Independent Review articles from March 2003

Independent Review archives from March 2003

The primacy of property in a liberal constitutional order: lessons for China.
March 22, 2003... China's march toward a market economy, which began in 1978, has been slow but steady. In 1980, China rated very low on the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index, achieving a score of only a 3.7 out of 10, in contrast to Hong Kong, which...

Terrorized into absurdity: the creation of the transportation security administration.
March 22, 2003... "Emergencies" often cry out for drastic and expensive changes in public policy that later, on reflection, seem ill-conceived. Government responses to the Great Depression, for example, drastically altered the U.S. system of limited government...

On rent thinking and the corruption of republican government.
March 22, 2003... Economic rents--essentially, an excess economic return derived from consumer surplus (rent) and capital (quasi-rent)--lie at the core of public-choice analysis, which models public decision making in economic terms. The theory of rent...

Why Ireland boomed.
March 22, 2003... The great economic success story of the past ten years has been the Republic of Ireland. At the end of the year 2000, Ireland could look back on fourteen years of uninterrupted economic growth, which had accelerated to nearly I0 percent...

Order in the jungle social interaction without the state.
March 22, 2003... Any society of force--whether ruled by criminal bands or by an organized State--fundamentally means the rule of the jungle, or economic chaos. --Murray N. Rothbard, Power and Market: Government and the Economy Social order is perhaps...

The causes of wrongful conviction. (Reflections).
March 22, 2003... The execution of an innocent person cannot be remedied. This fact, together with mounting evidence of innocents on death row, has strengthened opposition to the death penalty. Nevertheless, the death penalty has proved to be a divisive issue....

Commitment, scholarship, and classical liberalism. (Reflections).
March 22, 2003... The relationship between one's work as a scholar and one's personal concern for--indeed, commitment to--a particular political agenda is an issue that might well have worried many classical liberal scholars. In this article, I seek to shed some...

A free market in kidneys would be efficient and equitable: a case of too much romance. (Comment).
March 22, 2003... With regard to the recent Independent Review article by William Barnett II, Michael Saliba, and Deborah Walker, "A Free Market in Kidneys: Efficient and Equitable" (2001), one might complain that the title misleads the reader to expect that the...

We favor a freer market in kidneys. (Reply).
March 22, 2003... According to Michael Brooks in his article "A Free Market in Kidneys Would Be Efficient and Equitable: A Case of Too Much Romance" in this issue of The Independent Review, our case for a free market in kidneys founders on an overly romantic...

Now more than ever, your vote doesn't matter: a reconsideration. (Comment).
March 22, 2003... In the spring 2002 issue of The Independent Review, Cecil E. Bohanon and T. Norman Van Cott properly dispel the notion that every person's vote matters--an idea that many pundits stated again and again during the controversy over counting...

More on voting. (Reply).
March 22, 2003... Public-choice analysts have argued for a long time that the probability that an individual's vote will matter in an election with many voters is near zero. Nevertheless, in the brouhaha that surrounded the U.S. election of 2000, media pundits...

Reassessing the Presidency: the Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... Edited by John V. Denson Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2001. Pp. xxxv, 791. $35.00 cloth. "There cannot be too much of a correct theory," Ludwig von Mises wrote in Epistemological Problems of Economics. This provocative...

The Real Lincoln: a New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... By Thomas J. DiLorenzo Roseville, Calif.: Forum/Prima, 2002. Pp. xiii, 333. $24.95 cloth. Cynics learn through harsh experience to be skeptical of any book promising the "real" history behind a controversial figure such as Abraham...

Public Spending in the 20th Century: a Global Perspective.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... By Vito Tanzi and Ludger Schuknecht Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. xvi, 291. $65.00 cloth, $24.00 paper. Nowadays there is a plethora of research reports in journals and edited volumes on why government grows....

Against the Dead Hand: the Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... By Brink Lindsey New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001. Pp. 368. $29.95 cloth. Today it is visceral for the ordinary citizen to sec economic globalization as a relentless and irresistible force shaping political, social, and especially...

A Theory of the State: Economic Rights, Legal Rights, and the Scope of the State.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... By Yoram Barzel Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xiii, 289. $22.00. In his new book A Theory of the State, Yoram Barzel aims to "explain how `the state' first emerged and to describe the forces that have shaped it...

The Free Market Innovation Machine: Analyzing the Growth Miracle of Capitalism.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... By William J. Baumol Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002. Pp. xiii, 318. $35.00 cloth. The thesis of William J. Baumol's latest book is articulated clearly at the start. The free-market growth engine depends ultimately on...

Special Interest Politics.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... By Gene M. Grossman and Elhanan Helpman Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001. Pp. xv, 364. $40.00. In a theoretical perspective, it is not clear why the study of interest groups is a separate subfield of political economy. After all, the...