A Higher Law

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by Neil Hrab, BA History and Political Science, University of Toronto

Review of The Law by Frederic Bastiat, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, 1998, $2.95 (US)

The claims of these organizers of humanity raise another question which I have often asked them and which, so far as I know, they have never answered: If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?
- Frederic Bastiat (The Law, 1850)

June 29, 1999 will mark the 198th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Bastiat, a French economist and convinced paladin of liberty who lived from 1801 to 1850. We know Bastiat today not because of his work as a journalist, but because of a slim book he wrote entitled The Law that was recently reissued by a US institute. The Law is as eloquent and passionate a defense of the right to economic freedom as one could ever hope to read.

Why is The Law worth reading? For one thing, it is timeless. Bastiat’s attacks on bureaucracy, socialism, and tyrannical centralized government is not a mere broken relic from a bygone era. Bastiat’s rebuke of those who feel they can make a better world by annexing to themselves the right to make decisions for others is just as fresh and relevant today as it was in his own time. Cheerfully, Bastiat shows why it is not necessary for statists to save the world. In fact, the world had better start trying to save itself from the tender mercies of those who claim their only goal is to improve it, but at the price of making it a laboratory for their hare-brained schemes. As Bastiat scornfully notes, what they really want is "to play God" and "to manage men." If the population is given the facts about statism and collectivism, Bastiat tells us, they will reject those ideas as incompatible with their best interests.

And there we have hit upon the most appealing aspect of this humble little book - its optimism. Bastiat wrote at a time when Communism and socialism seemed poised to sweep to power in his native France. While some were content to do nothing but worry, and others proposed taking extreme action, Bastiat never wavered in his belief that if only average people might come to value their freedom with the same ardor that a group of tweedy intellectuals wanted to snatch it from them, liberty would be preserved.

At a time when Canadians continue to pay enormous sums of money for various social engineering programs (which Bastiat would call the "false, absurd, and evil" doctrine of "legalized plunder"), one might say that we need a modern-day Bastiat to step forward and stir taxpayers to action. This is not quite correct. All we need to do is read what the original Bastiat had to say, because it is hardly necessary to restate what is already such a compelling argument for freedom.

[Editor’s note: Those interested in purchasing this book should visit the Foundation for Economic Education on-line bookstore at http://www.fee. org/bookstore/bookstore.html.]

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