Independent Review articles from September 2003

Independent Review archives from September 2003

Compassion without charity, freedom without liberty: the political fantasies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
September 22, 2003... Socialists, progressives, and similar denizens of the political left love to boast about their compassion. They think it distinguishes them from "unfeeling" politicians on the right and gives them the moral high ground in all political debates....

The benefits of economic freedom: a survey.
September 22, 2003... The absence of economic growth implies the continued existence of poverty and hardship. The International Monetary Fund (IMF 2001) and others now perceive the prospects for global economic growth to be relatively weak. Neoclassical...

Moral capital and commercial society.
September 22, 2003... Modern civilization is based on laws and other institutions that allow individuals a large measure of freedom to seek profit through voluntary exchange. Indeed, but for the prospect of making profits, many transactions simply would not occur,...

Of racism and rubbish: the geography of race and pollution in Mississippi.
September 22, 2003... "Nobody can question that, for far too long, communities across this country--low income, minority communities--have been asked to bear a disproportionate share of our modern industrial life." --EPA Administrator Carol...

Creating a common market for fraud in the European Union.
September 22, 2003... The preamble to the Treaties of Rome, which founded the European Economic Community (EEC), now part of the European Union (EU), declares that the treaties have as their goal the creation of an "ever closer union" among the peoples of Europe....

The business model of medicine: modern health care's awkward flirtation with the marketplace.(Controversy)
September 22, 2003... A current advertisement on the radio says that a new diagnostic tool, electron beam tomography (EBT, a scanner that is much more rapid and capable of showing more detail than the better-known CT scanner), can detect lung cancer in its early...

If the "Business Model" of medicine is sick, what's the diagnosis, and what's the cure?(Controversy)
September 22, 2003... In his thoughtful essay "The Business Model of Medicine: Modern Health Care's Awkward Flirtation with the Marketplace" in this issue, Dr. James P. Whalen highlights several shortcomings of the U.S. health care system. In his criticism, he is...

The new economy (Pre)Dux; or, what history teaches us about the wired world.(Review Essays)
September 22, 2003... Historians can't help but smile every time they hear another pundit pontificating on the new economy. Historians know that there is no new thing under the sun, at least not yet. If they want to understand "the" new economy, they don't seek out...

More arrows bouncing off the great H. L. Mencken.(Review Essays)(Critical Essay)
September 22, 2003... Few public figures of the twentieth century, regardless of their achievements or fame, have had as much published about them as Henry Louis Mencken, American journalist and critic, 1880-1956. In Baltimore, the city in which he lived his entire...

James Madison and the Future of Limited Government.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... Edited by John Samples Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2002. Pp. v, 246. $10.95 paper. The lives and philosophies of the founding generations fascinate us, as a decade-long blizzard of new biographies and studies attests. James Madison...

Bountiful Harvest: Technology, Food Safety, and the Environment.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... By Thomas R. DeGregori Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2002. Pp. xiii, 262. $12.95. Thomas R. DeGregori, an economist who specializes in the study of economic development, has traveled to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean...

The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... By Helen Caldicott New York: The New Press, 2002. Pp. xx, 263. $16.95 paper. As might be gleaned from the title of her recent book, The New Nuclear Danger, Helen Caldicott critiques from the left the Bush administration's policies on...

International Order and Individual Liberty: Effects of War and Peace on the Development of Governments.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... By Mark E. Pietrzyk Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2002. Pp. xxiv, 247. $44.00 paper. In the past fifteen years or so, a cottage industry has burgeoned within political science focused on the observation that democracies have...

A Perilous Progress: Economists and Public Purpose in Twentieth-Century America.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... By Michael A. Bernstein Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001. Pp. 376. $39.50 cloth. In A Perilous Progress, Michael Bernstein reminds us of the importance of the Progressive era in setting the stage for the twentieth-century...