Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) [Paperback]

Clint Bolick (Author)

Book Description

Series: HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION | Publication Date: August 1, 2004

Those who declare the era of big government over, says Clint Bolick, are dead wrong. In Leviathan, Bolick shows that, although the national government has downsized somewhat since the Reagan era, local government has grown exponentially. This ever-expanding beast, he explains, saps our nation's productive vitality and threatens us with "grassroots tyranny." Drawing from his experience as an attorney with the Institute for Justice, Bolick uses illuminating cases from the litigation trenches to show how powerful local government has infringed on freedom of speech, freedom of commerce and enterprise, private property rights, and even the simple right to be left alone. He explains how locally controlled government school systems reflect the values of powerful interest groups and why—despite spending millions of taxpayers' dollars—they are unable to provide the basics of education. Bolick ultimately reveals that, although the rules are often rigged in favor of local governments and against ordinary citizens, we can take action to rein in these out-of-control bureaucracies.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Those who declare the era of big government over, says Clint Bolick, are dead wrong. In Leviathan, Bolick shows that, although the national government has downsized somewhat since the Reagan era, local government has grown exponentially. This ever-expanding beast, he explains, saps our nation’s productive vitality and threatens us with "grassroots tyranny."

Drawing from his experience as an attorney with the Institute for Justice, Bolick uses illuminating cases from the litigation trenches to show how powerful local government has infringed on freedom of speech, freedom of commerce and enterprise, private property rights, and even the simple right to be left alone. He explains how locally controlled government school systems reflect the values of powerful interest groups and why—despite spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars—they are unable to provide the basics of education.

Bolick ultimately reveals that, although the rules are often rigged in favor of local governments and against ordinary citizens, we can take action to rein in these out-of-control bureaucracies.

Clint Bolick is research fellow at the Hoover Institution and president of and general counsel for the Alliance for School Choice, the nation’s foremost organization advocating school choice programs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Hoover Institution Press; 1st edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0817945520
• ISBN-13: 978-0817945527
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,260,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Kindle Version is Full of Typos, July 15, 2010

By 

Terrence Toon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) (Paperback)

I was extremely disappointed in the Kindle version of this book. The first few pages are riddled with typographical errors, apparently reflecting the lack of editing following whatever text recognition scanning method Amazon uses to convert books. The topic is interesting to me but reading this poorly edited version is a major distraction.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing Claptrap, July 3, 2009

By 

dick bowers - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) (Paperback)

Always looking for the intelligent counterpoints in important matters I picked this up. Not worth the effort. Very disappointing and unbalanced viewpoint with plenty of footnotes but no intelligent connections... and with many Herculean leaps of logic. Reminds me of O'Reilly's diatribe about who is looking out for us. One thing for sure, this nonsense presumes that our nation and it's proud inhabitants need a cadre of radical myopic minions to guard the gate. I disagree.I give credit to the author for being provocative but then I am pretty easily provoked by narrow positions of certainty. Here on the 4th of July I affirm my love for this great nation and my distaste for radical undemocratic viewpoints like this that seek to diminish the foundation. I prefer to discuss "of the people, by the people, and for the people" as we collectively and with great affection shape our collective path to secure and protect "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Read the Federalist Papers, Toqueville's. Democarcy in America, and the recent book Adams for a healthy context. God bless America.

5 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven prosecutor's brief, January 29, 2005

By 

A_2007_reader (Vladivostok, Russia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) (Paperback)

A lawyer takes local and state government to task. Kinda like a journalist taking the federal government to task (Bovard's books). Both these guys write adversarial briefs, selectively picking and chosing their material to paint a picture. Useful propaganda, since I support zero government (you can privitize everything, including the military, post office, justice, etc).

One example from page 8, which you can check out on-line: Federal expenditures are listed as less than $1 trillion, which is less than state and local expenditures, but in fact federal expenditures are greater than $2 trillion. So how did the author get away with this statistic? Easy. He stripped out "entitlements" like Social Security, Medicare, which account for roughly half of federal expenditures.

This is but one example.

In short: useful propaganda, but nothing more.