In this concise and elegant work, first published in 1952, Bertrand de Jouvenel purposely ignores the economic evidence that redistributional efforts sap incentives and are economically destructive. Rather, he stresses the commonly disregarded ethical arguments showing that redistribution is ethically indefensible for, and practically unworkable in a complex society.
In this concise and elegant work, first published in 1952, Bertrand de Jouvenel purposely ignores the economic evidence that redistributional efforts ...
Documenting the process by which government and controlling majorities have grown increasingly powerful and tyrannical, this book demonstrates how democracies have failed to limit the powers of government. Jouvenel traces this development all the way back to the days of royal absolutism, which established large administrative bureaucracies, and thus laid the foundation of the modern omnipotent state. Bernard de Jouvenel is the author of The Ethics of Redistribution, Sovereignty: An Inquiry into the Political Good and The Pure Theory of Politics.
Documenting the process by which government and controlling majorities have grown increasingly powerful and tyrannical, this book demonstrates how dem...
In this concluding volume in the trilogy that begins with On Power and moves on to Sovereignty, Bertrand de Jouvenel proposes to remedy a serious deficiency in political science, namely, the lack of agreement on first principles, or elements. The author's concern is with political processes as they actually exist, not as they are conjectured to be in hypothetical models. As an indication of the originality and imaginativeness that Jouvenel brings to his task, the sections explore: Politics as History; Setting - Ego in Otherdom; Action - Instigation and Response; Authority - 'Potestas' and...
In this concluding volume in the trilogy that begins with On Power and moves on to Sovereignty, Bertrand de Jouvenel proposes to remedy a serious defi...