Description
Book SynopsisRegulation, The Constitution, and the Economy demonstrates the constitutionally degraded and inherently dictatorial character of regulation, its ineffectiveness in curing social ills, and its use as a tool of special interests seeking personal gain in the form of money or power. Regulation became prominent in the late medieval mercantile rent seeking societies, but was little used in the United States until after the Civil War. The author demonstrates the nature of regulation as antithetical to constitutional forms of law, and an antidemocratic franchising of legitimate legislative authority to unelected persons. He provides a history of industry regulation using transportation and public utilities that belies the public interest justification for such regulation and makes its rent-seeking origins clear. The history of social regulation proves less clear, but shows the public harmed more than helped by it, as exhibited through its enormous negative effect on productivity growth and economic activity.
Trade ReviewArgues that regulation is anti-democratic as a form of law and that its combination of legislative, executive, and judicial functions in the same agencies is in violation of the constitution separation of powers. * Journal of Economic Literature *
Argues that regulation is anti-democratic as a form of law and that its combination of legislative, executive, and judicial functions in the same agencies is in violation of the constitution separation of powers. * Journal of Economic Literature *
Table of Contentschapter 1 Introduction chapter 2 Mercantile and Early U.S. Regulation chapter 3 Constitutional Democracy and Regulation chapter 4 Command, Control, and Confiscation chapter 5 Progressive Era Regulation chapter 6 The Economic Theory of Regulation chapter 7 Labor Regulation and Cartelization chapter 8 Health and Safety Regulation chapter 9 Environmental and Safety Regulation chapter 10 Environmental Regulation chapter 11 The Costs of Regulation chapter 12 The Ideological Transformation chapter 13 The Road Away From Serfdom chapter 14 Index chapter 15 About the Author
