaves and in the process separate husband from wife, parent from child, and relatives and friends from one another. This...

Entrepreneurship and growth: a Latin American paradox?(Essay)
June 22, 2009... In recent Latin American history, economists have advanced many different recipes to promote the region's economic growth. Given these differences of professional opinion and the region's on-again, off-again development, populism and political...

If Mexicans and Americans could cross the border freely.(REFLECTIONS)(Viewpoint essay)
June 22, 2009... Maria serves me my coffee nearly every morning. She works fast and precisely. Although she has been up for hours, she does not have a hair out of place; her discreet makeup is unsmudged; her clothing is neat and in good taste. She is one of the...

Animal spirits.(Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism)(Book review)
June 22, 2009... George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller are highly creative economists who have spent much of their careers exploring what is now called "behavioral economics," meaning the intersection between psychology and economics. Their new book, Animal...

The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom.(Book review)
June 22, 2009... * The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom By Robert A. Levy and William Mellor New York: Sentinel/Penguin, 2008. Pp. xviii, 302. $25.95 cloth. From the world of sports...

The Cult of the Presidency.(Book review)
June 22, 2009... * The Cult of the Presidency By Gene Healy Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2008. Pp. viii, 367. $22.95 cloth. Gene Healy's The Cult of the Presidency presents the reader with a concise historical analysis of how the...

Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market in Education.(Book review)
June 22, 2009... * Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market in Education By Jerry Kirkpatrick Claremont, Calif.: TLJ Books, 2008. Pp. 212. $18.95 paper. As Thomas Jefferson famously said, "If a nation expects to...