Book Reviews

James Buchanan? Public choice? What goes on? Fortunately, a book comes along which ap plies, in a timely and illuminating fashion, the ground-breaking yet commonsensical work of Buchanan and his fellow thinker, Gordon Tul lock, both of whom are professors at George Mason University and distinguished members of The Mont Pelerin Society. The book is Regulating Government, a valu able study by two students of Buchanan and Tullock at their Center for the Study of Public Choice. Dwight Lee holds the Ramsey Chair of Private Enterp~ise at the University of Georgia; Richard McKenzie serves as professor of eco nomics at Clemson University and senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation. The Lee-McKenzie thesis is plain: Public choice theory assumes, rather persuasively, that voters, legislators, and bureaucrats act mainly in their own interest, that political science and economics are thereby tied together in terms of incentives, that accordingly what we Americans need now is not regulation by government but regulation of government.

mrrrUlmUllm«r1IIIJlUlIJlTIllm ffiIftillJJJ~lUUTIIm[.mmmm JlllilltllllllllllllllllHlllllJ ~~-:..=..:'UlUf1lIlUIIIIIIlJlUmm tlllITHlfllJIIJJllllIJlJII ~ 11lPmiWi~: . ~ mnr ~"'--'ltlHifhifiiiiiiliiiiiiit'iii. For government today, point out the authors, is a lot more than a referee; to quite an extent it is a participating player. It educates our chil dren, aids foreign nations, delivers the mail, runs Amtrak, pensions the 'old, and much more. In the case of agriculture, government forces citizens to pay for unwanted or "sur plus" farm goods-making them public goods -which it proceeds to buy, store, and hand out in the form of school lunches, senior citizens nutritional programs, low-income surplus butter and cheese distributions, and Public Law 480 "Food for Peace" foreign donations. Professors Lee and McKenzie thus clarify some of the vital distinctions between private goods and public goods. Private goods en gender conservation and positive-sum trade trade which synergizes mutual gain. Public goods engender waste if not plunder-zero- if not minus-sum "solutions" to social opportu nities which hence become social problems.

Cows and chickens, for example, are private goods, and nobody sees any chance of shortages or "endangered species" in such goods. Snail darters and blue whales, on the other hand, are declared to be endangered species and thereby, in effect, public goods. Accordingly, people who otherwise place high value on individual freedom urge not privatiza tion of whaling (which is technically possible) but government controls on whalers. Drs. Lee and McKenzie are anything but an archists; they are Lockeans, holding that the end of law is not to abolish or restrain but to preserve and enlarge human liberty. In this year of our Constitutional Bicentennial, these two Public Choicers make the point that the raison d' etre of constitutional constraints on govern ment is to prevent people from doing through government that which they would not do in the absence of government. The very purpose of constraints on government is· the same as the purpose of government. Here they echo James Madison who, in arguing for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, wrote in The Federalist: If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, nei ther external nor internal controls on govern ment would be necessary. In framing a govern ment which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. 0 AFTER APARTHEID: THE SOLUTION FOR SOUTH AFRICA by Frances Kendall and Leon Louw ICS Press • 243 Kearney Street, San Francisco, California 94108 250 pages • $17.95 hardcover.

Reviewed by Bettina Bien Greaves S outh Africa's situation is desperate. En glish, Afrikaners, blacks, coloreds, In dians, and other minorities are fearful. Many blacks, resenting the restrictions imposed on them, resort to violence. In view of the fact that so much power is centralized, the demand for radical reform has become a struggle for control of the national government. World opinion, incensed at the immorality of apart heid, threatens economic sanctions, or worse. The white minority in power in South Africa makes some concessions to the black majority, but is reluctant to shift to a one-man, one-vote democracy. Given the prevailing climate of opinion, it is feared that this would mean one man, one vote once! If such a vote resulted in a more tyrannical central government, the rights of minorities would inevitably be further im paired. The chances for bringing about social change by peaceful means would also then be lost.

