The Struggle for a Better World

by Peter J. Boettke

Overview

In The Struggle for a Better World, Peter J. Boettke explores how the social sciences, and political economy in particular, help us understand society and its institutions of governance. Boettke advances an approach for understanding, articulating, and pursuing a coherent and consistent vision of a society of free and responsible individuals who may prosper through voluntary participation in the market and their communities. In this volume, a collection of addresses, lectures, and papers over the past two decades, Boettke articulates ideas which, if consistently pursued, can help fulfill liberalism's emancipatory promise to advance human flourishing and overcome adversity caused by economic, social, and political injustice and repression. Boettke advocates for liberal cosmopolitanism, grounded in the principles of equality, justice, and liberty, and the basic recognition that all people are dignified equals, as the best hope for a better world. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942951889
Publisher:	Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Publication date:	02/24/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	664
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Peter J. Boettke is a University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University and director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Economic and Political Liberalism: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

1.   The Battle of Ideas: Economics and the Struggle for a Better World

2.   Economics and Public Administration

3.   Liberty vs. Power in Economic Policy in the 20th and 21st Centuries 73

4.   What Happened to "Efficient Markets"?

5.   Is State Intervention in the Economy Inevitable?

6.   Why Does Government Overspend? Because It Has TooMuch Power

7.   The Role of the Economist in a Free Society

8.   Don't Be a "Jibbering Idiot": Economic Principlesand the Properly Trained Economist

9.   Information and Knowledge: Austrian Economics in Searchof Its Uniqueness

10. What Should Classical Liberal Political Economists Do?

11. Context, Continuity, and Truth: Theory, History, and Political Economy

12. Fearing Freedom: The Intellectual and Spiritual Challenge to Liberalism

13. Rebuilding the Liberal Project

14. The Reception of Free to Choose and the Problem of the Tacit Presuppositions of Political Economy

15. Competition, Discovery, and the Pursuit of Happiness: The Case for International Liberalism in Our Time

16. Pessimistically Optimistic about the Future

Conclusion: Liberalism, Socialism, and Our Future

About the Author

Index

Editorial Reviews

"In his deep and eloquent book, Boettke makes the case for liberalism-'liberalism' understood not as 'tentative socialism' but in its root meaning, of a society without slaves. No subordination of women to men, adult children to fathers, subjects to tyrants. But it is not in Boettke's vision cruel. His liberalism is generous and openhanded and respectful, willing to listen, really listen, in an age of closed ears. Open yours, and read his book."

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, Distinguished Professor of economics, history, English, and communication, University of Illinois at Chicago; author of Why Liberalism Works (Yale University Press, 2019)

"Peter Boettke succeeds in integrating the best scholarly ideas from more than two centuries into a coherent narrative explaining the condition that Western societies are in today. He also clarifies the opportunities we have to escape the worst tendencies of our age. This book is an excellent melding of solid scholarship with analysis of today's urgent public concerns."

Mario J. Rizzo, Associate professor of economics and director, Foundations of the Market Economy Program, New York University; coauthor of Escaping Paternalism (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

From the Publisher