Politics – Page 3 – Gus diZerega

Turning the Tables: The pathologies and unrealized promise of libertarianism

Posted on June 30, 2015February 19, 2016 by Gus

As a scholar and former libertarian, I have been disappointed at libertarians’ general failure to engage in serious debate with their critics, but I have also been disappointed with most critics’ relatively simplistic attacks on libertarian ideology. I wrote this … Read more

Hayekian Insights on Capitalism Part II: Capitalism and labor

Posted on March 19, 2015April 19, 2015 by Gus

Introduction

I am drawing a critical distinction between the role played by the market in coordinating human plans and the institutional forms people adopted in pursuing those plans. Market advocates usually assume because the market is formally voluntary, institutions arising … Read more

What’s in a Name? Capitalism, Crony Capitalism, and Corporatism: Why Terminology Matters

Posted on March 6, 2015March 7, 2015 by Gus

A number of classical liberals to whom I sent my paper on capitalism and civil society replied there is much with which they agree, but think I should use the term “crony capitalism” rather than “capitalism.” They point out my … Read more

Hayekian Insights on Capitalism and Civil Society

Posted on February 28, 2015April 20, 2015 by Gus

This is the first of a series of essays on capitalism. This, the first, is a very theoretical discussion, one relatively light on examples. However those that follow will have examples aplenty. But the theoretical framework is needed to make … Read more

Paradoxes of Freedom: Civil Society and the Market Order

Posted on November 9, 2014September 21, 2019 by Gus

Published in Cosmos and Taxis, Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2014.

Abstract

Civil society maximizes individual freedom. Spontaneous orders emerge from principles expressed more completely within civil society and enable cooperation to take more complex forms than in their absence. … Read more

Paradoxes of Freedom: Civil Society and the Market Order, Cosmos and Taxis, Vol 2, No. 1

Posted on July 14, 2014August 11, 2020 by Gus

Civil society maximizes individual freedom. Spontaneous orders emerge from principles expressed more completely within civil society and enable cooperation to take more complex forms than in their absence. However to the degree spontaneous orders incorporate activities from civil society, subjecting … Read more

Taking the Initiative towards electoral reform: a vital role for Maine?

Posted on April 21, 2014July 20, 2014 by Gus

The American political system has become dysfunctional with no hope at the moment for an end to the crisis. Further, those benefiting from the dysfunction have a vested interest in continuing the crisis, and can best do so by continuing … Read more

The Kochs’ role in the conspiracy against American democracy

Posted on October 8, 2013December 22, 2016 by Gus

Some months ago I posted an account of the evidence for a Koch funded conspiracy against American democracy, rooted in my having grown up in Wichita, their home, having known Charles Koch personally, and my youthful involvement with the radical … Read more

Before the Farm – and After

Posted on May 9, 2013May 9, 2020 by Gus

Based on reasonable extrapolations from both the historical evidence and surviving hunting and gathering societies, our earliest forbearers generally lived in relatively small usually mobile groups. This mobility was not universal. Permanent communities could exist where fish, game, and edible … Read more

Are they Fascists?

Posted on May 9, 2013May 9, 2020 by Gus

America’s culture warriors are not fascists. In its various guises European fascism, like their Communist opponents, was collectivist. In Germany the collective was the ‘Aryan race’ and in Italy it was the Italian nation whereas in Russia it was the … Read more