Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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L IBERTARIAN S TUDIES
3 (SUMMER 2005): 4970
NO.
VAN
EEGHEN
Henry Simons was not a prolific writer. Most of his ideas are
contained in a single volume, Economic Policy for a Free Society
(1948). For an exhaustive bib- liography of Simonss work see
Bowler (1974, pp. 711).
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Even so, one can still credit Simons for pointing out the
inher- ently illiberal and unlibertarian nature of inconvertible
fiat money and free incorporation for private business
concerns. These insights are significant because they
enable classical liberals and libertarians to reject the
common socialist view that undue cyclical instability and
excessive inequality are intrinsic to a free enterprise
system, and they make it possible for us to attribute these
ailments to the agency of institutions that are foreign to a
classical liberal or libertarian order. While opposition to
inconvertible fiat money is an almost stan- dard element of
the current libertarian credo (Block, of course, has
contributed significantly to the relevant literature), it is far
from stan- dard for libertarians or classical liberals to
oppose free incorporation of private business concerns,
although there are some noted excep- tions. Van Dun
(2001, p. 31), for example, recently remarked in an article
published in this journal:
[M]ost liberal writers exhibit rather mechanical freemarket reflexes. . . . With respect to large, publicly traded
corporations, the common liberal opinion seems to be the
one propagated by Robert Hessen, In Defense of the
Corporation, . . . and Armen Alchian [et al.] Business
Ethics: large corporations are merely the outcome of efficiency-seeking behavior in a regime of freedom of
contract, and are, in any case, effectively disciplined by
the market, especially the market for corporate
controlhence, presumably, corporate power is nothing
liberals should worry about. . . . [I]t is far from clear that
large corporations can be seen as conforming to the
requirements of natural
2
law.
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THE NATURE
OF THE
CORPORATION
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ITS
THE CORPORATION:
CLASH WITH LIBERAL PRINCIPLES
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The objection can be raised that bankruptcy law already limits the
liability of ownership in this way. Unfortunately, the issue of how a
liberal order based on the principle of personal responsibility
should treat bankruptcy law is too involved to be treated here,
with the result that an answer to this objection has to remain
outstanding.
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Concentration
and
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A CRITIQUE
OF
BLOCKS CRITIQUE
OF
SIMONS
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REFERENCES
Barr, Jeff, and Lee Iglody. 2001. De-legitimizing the Corporation:
An Austrian Analysis of the Firm. Proceedings of the Austrian
Scholars Conference 7. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises
Institute.
Berle, Adolf A., and Gardner C. Means. 1932. The Modern
Corporation and
Private Property. New York: Macmillan.
Block, Walter. 2002. Henry Simons is Not a Supporter of Free
Enterprise.
Journal of Libertarian Studies 16 (4): 336.
Bowler, Clara Ann. 1974. The Papers of Henry C. Simons.
Journal of Law and Economics 1: 711.
Bryant, Arthur. 1940. English Saga (18401940).
London: Collins.
Cook, William J. 2000. The Evolving Corporation: A Humanist
Interpretation.
Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books.
Cooke, C.A. 1950. Corporation Trust and Company: An Essay in
Legal History.
Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press.
Creighton, Andrew L. 1990. The Emergence of the Corporation as
a Legal Form for Organizations. Ph.D. Dissertation. Stanford
University.
Davis, John P. [1905] 1961. Corporations: A Study of the Origin
and Development of Great Business Combinations and of Their
Relation to the Authority of the State. New York: Capricorn.
Davis, Joseph S. [1917] 1965. Essays in the Earlier History
of American
Corporations. New York: Russell and Russell.
Derber, Charles. 1998. Corporation Nation: How Corporations Are
Taking Over
Our Lives and What We Can Do About It. New York: St.
Martins Press.
Diamond, Aubrey L. 1982. Corporate Personality and Limited
Liability. In
Limited Liability and the Firm. Tony Orhnial, ed. London:
Methuen.
Dodd, Edwin Merrick. 1934. American Business Corporations
Until 1860.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Du Bois, Armand. 1971. The English Business Company After the
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