Policy of Liberty

Policy of liberty is dedicated to the advancement of liberty and responsibility in society. Its philosophy is pro-life libertarian (rather than neo-conservative) on economic issues, adhering to biblical norms for proper social perspective but rarely looking to the state for solutions to social problems. POL provides resources, links, books and articles, an email list, photos and links to famous economists, great quotations for liberty.

Book Description:

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Contents
Introduction
1 A case study on building fire safety (Baltimore)
2 A case study on building quality (mostly rural counties in West Virginia and Pennsylvania)
3 Market-regulatory alternatives (rare coin and gemstone industries)
4 A policy overview of American allodialism
5 Concluding implications for public policy
App. A Shepardizing results of important cases
App. B Chronological important case citations with topics

Foreword by Walter E. Williams, Ph.D.
Chairman, Economics Department, George Mason University

In contemporary society, people increasingly rely on government to provide many goods and services. Those who champion government allocation of resources fail to consider both the effectiveness of government allocation and the moral questions involved. In the last century, resistance to government intervention, from paper money to economics regulation, was far more pervasive and effective than it is today. Indeed, today's Americans only have a faint understanding of the Constitution and its envisioned restraints on government activity. The Constitution and its philosophical underpinning are rarely taught and understood by most Americans. That is a remarkable change from the time of our nation's founding when a large percentage of Americans were conversant with the ideas of Locke, Cato, Paine and the Federalist Papers.

The Declaration of Independence, one of America's most important political documents, contains statements that are today greeted with hostility, or at best, viewed as extremist. The motif of America's inauguration has become too radical to discuss without extreme qualification, and those who want to use it to assail the present political process are labeled 'radicals.' Of course, the liberty-loving American founders also carried this sobriquet. Another characteristic of the modern age is that Americans have become carelessly oblivious to the historical struggle for the vast liberties they enjoy but the preservation of which they now seem to disregard.

Dr. Cobin's book is part of the growing literature of case studies legal-philosophical treatises that provide economic analyses of public policy. While many other studies about regulation have been produced, Dr. Cobin has provided a major contribution to local regulatory issues. Building regulation and the modern system of private property rights are areas which are taken for granted by most people. However, this book reveals that there are more than trivial policy defects in our system of private property rights. Dr. Cobin has established that there is a real need to re-examine how private property rights are regulated. In the same way that public choice theory has exploded the notion of altruistic bureaucrats and politicians, who serve the interest of the public to the disregard their private interests, Dr. Cobin's book unmasks local building regulations whose ostensible purposes are to serve the public interest.

The results of Dr. Cobin's work lead us into a new dimension of public policy deliberation, i.e., whether government regulations produce more or less safety than that provided through the market 'regulation.' If government regulations reduce the safety and quality of goods or services, then it is in the public interest to revise or eliminate such regulation. Dr. Cobin has also done a commendable job of demonstrating that market provision can produce efficient and effective regulation, even for informational services that are assumed to be public goods. After demonstrating the failings of government regulation and provision of information about quality, Dr. Cobin shows us that markets can do in building and safety regulations what it has done the rare coin and gemstone industries.

Dr. Cobin's work goes even further. In addition to suggesting an adequate policy alternative for a failing system of building regulation, he also resurrects an alternate legal philosophy of real property. This system, known as 'allodialism,' is not a novel concept but has deep roots in Western civilization. However, it has been obfuscated over the years in favor of feudalism. It may surprise many readers that the American system of real property, not to mention the rest of the world's is essentially feudalistic. This fact should be repugnant in America where the Founding Fathers sought to abrogate all fetters of tyranny and oppression. An allodial real property system would make private property rights absolute and not subject to any form of coercive taxation or regulation. Subsequently, allodialism would serve to secure rights to property as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

Hopefully, this study will provide the impetus for scholarship, in both case studies of local regulation and renewed discussion and analysis of allodial property rights. Not only can this book be added to the annals of regulatory studies which support market over government provision, but its philosophical basis can be used in basic disciplines, including law, economics, philosophy, political science and history. Dr. Cobin has made an important contribution to an important public policy area in a novel and frequently overlooked way.

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