Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T17:34:53.270Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What Does Nozick's Minimal State Do?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Gene E. Mumy
Affiliation:
Ohio State University

Extract

In the first half of the 1970s, two books appeared which have subsequently been regarded as major works in political philosophy: John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971), and Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974). Economists have devoted a considerable amount of ink to commentary, pro and con, on A Theory of Justice; and it is getting to be a rare public finance textbook that does not, in its discussion of governmental redistribution, describe the Kantian contract made behind the veil of ignorance. On the other hand, while Nozick has not exactly been ignored, economists have not joined the debate over Anarchy, State, and Utopia with the same gusto. When economists have joined the debate, their concern has been, more often than not, with Nozick's entitlement theory of distributive justice, as is the case with Varian (1975) and Sen (1977). What is largely missing, then, is any economic analysis of the processes that give rise to Nozick's morally legitimate state, which he calls the minimal state, and the characteristics and likely activities of the minimal state within the moral boundaries set by Nozick, his assertions to the contrary notwithstanding.

Type
Essays
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cohen, G. A. 1978. “Robert Nozick and Wilt Chamberlain: How Patterns Preserve Liberty.” In Justice and Economic Distribution, edited by Arthur, John and Shaw, William H.. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry. 1973. “Coercion and Moral Responsibility,” In Essays on Freedom of Action, edited by Honderich, T.. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Furubotn, E. G., and Pejovich, S. 1972. “Property Rights and Economic Theory: A Survey of Recent Literature.” Journal of Economic Literature 10:1137–62.Google Scholar
Gordon, Scott. 1976. “The New Contractarians.” Journal of Political Economy 84:573–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Holmes, Robert L. 1981. “Nozick on Anarchism.” In Reading Nozick, edited by Paul, Jeffrey. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Locke, John. 1967. Two Treatises of Government. Edited by Laslett, Peter, 2nd ed.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Oakland, William H. 1972. “Congestion, Public Goods and Welfare.” Journal of Public Economics 5:339–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakland, William H. 1974. “Public Goods, Perfect Competition, and Underproduction.” Journal of Political Economy 82:927–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, Jeffrey. 1981. Reading Nozick: Essays on Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A. 1954. “The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure.” Review of Economics and Statistics 36:387–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A.K. 1977. “On Weights and Measures: Informational Constraints in Social Welfare Analysis.” Econometrica 45:1539–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Earl A. 1968. “The Perfectly Competitive Production of Public Goods.” Review of Economics and Statistics 50:112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varian, Hal R. 1975. “Distributive Justice, Welfare Economics, and the Theory of Fairness.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 5:223–47.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, David. 1981. “Coercive Wage Offers.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 10:121–45.Google Scholar