ENGLISH

Social Contract, Free Ride: A Study of the Public Goods Problem

By Anthony De Jasay

Book information

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Year
1989
ISBN
0198244746, 9780198244745
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
4 MB (4433174 bytes)
Pages
264\266
Time added
2017-02-14 07:49:55
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Description

This book provides a novel account of the dilemma over how "public goods"--including civil order, defense, social welfare--should be provided and who should provide them. The author shows how present systems, in an attempt at fairness, actually help breed the parasitic "free riding" they were meant to suppress. He argues that, in the absence of taxation, many public goods would be provided by spontaneous group cooperation. However, this would imply some degree of free riding that would eventually lead cooperating groups away from voluntary solutions and closer to compulsory ones, bringing the problem full circle. De Jasay argues that these conflicting incentives are the principle cause of the poor functioning of organized society.

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