The State Is Rolling Back

by Arthur Seldon, Colin Robinson (Editor)

Overview

The State Is Rolling Back, the second volume of Liberty Fund’s The Collected Works of Arthur Seldon, brings together a comprehensive collection of fifty-four articles reflecting Arthur Seldon’s scholarly development. By the late twentieth century, Arthur Seldon was one of the most powerful exponents of classical liberalism, helping to stimulate its revival, through both his own writings and the publications of the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs, of which he was Editorial Director for more than 30 years.

First published in 1994, this book collects virtually all of Seldon’s major ideas and his proposals for reform. In its totality, The State Is Rolling Back demonstrates Seldon’s long-standing advocacy and commitment to free-market reforms and includes his earliest, barbed criticisms of the “welfare state.”

Arthur Seldon has been writing on classical liberal economics since the 1930s, when he was a student at the London School of Economics during Friedrich Hayek’s time there. For over thirty years, from the late 1950s, he was Editorial Director of the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs, where his publishing program was one of the principal influences on governments all around the world, persuading them to liberalize their economies. His Collected Works in these seven volumes are a major contribution to classical liberal thought.

Colin Robinson was a business economist for eleven years. He was then appointed to the Chair of Economics at the Universityof Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom, where he founded the Department of Economics and is now Emeritus Professor. He is the author of 23 books and over 150 scholarly articles and has edited many other books. For many years he has been associated with the Institute of Economic Affairs and from 1992 to 2002 he was the IEA’s Editorial Director.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865975514
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/17/2004
Series:	The Collected Works of Arthur Seldon , #2
Edition description:	Volume 2
Pages:	343
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.98(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction, Colin Robinson xi
Preface, Colin Robinson xxiii
Foreword, Simon Heffer xxv
Foreword, Patrick Minford xxvii
Foreword, John Redwood xxix
Acknowledgements xxxi
Prologue xxxiii

PART I: The Battle of Ideas for the Good Society

1. The State v. the Market: Socialism v. Capitalism [1937 ] 3
2. Liberalism and Liberty: The Diffusion of Property [1938 ] 10
3. The New World Order — H.G. Wells ’ Myth [1940 ] 17
4. The Contribution of Economics to Policy [1955 ] 21
5. Citizenship — The Cul-de-Sac [1958 ] 28
6. The Perpetual Welfare State [1968 ] 33
7. Conservatism and Liberalism [1968 ] 38
8. Individual Liberty and Representative Democracy [1979 ] 46
9. La Trahison des Clercs [1980 ] 49

PART II : Classical Market Thinking Applied to Industry

10. The Brewers’ Dilemma [1950 ] 63
11. Reform the Licensing Laws [1957 ] 69
12. Best Friends of Shoppers: Which? Or Competition? [1963 ] 73
13. Markets in Welfare to Strengthen the Economy [1966 ] 77
14. Wind Up National Insurance [1971 ] 81
15. Inflation Is Crueller than Unemployment [1972 ] 84
16. Police: Compete or Retreat [1977 ] 88
17. The Truth About Unemployment [1982 ] 94
18. Underground Resistance to Over - Government [1986 ] 98

PART III: Wither the Welfare State
A: The Growing Disquiet, 1950 – 1964

19. A Private Welfare State? [1957 ] 103
20. Why State Pensions? [1958 ] 106
21. Contract In or Out? [1960 ] 110
22. Pensions and Property [1960 ] 114
23. Social Services in the Late Twentieth Century [1961 ] 119
24. Social Services for the Future, Not the Past [1962 ] 127
25. Universities Out of Politics [1962 ] 131
26. Beveridge Came Too Late [1963 ] 136
27. Homes: Clear the Obstacles [1963 ] 148
28. Wanted — Home Entrepreneurs [1964 ] 153

PART IV: Wither the Welfare State
B:The Mounting Attack, 1965 – 1970

29. Shop with Welfare Vouchers [1965 ] 163
30. A Free Market — or Political Mortgages [1965 ] 167
31. Privatise Welfare: A New Strategy [1965 ] 173
32. Politics Looms Too Large [1966 ] 177
33. Tax State Benefits [1966 ] 181
34. Make Social Services Selective [1967 ] 186
35. Workers Reject State Welfare [1969 ] 191
36. Roll Back the State [1969 ] 196

PART V: Wither the Welfare State
C: First Steps in Reforms, 1970 – 1992

37. The Great Pensions Swindle [1970 ] 203
38. Top Up the Poor Man ’s Pay [1971 ] 207
39. Tory Advance: Reluctant Officials [1971 ] 211
40. Timid Tories and State Welfare [1972 ] 215
41. The State Is Usurping Parents [1978 ] 222
42. Move Universities to the Market [1980 ] 227
43. Political Bar to Economic Progress [1988 ] 233

PART VI: The Excesses of Over - Government

44. Whose Obedient Servant? [1969 ] 245
45. Can Bureaucrats Be Neutral? [1972 ] 248
46. Phase Out the Civil Servants [1979 ] 252
47. Government of the Busy, by the Bossy, for the Bully [1980 ] 256
48. Price - less Opinion Polling [1980 ] 260
49. “New Right ” and New Government [1983 ] 264
50. New Left: Beware Politics [1988 ] 268

51. Capitalism Is More Corrigible Than Socialism [1986 ] 272
52. Policies: The Difficult and the “Impossible ” [1988 ] 276
53. Too Little Government Is Better Than Too Much [1990 ] 287
54. Laissez - faire in the Twenty-?rst Century [1992 ] 290

Index 297