Democracy – The God That Failed (overview)

Democracy – The God That Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy and Natural Order (Perspectives on Democratic Practice) - by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

When a book commands $40 for paperback and $440 for hardcover .. you know it is a good one. I must have gotten my digital format via something other than Amazon since it is not there .. sorry. What I do have is a PDF ... 18MB .. so let me know and I can share via Dropbox, let me know kids!
(others reading this will have to find it on your own :) )

Here is a 10 minute YouTube that allows you to listen to Hans describe this book and his intent for writing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUzkZaD1xDs .. this is fascinating!

For now I guess y'all will have to look at my blog to get snippets ... I will share some today and THEN (possibly spring 2018 or before) after reading the rest of the book I will proceed to give a chapter by chapter review (13 chapters)

Here is the Amazon descriptor for this book:

"The core of this book is a systematic treatment of the historic transformation of the West from monarchy to democracy. Revisionist in nature, it reaches the conclusion that monarchy is a lesser evil than democracy, but outlines deficiencies in both. Its methodology is axiomatic-deductive, allowing the writer to derive economic and sociological theorems, and then apply them to interpret historical events.

A compelling chapter on time preference describes the progress of civilization as lowering time preferences as capital structure is built, and explains how the interaction between people can lower time all around, with interesting parallels to the Ricardian Law of Association. By focusing on this transformation, the author is able to interpret many historical phenomena, such as rising levels of crime, degeneration of standards of conduct and morality, and the growth of the mega-state. In underscoring the deficiencies of both monarchy and democracy, the author demonstrates how these systems are both inferior to a natural order based on private-property.

Hoppe deconstructs the classical liberal belief in the possibility of limited government and calls for an alignment of conservatism and libertarianism as natural allies with common goals. He defends the proper role of the production of defense as undertaken by insurance companies on a free market, and describes the emergence of private law among competing insurers.

Having established a natural order as superior on utilitarian grounds, the author goes on to assess the prospects for achieving a natural order. Informed by his analysis of the deficiencies of social democracy, and armed with the social theory of legitimation, he forsees secession as the likely future of the US and Europe, resulting in a multitude of region and city-states. This book complements the author's previous work defending the ethics of private property and natural order. Democracy - The God that Failed will be of interest to scholars and students of history, political economy, and political philosophy."