Bastiats The Law
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The Law. Bastiat, Frederic. New York: Foundation for Economic Education, 1998. 76.
In 1850, Frenchman Frederic Bastiat wrote a pamphlet on the moral defense of liberty and limited government entitled The Law. Although it was written over 150 years ago, many of Bastiat's arguments help explain how conservatives today approach questions of government power. Law, according to Bastiat, is "the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense." (2) Since every person has the right to defend his person, his liberty, and his property, it follows that a group of men also have the right to organize and mutually protect these rights. Such a task is considered the proper purpose of government, and it is based on individual right. The law, however, is perverted and has turned away from its proper purpose only to follow its contrary purpose: committing plunder...