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The Law

Chapter 13: INDEX
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The essay argues that the legitimate purpose of law is to organize the collective right of lawful defense by protecting personality, liberty, and property, and that when law is turned to transfer wealth it becomes legal plunder. The author critiques policies and practices that use legislation to enrich some at others’ expense and examines how that dynamic corrodes justice, incentivizes rent-seeking, politicizes social life, and perverts education and charity. He links these consequences to the enlargement of political power and calls for limits on legislation and for an economic understanding that recognizes the harmony of voluntary exchange.





FOOTNOTES:


1 (return)
[ First published in 1850.]


2 (return)
[ General Council of Manufactures, Agriculture, and Commerce, 6th of May, 1850.]


3 (return)
[ If protection were only granted in France to a single class, to the engineers, for instance, it would be so absurdly plundering, as to be unable to maintain itself. Thus we see all the protected trades combine, make common cause, and even recruit themselves in such a way as to appear to embrace the mass of the national labor. They feel instinctively that plunder is slurred over by being generalized.]


4 (return)
[ Political economy precedes politics: the former has to discover whether human interests are harmonious or antagonistic, a fact which must be settled before the latter can determine the prerogatives of Government.]








INDEX

   Action, human. See Individualism;

   Mankind

   Agriculture analogy to society, 35   Persian, 26   Antiquity. See Greece; Rome
   Authority. See Government

   Beggars, 11   Billaud-Varennes, Jean Nicolas, 38   Blanc, Louis competition, 45   doctrine, 42, 43   force of society, 47, 48   labor, 42   law, 50, 52   Bonaparte, Napoleon, 41   Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 25, 26
   Cabetists, 46, 47   Capital displacement, 2   Carlier, Pierre, 13   Carthage, 32   Charity, vii, 5, 17       See also Wealth, equality of; Welfare
   Classical studies, 25, 26, 36, 37, 38   Collectivism, 2, 3        See also Government
   Communism, 18   Competition
        meaning, 45        results, 45   Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de, 35, 38   Constituent Assembly, 24   Conventionality, 37   Crete, 28
   Defense right of, 2, 3, 37, 49, 50   Democracy, vi, 43, 44   Democrats, 43   Dictatorship, vii, 39, 40   Disposition, fatal, 5, 37, 38   Distribution, 33, 34   Dole, 10, 11        See also Welfare
   Dupin, Charles, 13
   Education classical, 26, 38        controlled, 33        Greek, 26        liberty in, 44        free, 21, 22        government provided, 22, 48   Egypt, 25, 26, 27   Elections, 43, 44        See also Voting
   Employment
        assigned, 26        See also Labor
   Equality of wealth, 11, 20, 29, 36
   Fénelon, François de Salignac de La
   Mothe antiquity, 27, 29   Telemachus, 27   Force common or collective, 2, 3        individual, 2, 3        motive, of society, 40, 43        See also Government; Law
   Forced conformity, viii
   Fourier, François Marie Charles, 41   Fourierists, 46   France revolutions, 47   Fraternity legally enforced, 16, 17, 21, 22   Fraud, 13, 14   Freedom. See Liberty
   French Revolution, 38        public services, 10, 11        purpose of, v relaxed, 35        republican, 30, 39        responsibility and, 3, 47, 48, 51        results, 28        stability, 31        virtue, 39        See also Communism, Socialism

   Greece education, 26        law, 26, 27        republic, 29, 30        Sparta, 32, 36, 38   Greed, 5
   Happiness of the governed, 28   History, 5   Humanity lost, 19, 20
   Imports. See Trade
   Individualism, 3   Industry, protected. See Protectionism

