Book Reviews – September 2006

• On Political
  Equality
  by Robert A. Dahl
  Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling

• Collapse: How
  Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
  by Jared Diamond Reviewed
  by Gene Callahan

• Economic Liberties
  and the Constitution
  by Bernard H. Siegan Reviewed by George C. Leef

• Kidney for Sale by
  Owner: Human Organs, Transplantation, and the Market
  by Mark J. Cherry Reviewed by William L. Anderson

Democracy Versus Liberty

If a foreign power took over the United States and dictated that American citizens surrender 40 percent of their income, required them to submit to tens of thousands of different commands (many of which were effectively kept secret from them), prohibited many of them from using their land, and denied many the chance to find [...]

Nothing to Learn from the Antifederalists? It Just Ain’t So!

Joseph Stromberg is a historian and freelance writer. According to Paul Greenberg, writing in the Washington Times in late January, the dreaded Antifederalists and their Articles of Confederation are making a comeback. In particular, these miscreants dare to question executive power. He writes with patriotic horror—a horror that assumes as self-evident a partisan reading of [...]

The Supreme Court and the End of Limited Government

The Supreme Court ruling permitting governments
forcibly to transfer property through eminent
domain from one private party to another
for the sake of economic development did not come out
of the blue. Although the Takings Clause in the Fifth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifies “nor shall
private property be taken for public use without just
compensation,” the “Court long ago rejected any literal
requirement that condemned property be put into use
for the general public” (Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff,
1984, cited in the current case, Kelo v. City of New
London).

Parting Company Is an Option

My last essay in The Freeman, “How Did We Get Here?” (March), provided clear evidence that Congress and the White House, as well as the courts, had vastly exceeded powers delegated to them by our Constitution. To have an appreciation for the magnitude of the usurpation, one need only read Federalist 45, where James Madison, [...]

The Economic Foundation of Freedom

The late Howard Buffett was a U.S. representative from Nebraska (1943–1949 and 1951–1953). This article, condensed from a lecture at Midland College in Fremont, Nebraska, is reprinted from The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, December 1956. For more information on Buffett see Joseph R. Stromberg, “Howard Homan Buffett: Old Rightist Extraordinaire” at www.antiwar.com/stromberg/s042401.html. A clear understanding [...]

Law and Property: The Best Hope for Liberty?

There is little left of the conventional protections for individualism in the modern world. Whatever theoretical virtues there may be in democracy (and there aren’t many1), in practice it has disintegrated into a struggle among self-regarding interest groups, mediated by government, over wealth that is exclusively created by private individuals.

Who’s Declaring War?

“You said we’re headed to war in Iraq. I don’t know why you say that. I’m the person who gets to decide, not you.” —PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH In the drive for war against Iraq, President Bush and the Congress have colluded to violate the U.S. Constitution. What Congress has committed at Mr. Bush’s request [...]

The Constitution According to George Bush

White House lawyers have reportedly told President George W. Bush that he doesn’t need congressional authority to go to war. For political reasons, the President says he will seek “congressional support for U.S. action” in Iraq. But will he agree to be bound by a no vote? If not, his request is meaningless. The Constitution [...]