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Full-Text Articles in Political Economy

Does Capitalism Infringe Property Rights: A Reply To Peter Morriss, Chandran Kukathas Dec 1984

Does Capitalism Infringe Property Rights: A Reply To Peter Morriss, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In a research note on 'How Capitalism Infringes Property Rights' {PoliticalStudies, XXXI (1983), pp. 656-61), Peter Morriss attempts to demonstratethat a Nozickian version of rights theory is incompatible with that account ofcapitalism which emphasizes the importance (and value) of entrepreneurialrisk-taking and entrepreneurial failure. Because bankruptcy is an acceptedconsequence of entrepreneurial failure, capitalism, which condonesbankruptcy, in fact condones the violations of the rights of creditors. Thusthose who, like Nozick, defend property rights as sacred and inviolable, 'shouldbe in the vanguard of capitalism's opponents' (p. 657) Since the rights-basedargument for capitalism is that rights can never be legitimately violated, 'oncethe rights theorist …


Political Vs. Economic Incentives, B. Delworth Gardner Jan 1984

Political Vs. Economic Incentives, B. Delworth Gardner

Faculty Publications

H this paper is the best challenge that can be brought against the New Resource Economics (NRE) and its advocacy for privatization of the public lands, we are likely to see both around for a long time. If there is fallacy in the idea of privatization, it is not illuminated in the arguments of this article. The paper misrepresents what the NRE is, shows little comprehension of the basic concepts on which it rests, and completely reverses the basic nature of the privatization solution. I hope to demonstrate as much in this critique.