Book Review 01: "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat

   Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French economist, author and statesman. His most famous work is The Law, which is an easy-to-read flagship Libertarian work of philosophy that is highly critical of socialism (and communism.)

From 'wesley gospel' website

   A few months ago, a couple of buddies and I were given a copy of this book from our local Republican representative (although he was really Libertarian) for free after meeting with him and voicing our concerns about a political issue. At the time (because we had a rather heated disagreement), when he gave us the book I thought to myself "what a joke! I'm not reading this crap!" and I tossed the book aside. I didn't throw it away though, I kept it in my library without giving it much thought. Today, I decided to pick this book up after having gone through my whole library for the summer and give it my full attention. In short: I have a much better understanding about Libertarianism, but I still have my reservations about it.


   In The Law, Bastiat, living under the growing influence of socialism, famously states that "socialists despise mankind" and "want to play God." A revolutionary for his time, Bastiat gives his formal definition of law as the "collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense." The purpose of this common force is only to defend persons, liberty and property. However, the premise goes against the act of taxation, as it states that

...Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force--for the same reason--cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups...

In other words, a man's labor should be free and the fruits of his labor should be protected from unjust attack. This espouses the non-aggression principle that is a core philosophy of Libertarianism. Bastiat goes on to say that legislators seek power over the power because they want to mold mankind in their vision. The principles of government are innately immoral not only because they violate the non-aggression principle through taxation, but because they do not trust humans to govern themselves and therefore see regular citizens as sheep. So for example, in the case of education, Bastiat argues that just because he does not support "socialist" public education, it does not mean he doesn't support education, it just means he does not support the law committing legal 'plunder' (basically theft) by violating our liberty and property via taxation. Libertarians do not support forced fraternity, forced artificial unity, forced association and forced organization. Bastiat further states that social democrats are fundamentally flawed in their logic because if "people are incapable, as immoral, and as ignorant as the politicians indicate, then why is the right of these same people to vote defended with such passionate insistence?" All in all, Bastiat believes individual liberty and rights should be at a maximum and government should not step in other than to enforce just laws, and the there should be market anarchy.        

From 'libertarian memes' pinterest

   My take on this philosophy is that much like socialism, it sounds great until its put into practice. I cannot in good conscience say that I would trust a completely free market to protect the environment. I also do not see how such a small government could not easily be bought out by big corporations, much like what we have now, but only worse. Politically I'm a centrist, so I identify as socially liberal and fiscally conservative for the most part, but even so I recognize that there is some good to government if policies are implemented properly and there is little corruption. I also believe strongly in soft regulations on the market, as capitalism is not perfect and does have its rough edges.

   Another point I'd like to make is that even though I am not a social democrat, there is a claim Bastiat makes that has not held up

...Which countries contain the most peaceful, the most moral, and the happiest people? Those people are found in the countries where the law least interferes with private affairs; where government is least felt; where the individual has the greatest scope...

   In several world happiness indexes, countries that are social democracies (heavily taxed welfare states usually characterized by mixed socialist/capitalist economies and large governments) have consistently ranked as the happiest countries on Earth; particularly the Scandinavian countries.
How could this be? Well, my belief is that perhaps Bastiat is still kind of right, but it just depends where you are and who you're looking at. But if he were alive today, he would likely despise the heavy taxation in the social democracies specifically and criticize it as an extreme violation of liberty--but according to the self-reported happiness indexes, I don't think the people under the rule of social democracies mind it all that much.

Stockholm, Sweden (a socially democratic country.) Courtesy of 'planet ware' website

   All in all, The Law is a must-read for anyone who is interested in political philosophy and wants an extremely well-received introduction to the Libertarian philosophy.


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I remain open-minded to this idea, but I will eventually post a detailed critique of my perceived flaws in Libertarianism