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.
No content found
David Gordon is Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and editor of the Mises Review.
A century after Ludwig von Mises exposed the fundamental weakness in the socialist economy, Jesus Huerta de Soto demonstrates why Mises was right and his detractors were wrong. In Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon explains why de Soto is right.
Do we have free will? Do only a few of us have free will? Does anyone have free will? Thomas Pink tries to answer those questions, and Dr. David Gordon examines his explanations in this week’s Friday Philosophy.
Is the state necessary? In this week’s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon follows Aeon J. Skoble’s argument that we can do without the state and finds there is much to like in Skoble’s logic.
Gordonh, David, ed. Secession, State, and Liberty (Transaction Publishers, 1998).