The South African crisis led Leon Louw and Frances Kendall, a husband and wife team, to write a remarkable book about their native land. A quote from black leader Allan Boesak OTHER BOOKS 239 Frances Kendall and Leon Louw, authors of After Apartheid: The Solution for South Africa, were visitors to Irvington last December, where they spoke to a gathering of FEE Trustees. became their text: "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and hard work of those who are willing to take the risk of fighting for freedom, democracy, and human dignity." The Louw-Kendall book offers a radical, but realistic, proposal for a new kind of constitu tion. The authors blame the currently depressed situation of the black South Africans on the fact that they have been forced to live under so cialist restrictions. In the past, when blacks were free to embark on enterprises as they chose, their accomplishments were so impres sive that the white minority strove purposively to restrict their efforts. And then the whites made sure that the central government re mained under their control.

Laws were enacted over many decades making it difficult or impossible for blacks to succeed in farming or other enterprises. Legis lation deprived them of their rights to own, ac cumulate, and transfer property freely, to make contracts, and to go into business. It is no wonder that the blacks are now desperate. However, Louw and Kendall maintain that most blacks are not fiery militants who refuse to listen to reason. Rather, Louw and Kendall believe most blacks are moderates who would be willing to live at peace with their neighbors if assured that their lives and property would be protected and that they would not be constantly harassed by "blacks-only" rules and regula tions.

240 THE FREEMAN. JUNE 1987 Louw and Kendall suggest a completely new political arrangement for South Africa-a con federation patterned more or less on the Swiss model. The central government would be lim ited drastically; many small cantons would be entrusted with most of the matters that con cerned the people. The crux of the Louw-Ken dall proposal is a powerful bill of rights, granting freedom to own property, to make contracts, to trade, to move, and so on. Under the Louw-Kendall scheme, all citizens of voting age would have the franchise, but the power of the central government would be so limited that national elections would be rela tively unimportant. The important votes would be those at the canton level, for it would be in the cantons that matters affecting individual rights would be decided. The Louw-Kendall book has become a best seller in South Africa and it is now being re leased in a new, slightly revised U.S. edition.

Because of the authors' success in introducing free market ideas in the small poverty-stricken black homeland, Ciskei, the fellow countrymen of the authors are beginning to take their sug gestions seriously. The change Louw and Kendall recommend is a radical one, but it is a reasonable one which should appeal to reasonable men and women blacks, whites, coloreds, Indians, and every other fair-minded person. Certainly, any rea sonable alternative that offers hope for reducing the strife in South Africa is well worth consid ering. 0 (Mrs. Greaves is on FEE's senior staff.) Freeman readers may order copies of After Apartheid at $17.95 each (includes shipping) from Laissez Faire Books, De partment FEE, 532 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, (212) 925-8992. Ludwig von Mises LIBERALISM: IN THE CLASSICAL TRADITION LIBERALISM: In The Classical Tradition by Ludwig von Mises is a book-length essay that sums up the ideas and principles of classical liberalism as they apply'to the twen tieth century. First published in Germany in 1927, it was published in the United States under the title The Free and Prosperous Commonwealth in 1962and reissued in the mid seventies by The Institute for Humane Studies. It has just been republished by The Foundation for Economic Edu cation in association with the Cobden Press.

230 pages • $9.95 paperback FEE pays all postage on prepaid orders. Order from: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Irvington-on-Hudson, New York 10533 THEFREE IDEAS ON LIBERTY 244 Property Rights and the First Amendment Lance Lamberton Freedom of speech rests upon the right to hold private property. 248 Amelioration Philip J. Bowers Toward a progressively better world. 251 Productive Advances: Who Benefits Most? Joseph S. Fulda How inventions, discoveries, and improved production methods benefit the poor. 252 The Pursuit of Happiness William C. Dennis Have we lost the spirit of adventure possessed by earlier generations of Americans? 259 Lessons in Liberty: The Dutch Republic, 1579-1750 Robert A . Peterson When freedom flourished in Holland, a great civilization resulted. 265 China's "Free Enterprise" Experiment Donald J. Senese Is Communist China embracing capitalism? 270 World Resources and Economic Exploitation M. W. Sinnett Market processes create resources out of raw materials.