Independent Review articles from March 2000

Independent Review archives from March 2000

Free Riders and Collective Action Revisited.
March 22, 2000... The free-rider problem associated with public goods was recognized by David Hume, even before the time of Adam Smith's writings. Each citizen who can enjoy the benefit of a public good has an incentive to try to lay the whole burden of...

Is Urban Planning "Creeping Socialism"?
March 22, 2000... Socialism is commonly defined as government ownership of the means of production. With the exception of a number of services that are viewed as natural monopolies, such as sewer and water supplies, socialism in the form of government ownership...

Information Technology as a Universal Solvent for Removing State Stains.
March 22, 2000... The government's been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the forties. They've infected everything. They can get into your bank statements, computer files, e-mail, listen to your phone calls... every wire, every airwave....

Prosperity and Economic Freedom.(Statistical Data Included)
March 22, 2000... A Virtuous Cycle That economic freedom promotes affluence is Adam Smith's most important principle, but as the new millennium arrives, contrary attitudes are in vogue around the world. The early post-World War II ideal of a Third Way...

The Crisis of Europe's Centralized Federalism.
March 22, 2000... Ambiguities of a Harmonized Currency Union Despite their high hopes for spontaneous, widespread popular support for economic integration, the champions of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) are still trying hard to persuade the...

Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896-1900.
March 22, 2000... In 1896 a new political party was born, the National Democratic Party (NDP). The founders of the NDP included some of the leading exponents of classical liberalism during the late nineteenth century. Few of those men, however, foresaw the...

Values, Virtues, and the New American Testament.
March 22, 2000... A sense of social and moral malaise overhangs America amidst unprecedented economic prosperity. It is reflected in popular books lamenting the nation's "death of outrage" (Bennett 1998), its "slouching toward Gomorrah" (Bork 1996), and its...

Freedom of Religion and Public Schooling.
March 22, 2000... One may object to government support of education on various grounds. Here I consider two such grounds that have to do with moral consistency. First, state intervention in education, whether in the form of monetary subsidies, compulsory...

Policy Analysis and Public Choice: Selected Papers by William A. Niskanen.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Policy Analysis and Public Choice: Selected Papers by William A. Niskanen By William A. Niskanen Cheltenham, Eng.: Edward Elgar, 1998. Pp. ix, 430. William Niskanen's volume of selected papers showcases more than thirty selections...

Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance By Deepak Lal Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998. Pp. x, 287. An expanded version of the Ohlin Memorial Lectures at the...

Die Partei der Freiheit: Studien zur Geschichte des deutschen Liberalismus.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Die Partei der Freiheit: Studien zur Geschichte des deutschen Liberalismus By Ralph Raico Stuttgart: Lucius and Lucius, 1999. Pp. 298. DM 68 cloth. To say that the new book by Ralph Raico, professor of history at Buffalo State College,...

The So-called Third Way.
March 22, 2000... Anthony Giddens has seen the future that doesn't work, and he recommends it. Giddens, a distinguished sociologist and director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, is described nowadays as Tony Blair's guru or favorite...

Thank you ...
March 22, 2000... The editor acknowledges with heartfelt gratitude the assistance of the following individuals, who have refereed one or more papers submitted to The Independent Review during its fourth year of operation. They have contributed greatly to the...