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Review
| Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society, by Robert Higgs. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2004. 424 pp. $29.95, cloth; $18.95, paper.
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| Robert Higgs's Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society is a thought-provoking and entertaining diatribe against big government. In this collection of essays, economist Higgs argues that government is bungling, menacing, and unjust. Specifically he argues that those Americans who have embraced the welfare state have embarked on a course of self-destruction because the best government is little government. While most of the book focuses on current political matters, a few of the essays are devoted to historical topics. |
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One historical argument is that government power has grown enormously in size, scope, and intrusion into almost every aspect of civil society during the past century. Higgs links the rise of the welfare state to the many American men who attended German universities in the nineteenth century and came home with a favorable view of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's social programs. These men would later influence a U.S. government that had already begun to create a welfare state through a far-reaching expansion of the pensions paid to Union veterans of the Civil War. Higgs claims that buying votes and dispensing political patronage are what elected politicians normally do unless rigidly constrained. |
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Higgs offers an intriguing explanation for the growing political polarization in America. He provides convincing evidence that the overwhelming portion of all government transfer payments is not means-tested or reserved for low income recipients. As Higgs states, it is simply a hoax that government is taking from the rich for the benefit of the poor. Taxpayers who consider themselves disproportionately burdened by this taking grow to resent their exploitation. Therefore, they give more support to politicians who promise to defend their pocketbooks and they strive harder to avoid or evade taxes. As a result, the entire society becomes more divided and pugnacious. Less and less does the society constitute a genuine community. Rather, it becomes balkanized into bellicose subgroups regarding one another as oppressors and oppressed. |
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Much of the book requires readers to possess a strong foundation in political science. The chapter that is best suited for sparking debates in the undergraduate history classroom is "The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal." Higgs categorizes the New Deal as a highly successful vote-buying scheme. He believes that although historians have tended to view the opponents of Franklin Roosevelt as self-interested reactionaries, the legions of Roosevelt-haters actually had a clearer view of the economic consequences of the New Deal than its supporters. Even if Roosevelt had helped to lift the spirits of the American people in the depth of the depression—an uplift for which Higgs claims no compelling documentation exists—the achievement only led the public to labor under an illusion. He argues that the New Deal only prolonged the Depression. According to Higgs, had Roosevelt kept his inoffensive campaign promises of 1932—promises to cut federal spending, balance the budget, maintain a sound currency, and rein in bureaucratic centralization—the Great Depression might have passed into history before Roosevelt's next presidential campaign in 1936. |
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While Higgs has an excellent knowledge of the economic past, his general historical knowledge seems flawed as seen in his essay devoted to the rankings of presidents. Higgs claims that any president who craves a high place in the annals of history should embark upon war. He alleges that Lincoln achieved his presidential immortality by "quite unnecessarily" plunging America into its greatest bloodbath. However, Lincoln's malfeasance would undoubtedly be a revelation to the Civil War soldiers responsible for his 1864 reelection. Higgs further argues that Woodrow Wilson had no right to involve the United States in World War I because the conflict was a European matter. Anyone familiar with the Zimmermann Telegram and Germany's never-denied interest in attacking the United States through Mexico would challenge this particular point. Higgs then proceeds to name Grover Cleveland as the greatest of American presidents because Cleveland kept the country at peace and shaped his policies according to a belief in a limited mission for the national government. The presidents of the latter half of the nineteenth century are not ranked high in polls of historians, but Higgs blames this on left-leaning academics. Despite some questionable historical claims, Against Leviathan is a fascinating book that is sure to provoke critical thinking and heated debates among both historians and students. It is an easy read and affordably priced. |
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| Ohio State University |
Caryn E. Neumann |
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