Here is a brief outline of a presentation I gave today. The suporting evidence is scattered about various posts from the past two weeks. 1) The thesis: It may be true, as free market economists say, that the economy would be more stable and perhaps even more prosperous if the state left the market . . . . Continue Reading »
In his study of the rise of the spirit of capitalism, translated as The Quintessence Of Capitalism: A Study Of The History And Psychology Of The Modern Business Man . . . , Werner Sombart emphasizes the role of the State in cultivating the capitalist spirit and in supporting capitalist enterprises. . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Coercion, Capital and European States: AD 990 - 1992 (Studies in Social Discontinuity) , Charles Tilly tells the story of the modern state as a story of coercion and capital. It is a story of two political forms, state and city. Coercion is gradually monopolized by the state, while the . . . . Continue Reading »
In an earlier post, I quoted Robert Nisbet’s suggestion that the capitalist system was the result of state intervention in and even destruction of earlier economic arrangements. No movement illustrates the point better than the enclosure movement, the subject of JM Neeson’s Commoners: . . . . Continue Reading »
Nisbet ( The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom (Background: Essential Texts for the Conservative Mind) ) admits that “no one can seriously question the abstract superiority of a society in which freedom of economic choice exists as compared to a society in which . . . . Continue Reading »
In his classic The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom (Background: Essential Texts for the Conservative Mind) , recently republished by ISI, Robert Nisbet places the rise of capitalism within the history of modern Statism. He notes, “The expansion of the State in . . . . Continue Reading »
Challenging both the “traditional” social interpretations of English politics in the 17th century (Stone, Hill) and also the Revisionists who dismiss social causes, Robert Brenner ( Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London’s Overseas Traders, . . . . Continue Reading »
Leviticus 19:35 interestingly links justice with proper measurements and balances. “You shall do no injustice in judgment” ( lo-ta’asu ‘avel bammishpat ), the verse begins. This repeats exactly the opening of 19:15. 19:15 goes on to warn about favoritism in court: “You . . . . Continue Reading »
Why did governments demand taxes and why did people pay? This makes sense if we think that markets pre-existed or if we think they come into being spontaneously. But David Graeber ( Debt: The First 5,000 Years ) doesn’t think that they do. Why would kings take control of mines, extract silver . . . . Continue Reading »
Philip Goodchild ( Theology of Money (New Slant: Religion, Politics, Ontology) , pp. 6-7 ) offers this gloss on Jesus’ opposition of God and walth in Matthew 6: “God and wealth are set in competition; for time, in terms of ‘storing up treasures’; for attention, in terms of . . . . Continue Reading »
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