A Better Kind of Violence: The Chicago School of Political Economy, Public Choice, and the Quest for an Ultimate Theory of Power

by Filip Palda

Finally, the much awaited third book in Palda's "Social Calculus Trilogy" which covers all branches of economics. In A Better Kind of Violence Palda reveals how in recent years economists have learned to fuse economics and politics to produce a total theory of power. The most surprising conclusions are that politics tends towards a limited form of efficiency and that the advice of policy experts is irrelevant. The book draws on the three pillars of economics (individual maximization of utility, material constraints, the emergence of equilibrium) to show how economists have bypassed all other social sciences in creating the greatest breakthrough in political thinking since Plato.

132 pages, Paperback

Published November 25, 2016

About the author

Filip Palda is full professor at the École nationale d'administration publique. He earned his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago. He has written two books for the Fraser Institute (Election Finance Regulation in Canada: A Critical Review, and Home on the Urban Range: An Idea Map for Reforming the City) as well as co-authoring three Tax Facts books and pioneering for the Fraser Institute, along with Isabella Horry, the survey method of estimating tax incidence. He is also editor of five Fraser Institute books (Essays in Canadian Surface Transportation, Its no Gamble: The Economic and Social Benefits of Stock Markets, L'État interventionniste : le gouvernement provincial et l'économie du Québec, Provincial Trade Wars: Why the Blockade Must End, and The New Federalist), and the author of over a hundred Fraser Forum articles as well as the author of the Public Policy Source paper The History of Tobacco Regulation: Forward to the Past. He has written a dozen articles in the National Post, has published with the World & I, as well as being cover author for the Next City magazine. In addition to his work for the Fraser Institute, professor Palda is the author of more than 20 articles in refereed economic journals and is a high-scoring author on the RepEc website of economic working papers. He is best known for his work on exposing the self-interest politicians hold in crafting election finance laws and for his discovery of the displacement deadweight loss of tax evasion.