Luigi Marco Bassani

Articles

JLS: Taxation and Forced Labor—The Two Bodies of the Citizen in Modern Political Theology

08/17/2023 Power & Market Luigi Marco Bassani Carlo Lottieri

Tax imposition rendered political exploitation less painful, but at the same time, it inaugurated an expansion of dominion over individuals and society unparalleled in history.

The Rise of the Sovereign State

11/30/2021 Mises Wire Luigi Marco Bassani Carlo Lottieri

The first myth one has to debunk: that the state is merely a natural and organic outgrowth of political power, as old as the history of mankind or of organized society.

The Problem of Security: Historicity of the State and “European Realism”

07/13/2021 Mises Wire Luigi Marco Bassani Carlo Lottieri

All societies require some sort of coercion to maintain order. But "the state" is a very specific and modern type of government institution which claims it can engage in criminal types of coercion with impunity.

Publications

Liberty, State, and Union

01/11/2016 Luigi Marco Bassani

Bassani shows that Jefferson was a special kind of libertarian. He did not believe in government, but for one or two areas. Nor did he believe in the “union” much less the nation state. He was a radical individualist who had no use for the political

Media

Chapter 1. The Problem of Security; Historicity of the State and “European Realism”

06/06/2019 Luigi Marco Bassani Carlo Lottieri

From The Myth of National Defense: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production, edited by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

Natural Rights

03/01/2004 Luigi Marco Bassani

Natural law does not depend directly on God’s will. Natural law goes back to at least the scholastics and perhaps Thomas Aquinas. Modern Natural Rights theory began in 1625. Modern theory recognizes the institution the state. Natural law is thought to produce inalienable natural rights. They speak to the dignity of the individual and life and property. The close connection between liberty and property is part of this tradition.

Anti-Federalist Traditions until the Civil War

03/01/2004 Luigi Marco Bassani

Jeffersonian States Rights Doctrine until the Civil War was grounded in three freedom documents: The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, and The Treaty of Paris of 1783. Those documents emphasized independent states, not a single nation or union.

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