The State [Hardcover]

Anthony De-Jasay (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 291 pages
• Publisher: Blackwell Pub (May 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631140255
• ISBN-13: 978-0631140252
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,704,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding yet ultimately incomplete treatise, May 27, 2003

By 

Zachary Gochenour (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The State (Hardcover)

De Jasay presents us with a problem: Constitutions are the highest law of the land and intended to chain down Leviathan, but the constituion is just a document - a government document at that. Constitutions are tantamount to giving all the guns to one person and making them promise not to use them. They are like chastity belts on government growth - and government has the key.

This book is a tour-de-force critique of constitutions. It recognizes them for what they are and nothing more. The book could have been a bit longer, with more specific examples: but perhaps the author would feel it would expose the inherent weakness in his argument. Some countries are more free than others - why? Does it have anything to do with written constitutions? Moral constitutions and cultural restrictions? The force of the people? De Jasay's analysis could have been complemented with an in-depth Public Choice analysis of how politics actually works, rather than a blanket statement denying any effect of constitutions. Even if de Jasay is right about all his points, his lack of perspectives makes the book seem like shoddy scholarship and philosophical ranting at times.

Read this book if you want to understand some of the inherent problems with the idea of constitutional government, then ask yourself why de Jasay is wrong if you think he is. The writing in this book can be pessimistic and nearly lifeless, but several arguments are strong and insightful. It is an important piece of anarchist/libertarian literature and should not be overlooked.