   Jobs. See Employment
   Justice and injustice, distinction
        between, 7        generalized, 7        immutable, 49, 50        intentions and, 17, 18        law and, 3, 6, 49        reigning, 19        General welfare, 19        Government
        American ideal of, v
        corrupting education by, vi
        democratic, 29, 43, 44        education, 23, 48        force, 2, 3        function, 38        monopoly, 45        morality, 39        motive force, 40, 43        power, v, 47
   Labor displaced, 4   Land. See Property
   Law
        Cretan, 28        defined, 2, 16        Egyptian, 25, 26, 27, 28        fraternity and, 17        functions, 16, 31, 33, 49, 50        Greek, 26, 28, 29        justice and, 3, 4, 16, 51        morality and, 7, 21        motive force, 25        object of, 19        omnipotence, 44, 49        Persian, 26        perverted, v, 1, 5        philanthropic, 17        plunder and, 5, 13        posterior and inferior, 2, 3        respect for, 7, 9        Rousseau's views, 31, 33, 38        spirit of, 32        study of, 25        United States, 12        See also Legislation
        Lamartine, Alphonse Marie Louis de,
        fraternity, 17        government power, 48, 49        Lawgiver, 38, 43        Legislation conflict in, 32        monopoly on, 5        struggle for control of, 11, 12        universal right of, 7        See also Law
        Legislator. See Lawgiver; Politicians
        Lepéletier, Louis Michel de Saint Fargeau, 39        Liberty competition and, 44, 45        defined, 42        denied, 44, 45        described, 53        education and, 44, 45        individual, 3        as power, 43        returned to, 55        seeking, 38
   Life, faculties of, 1   Louis XIV 27   Lycurgus government, 30, 35, 36        influence, 33, 40
   Mably, Abbé Gabriel Bonnot de, 35, 39   Mankind assimilation, 2        concern for, 54        degraded, 25        divided, 23        inert, 23, 25, 26, 28, 31, 35, 36, 38, 39, 42, 43, 44, 47        inertia, 44        as machine, 31        nature of, 33        violation of, 52
   Melun, Armand de, 52   Mentor, 28, 29   Mimerel de Roubaix, Pierre Auguste
   Remi, 52   Monopoly, 5, 45   Montalembert, Charles, Comte de, 13, 15   Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondât, Baron de, 29, 31   Morality law and, 21, 22   Morelly, 41
   Napoleon, 41   Natural rights, v
   Nature, gifts of, 1
   Oliver de Serres, Guillaume Antoine, 29   Order, 3   Owen, Robert, 41   Ownership. See Property

   Paraguay, 30   Persia, 26   Personality, 2   Phalansteries, 55   Philanthropy. See Charity
   Plato republic, 30   Plunder absence of, 16        burdens of, 5, 6        defined, 17        general welfare and, 19        extralegal, 13        kinds, 13        legal, v, ix, 6, 13, 22        organized, 14        origin of, 6        partial, 15, 16        socialistic, 13        universal, 15, 16        Politicians dreams of, 36        genius of, 30        goodness of, 25        importance of, 22, 23        responsibility of, 27        social engineers, 22, 24, 32, 34, 37, 38, 40, 42, 44, 45        superior, 46, 54   Politics exaggerated importance of, 8        and favors, vi
        plunder through, vi
   Poor relief. See Charity; Welfare
   Power. See Government
   Property man and, 2        origin of, 5   Protectionism, 18        United States, 12   Proudhonians, 46   Providence, 55   Public relief, 10, 20, 29
   Raynal, Abbé Guillaume, 33, 35   Religion, State, 22   Rent seeking, vi, vii
   Republic kinds of, 29        virtues of, 39   Revolt, 6   Revolution, 47        French, 38        Rhodes, 32   Rights individual, v, 2, 3   Roberspierre, Jean Jacques
        government, 38        lawgiver, 40   Rome virtue, 32   Rousseau, Jean Jacques
        disciples, 8, 9        on the lawgiver, 31, 33
   Saint-Cricq, Barthélémy, Pierre Laurent, Comte de, 50   Saint-Just, Louis Antoine Léon de, 38   Saint-Simon, Claude Henri, Comte de doctrine, 41   Salentum, 27, 29   Security consequences, 3   Self-defense, 2, 37, 49, 50   Selfishness, 5   Serres, Oliver de, 29   Slavery,
        United States, viii, 12        universality, 5   Socialism confused, ix, 22        defined, 14, 15        disguised, 22        experiments, 23, 24        legal plunder, 13        sincerely believed, 18        social engineers, 22, 24        refutation of, 15   Socialists, vii
   Society enlightened, 37        experiments, 23        motive force, 40, 43        object of, 36, 37        parable of the traveler, 54, 55
   Solon, 33, 35   Sparta, 32, 36   Spoliation. See Plunder
   State. See Government
   Suffrage. See Universal suffrage

   Tariffs, vi, viii
   Telemachus, 27   Terror as means of republican government, 39, 40   Theirs, Louis Adolphe
        doctrine, 52        education, 45   Tyre, 32
   United States, viii, 12        Declaration of Independence, v
   Universal suffrage demand for, 9, 43, 44, 46, 47        importance of, 10        incapacity and, 9        objections, 9
   Vaucanson, Jacques de, 54   Vested interests, 13, 14   Virtue and vice, 28, 30, 35, 36, 40   Voting responsibility and, 9, 10        right of, 10        See also Universal suffrage

   Want satisfaction, 4   Wealth equality of, 11, 21, 29, 36        transfer of, vii
   Welfare, 10, 20, 28