Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Posted in Uncategorized on August 5, 2012

Hans-Hermann Hoppe is an Austrian economist and libertarian anarcho-capitalist philosopher who is known for his private law society, which advocates a radical transformation of the legal system where all parties are subject to the same rules and nobody is exempt from the same kinds of rules that govern everyone else.

He is a Professor Emeritus of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Hoppe is the author of several widely discussed books and his work has been translated to 22 languages. He is currently living with his wife in Istanbul, Turkey.

Analysis of Democracy

In Democracy: The God That Failed, Hoppe compares monarchies with democratic states. Hoppe claims that the structural perverse incentives inherent in democracy make it more prone to destroy wealth than comparable monarchical regimes. A monarch, being a long term ruler and able to further bequeath his position, has interest in the long term well being of the economy, would often be hesitant to excessively accumulate debt, or otherwise engage in large-scale short-term capital consumption compared to a similar democratically elected ruler, who is more akin to a renter, or temporary custodian of the state due to the shorter time he has to use his power for his benefit. Hoppe further notes that the theoretical possibility of entrance into government also doles the citizenship resistance to excessive abuse of government power, as compared to monarchies, in which abusive monarchs where often overthrown and killed.

Hoppe points to comparable policies adopted by existing western and eastern monarchies as well as several such past policies to empirically support his analysis. Hoppe does not put forward this criticism in support of monarchy, but rather as a critique of democracy.