The essays in Secession, State & Liberty argue that the political impulse to secede—to attempt to separate from central government control—is a vital part of the Lockean classical-liberal tradition, one that emerges when national governments become too big and too ambitious.
Unlike revolution, secession seeks only separation from rule, preferably through non-violent means. It is based on the moral idea, articulated by Ludwig von Mises in 1919, that “no people and no part of a people shall be held against its will in a political association that it does not want.”
These seven important essays—which cover philosophy, history, economics, and law—argue that the threat of secession should be revived as a bulwark against government encroachment on individual liberty and private property rights, as a guarantor of international free trade, and as protection against attempts to curb the freedom of association.
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David Gordon is Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and editor of the Mises Review.
Has anyone besides Murray Rothbard made a compelling case for state-free anarchy? In this week‘s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon extols Libertarian Anarchy by Gerard Casey, which he says provides excellent arguments for doing away with the state.
Has anyone besides Murray Rothbard made a compelling case for state-free anarchy? In this week‘s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon extols Libertarian Anarchy by Gerard Casey, which he says provides excellent arguments for doing away with the state.
Although Frank Meyer Frank was a National Review colleague of William F. Buckley, who loathed Murray Rothbard, Frank admired Rothbard and the two men often agreed on the current state of affairs. That is how Dr. David Gordon remembers him in today‘s Friday Philosophy.
Gordonh, David, ed. Secession, State, and Liberty (Transaction Publishers, 1998).
