Democracy – The God That Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy and Natural Order (Perspectives on Democratic Practice) 1st Edition

I bought this book because of the situation in Chile, my country, that lives under an incompetent socialist government. Thinking about a present situation brings us normally to ask some questions about the reality: Is it in fact democracy a dead end? Is it any alternative? Is it possible to put limits to a government? Are taxes fair? Are governments really thinking on us, on our welfare, when they legislate or control?

Well, my answer before reading the book was that democracy is a failure because of the size and the power it has reached, and the asymmetry that occurs between what it pursues and what it gets. Ancient city-states were proportionate to the government as long as almost any citizen could participate in the discussion and in the solution of any public affair. Democracy, let's say, was just at the round of the corner of any single citizen. Today, that is not the case. Not anymore.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe's "Democracy, the god that failed," has written a superb book on this topic, analyzing the present state of the world as a derivative of the previous state which was --fundamentally-- monarchical. That's why the in the cover we read "the economics and politics of monarchy, democracy, and natural order." As you read, you discover that this sentence represents exactly the content of "Democracy..."

Thus, in thirteen chapters, Hoppe compares the present democracy with the past monarchy and then proposes that the natural order is the very alternative (and the solution) to break the dead end which is democracy (or so it seems). His insight in this respect is the clue to convince you that, for instance, democracy wasn't an advance or a social conquest with respect to monarchy. He is a professor and the hours giving lectures are evident. He is not only talking to you, he is also teaching you. In general, as a reader, I appreciate the author's capacity to show things from different angles, specially when the topic is so common, universal, and close to you (as it is the case with democracy). We are so submerged in politics that we have the very equivocal idea that we understand the whole phenomenon. After reading Hoppe's book you discover that there was some loose ends that usually you don't take into account and that deserve your attention.

Now, the basis of the discussion (the floor) is private property, economy, state interventionism, and taxes. Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and the Austrian School of economics are the ghostly presences whose words, works, and insights remember you those of the prophets or heroes of religion. In fact they are both prophets and heroes --although of a non religion quest-- as long as they developed a new way of looking at the problems that liberalism faced when the end of the monarchies and the rise of democracies left it out of the party.

Democracy, Hoppe says, was a model imposed by the U.S. after World War I. Since then, nothing has changed. Who would dare to put into question a model which rules almost all over the world?

Well, the book touches any single theme in depth so it has nothing to do with a pamphlet, therefore do not expect a fast reading because it demands time for a non expert to comprehend some analysis, long footnotes or economic concepts like "time preference." A couple of consultations here and there will give you, anyway, the clarity for continuing the reading. I should add here that the study of the past and the present is the best part of the book. In this regard, the weakest part is the last one, where Hoppe talks about the future, and proposes the "prospect for revolution" based on what private owners could do for living without a state. He talks about the possibilities of structures like insurance companies for protecting you of the risks and dangers of living inevitably among bad guys. Not only that, he also holds that those companies should act against any menace to a free society (of private owners). As long as it is true that in theory anarcho-capitalism is better than democracy for fulfilling a life in freedom, in practice is difficult to imagine how all this is going to work in a world with no states, plenty of independent and prosperous cities. Unfortunately, Hoppe doesn't put much discussion in giving you an idea of what detractors think about it and I think it would have been a valuable plus for the book.

My only objection to "Democracy," is the repetition of some topics in several chapters. Even some notes are repeated and that, I guess, should have been avoided with a more rigorous edition. At the beginning of the book the author says that much of the studies "have grown out of speeches delivered at various conferences," and I'm sorry to say that it is too much obvious.

A very good companion for "Democracy" is For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization (Series; 2),The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge, and Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics.

In sum, "Democracy" is a very instructive, interesting, and necessary book on democracy, a god that really failed.

The problems facing the welfare states are impossible to solve because of democracy. More people get paid by the government than those whose taxes support them. As Gaidar detailed in his economic history of Russia, western democracies are faced with an aging population and unpayable debt to the bankers who control the money. The US is even a warfare state, with a trillion a year being spent killing people in the Middle East. It cannot last, but what follows? This year people have shown they finally grasp the truth that the federal government is totally corrupt, as politicians are bought and paid for by special interest groups. If you are old, you remember life before the 'great society', when local communities helped those who could not pay their medical bills, but most people could easily afford them. The beneficiaries of Medicare were the giant insurance companies who were able to buy politicians....Because of constant depreciation of the dollar since the international bankers got control back in 1913, people are encouraged to NOT SAVE. It is tragedy writ large that civilization is being destroyed .....People in the US born prior to the 1930's are just about all gone, but they were wise as they never borrowed. They saved up for everything they wanted, including houses....

This is the best book I've read. The basic theory behind it is that democracy was a step back for humanity instead of a step forward for humanity like many people think. Read it and it will change your world view.

Although, in many ways, this book updates Mises and Rothbard, it bears the imprint of Mencken as well. Yet, whereas Mencken would say his work were merely diagnostic, Dr. Hoppe proposes a "possible" remedy, an alternative social order.

This book is valuable for many reasons. Fundamentally, it provides provocative historical interpretations. For example, if you concede the good professor his premise about time-preference, you will find yourself agreeing that monarchy, although bad, is less decivilizing than the contemporary concept of sacral democracy, which he will demonstrate often is merely socialism under cover of democracy.

Too the classical liberal, not today's faux liberal, but the real minarchist of days now past, is indicted for intellectual complicity (note he admits Mises and Rothbard were somewhat in this camp) in democracy's inexorable march toward globalization. He concludes that once the defense/justice monopoly is in place, it will act in its self-interest to expand endlessly.

The book, too, provides comprehensive notes to Google beyond the book. Feudalism's two faces come alive as civilization walks, then runs, from the decentralized insecurity of the early manors and city-states to the centralized insecurity of democratic empires armed with the likes of e-bombs. The search for the biggest stick on the playground has led us to a crowded playground with formidable handstaffs for all.

Yet, perhaps his greatest contribution, among many good ones, to the future is his refusal to acquiesce to the polite limits of debate which mark our epoch. He gives praise to uncoerced discrimination and ethnic separation; he criticizes open borders and their consequent, forced integration; and he demonstrates the congruence of free-trade and restricted immigration. All of this he accomplishes without a hint of PC.

Finally, where Barzun might say that his "Decadence" implies recrudescence, Hoppe might say: perhaps not. This book leaves you with the impression that "democracy" might not die a quiet old age. In fact we might have constructed a worldwide Malthusian trap without an emigration safety valve.

The book is a keeper and a bargain at the quoted price.