The British system of universal development control celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997. Remarkably, the system has survived more or less intact but the experience of the 1980s has left large questions unanswered about the relevance and effectiveness of the system. This book traces the history of the development control system in Britain from early modern times to the present day. It also looks at the tension between private interest and public control, and between the freedom of local authorities to decide and their accountability for decisions taken. It looks at the rights of third...

The first part of this fascinating book outlines the dreams of liberal economics and political scientists. The thinkers sketch out frameworks for policy, which, in increasing the domain for individual action, will give rise to beneficial results and lead to a better and more prosperous soceity.The second part of the book shows how an earlier generation of liberal economists turned ideas into action. Led by Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, the authors writing for the IEA helped to turn back the tide of collectivism by exposing its intellectual failings.

This pathbreaking collection brings together a selection of work by Nobel Prize winning authors from the archives of the Institute of Economic Affairs. The laureates whose work is featured made an important contribution to economists' understanding of a market economy. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the editors, the publishers or the authors of these outstanding articles would have predicted quite how widespread and important their influence would be. The editors have chosen works to demonstrate the challenge raised by these authors to the socialist consensus of the time amongst both...