Anthony de Jasay is among the most original and independent thinkers on the relationship between the individual and the state. Through his published works he has challenged the reigning paradigms justifying modern democratic government. His deeply challenging theoretical works include The State, published in 1985; it is an analysis that views the state as acting primarily in its own interests and often in opposition to the interests of both society and individuals. He subsequently published a number of additional works, including Social Contract, Free Ride: A Study of the Public Goods Problem; Choice, Contract, Consent; Before Resorting to Politics; and Against Politics. His work has become known for its insightful, individualistic, and unconventional analysis of power, politics, and freedom.
Economic Sense and Nonsense comprises a collection of sixty essays written by Anthony de Jasay for his monthly column “Reflections from Europe,” on Liberty Fund’s Library of Economics and Liberty website. The articles span the years 2008 to 2012 and focus on economic issues of topical concern in Europe.
Anthony de Jasay breaks new ground with Justice and Its Surroundings—a collection of trenchant essays that seek to redefine the concept of justice and to highlight the frontier between it and the surrounding issues that encroach upon it and are mistakenly associated with it.
Written for the general reader and specialist alike, the essays collected here articulate a convincing classical liberal view of the world, with a no-nonsense approach to modern economic theory. Many of the articles are collected here for the first time in book form. Jasay’s aim is to clarify basic concepts in the realm of political and economic philosophy, such as property, equality and distributive justice, public goods, unemployment, opportunity costs, and welfare.
Anthony de Jasay, one of the most independent thinkers and influential libertarian political philosophers of our time, challenges the reigning paradigms justifying modern democratic government. The articles collected in Political Philosophy, Clearly delve deeply into the realm of political thought and philosophical criticism. A reader who is interested in a philosophical, yet clear, jargon-free account of such fundamental topics as the relationship between liberty and justice, the viability of limiting government, the role of property, and the possibilities of the private provision of public goods as well as the private enforcement of public rules will find reading this book rewarding.
Social Contract, Free Ride is a cogent argument that strikes at the very foundations of traditional economic apologies for coercive action by the state to fulfill necessary public utility.
Anthony de Jasay is arguably one of the most influential independent thinkers and libertarian political philosophers of our time. Through his writings, he challenges the reigning paradigms justifying modern democratic government, providing an antidote to the well-intentioned yet, in Jasay’s opinion, naive expansion of state power furthered by much of modern thought today.
The State is a brilliant analysis of modern political arrangements that views the state as acting in its own interest contrary to the interests of individuals and even of an entire society. As Nobel laureate James Buchanan has observed, Jasay subjects the state to a “solid, foundational analysis, grounded in an understanding of economic theory, informed by political philosophy and a deep sense of history.” The results include a “devastating critique of the absurdities of modern welfare economics.”