Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society

by Robert Higgs

An unflinching critical analysis of government is contained in this work, which distills complex economic and political issues for the layperson. Combining an economist's analytical scrutiny with an historian's respect for empirical evidence, the book attacks the data on which governments base their economic management and their responses to an ongoing stream of crises. Among the topics discussed are domestic economic busts, foreign wars, welfare programs such as social security, the arts of political leadership, the intrusive efforts of governments to protect people from themselves, and the mismanagement of the economy. Though focused on US government actions, the book also makes revealing comparisons with similar government actions abroad and in China, Japan, and Western Europe.

Genres: Economics, Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Robert Higgs is an American economic historian and economist combining material from Public Choice, the New Institutional economics, and the Austrian school of economics; and a libertarian anarchist in political and legal theory and public policy. His writings in economics and economic history have most often focused on the causes, means, and effects of government power and growth.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Higgs is brilliant in showing how government has a tendency to grab more and more power for itself.

[Dave Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the death of big government are greatly exaggerated. Robert Higgs, a Fellow at the Independence Institute, explores the pervasive threat government poses to our liberties in his book, “Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society,” a collection of essays documenting the intrusive and pernicious nature of expansive government.

“Against Leviathan” is a catalog of folly; in clear language Higgs employs simple economic reasoning to expose the excesses of governmental action and their consequences for American citizens. Higgs makes the case that bloated government is a fraud, however, he notes that by and large, Americans are complicit in the charade. Despite its claims, the government is not what it purports to be. But, unlike other frauds, there is no escape. The government will not simply leave us alone.

Higgs does not stop with an indictment of waste, fraud and abuse; he challenges a central pillar of the welfare state — income redistribution. He shows how government statistics foster envy, not equity. Focusing on how much wealth the various quintiles of the population possess, while disregarding all sense of nuance.

All things being equal, politicians usually rely on taxes and subsidies to make income more equal, despite the unintended consequences that follow therefrom. Operationally, Ronald Reagan quipped, “If you want more of something, subsidize it; if you want less of something, tax it.” And, of course, with any government intervention, liberty recedes.

Higgs also chronicles how promiscuous fiscal and monetary policies along with the exponential growth of the regulatory state has made a necessity of the logic of intervention. Efforts to 'fix' perceived problems invariably lead to unintended consequences which also demand attention, a vicious circle soon ensues. Along the way government's 'iron triangle' further exacerbates malinvestment and economic disequilibrium. Throw in rent seeking voters-constituents- and before long a permanent demand for more government intervention emerges. Afterall, few politicians wish to buck the 'conventional wisdom.'

While Higgs is adept at exposing economic fallacies, his analysis of the legal climate in America is most disconcerting. We now have a Crisis Constitution which bears little resemblance to the written document we ratified in 1787. Virtually any government intervention can be justified in the face of economic, geopolitical or social exigency, and once an intervention is introduced it seldom is abandoned. Repeatedly, courts have found reserved powers on which the government may rely during emergencies; or conversely, "penumbras, formed by emanations." For the most part, Americans have acquiesced to such usurpations. Thus, we now live with a feckless legislature, an imperial presidency, a peremptory judiciary and an unresponsive bureaucracy.

Higgs has given us a thoughtful polemic. In a closely reasoned brief, he has verified the poignant epigraph he adduced from Goethe: "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."

[TRE · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, a bit dry at times, lots of libertarian boilerplate, which I'm fine with but nothing new. Perhaps part of the problem is me reading a book published in 2002 in...2018 :s

Some good essays (as this is the basic construction of the book, each chapter is an essay or a review he published from 90s to early aughts):

Chapter 12: We're All Sick, and Government Must Heal Us!
(about FDA regulations and the book The Therapeutic State by the late Dr. Thomas Szasz)

Chapter 17: A Tale of Two Labor Markets
(about "pork hawks" in Congress who keep alive moribund defense spending projects - often against the military's own wishes! - in order to secure jobs for their district and re-election)

Chapter 30: The Cold War Is Over, but U.S. Preparation for It Continues
(about how the "military readiness gap" is a statistical bug-a-boo that always gives the Military-Industrial Complex the answer it wants to hear: it needs more and more taxpayer money)

[Mallory · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book ended up on my list yeeeeeears ago as a rec from a Libertarian friend. Perhaps it's been too long and I've largely moved away from any Libertarian leanings I had at one time, but I found this book rather insufferable. In fact, the last four chapters I barely skimmed (and forget pages at a time throughout that I would skim throughout the book).

Early on in the book, I was annoyed by the poor arguments Higgs constructed. They were, I suppose, rousing renditions of basic Libertarian tenets for those who already subscribe to those tenets, but for someone more skeptical of what they have to offer, I was largely turned off. (If I wanted hyperbole and strawman arguments, I'd turn on any major media channel and watch a few minutes.) The middle of the book I felt was better. He went more in depth about economics and economic history, and while I did not usually agree with his arguments, he was much less likely to devolve into fallacious arguments. If nothing else, these chapters gave me a different light in which to view whatever economic principle or historical event and step outside of my usual box of how I view things. Again, at the end I felt the rhetoric picked up again, and I became a little confused about organization of his book. The last 3 chapters (if not more) were largely book reviews of books he disagreed with. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I was skimming by this point, so I may have missed his transition. Again, these just allowed Higgs to be pedantic and rhetorical.

In sum, if you are a Libertarian or find yourself to have largely Libertarian leanings, you will probably enjoy this book; Higgs is a pretty good writer. If not, it will likely only annoy you, so steer clear.

[The American Conservative]

'Higgs is an economist of a different kind, as his new book, Against Leviathan, shows. His background is well within the scholarly mainstream—a Johns Hopkins Ph.D., he has taught at colleges large and small, from the University of Washington to Pennsylvania’s Lafayette College, where he held the William E. Simon chair in political economy before joining the Independent Institute of Oakland, California and becoming the editor of its quarterly journal, the Independent Review. But he has long questioned the assumptions, and the numbers, on which the pillars of political economy rest. Against the public-choice school, with whom he otherwise has much in common, Higgs contends that government cannot simply be treated as if it were a business or a means for reducing the “transaction costs” of contracts—force and ideology play too great a role. This new volume, carrying on from Crisis and Leviathan, makes that case powerfully.'

Read the full review, "Enemy of the State," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...