Rejoinder to Holcombe on the Inevitability of Government

Tags: Philosophy and Methodology, Political Theory, Big Government

07/30/2014 Journal of Libertarian Studies Walter Block

Downloads

21_1_4.pdf

Holcombe (2004) argued that government was inevitable. In Block (2005) I maintained that this institution was not unavoidable. Holcombe (2007) takes issue with that response of mine to his earlier paper, and the present essay is, in turn, a response to his latest missive in this conversation.

Volume 21, Number 1 (2007)

CITE THIS ARTICLE

Block, Walter. "Rejoinder to Holcombe on the Inevitability of Government." Journal of Libertarian Studies 21, No. 1 (2007): 49–60.

Subscribe to Journal of Libertarian Studies

Latest Articles

Robeyns Peter to Pay Paul

04/19/2024 Mises Wire David Gordon

Limitarianism: The Case against Extreme Wealth
by Ingrid Robeyns
Astra House, 2022; 301 pp. Some people have vastly more income and wealth than others, and this situation greatly disturbs Ingrid...

Climate Worries Are Non-Credible, Luxury Beliefs That Harm Civilization Itself

04/19/2024 Mises Wire Joakim Book

I live in a small village at the edge of lands surrounded by very harsh nature. Those who occupied these valleys in ages past lived ruthlessly dangerous lives, where starvation was a constant worry...

The Seen and the Unseen: Implications of Biden’s New Tariff

04/18/2024 Power & Market David Brady, Jr.

Biden’s newest proposal for steel tariffs join a long list of tariff policies that ignore the unseen damage that will be done to the U.S. economy by raising them. This week, President Biden announced...

Argentina: Mises and Milei, 65 Years Apart

04/18/2024 Power & Market Stephen Anderson

Ludwig Von Mises gave six lectures in 1959 in Buenos Aires, Argentina where, “he spoke in nontechnical terms suitable for his audience of business professionals, professors, teachers, and students. He...

Tariffs Are Taxes on Americans—But Protectionists Pretend Otherwise

04/18/2024 Mises Wire Ryan McMaken

During the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Trump's opponents in the Democratic party (and elsewhere) often pointed out that Trump's protectionism hobbles private markets and the economy overall. Yet, the...

Meet the Writer

Walter Block

Walter Block is the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at Loyola University.

South Royalton: Looking Back

03/28/2024 Peter G. Klein Walter Block Jack High Randall G. Holcombe Murray Sabrin Joseph T. Salerno

A discussion of the 1974 South Royalton Conference on Austrian Economics by those who attended.

Cultural Appropriation

02/06/2024 Power & Market Walter Block

It is cultural appropriation if a black person listens to Mozart; this dead white male composer is simply not part of that person’s culture. It is cultural appropriation whenever an Oriental person...

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Become a Member