From the Vault: Hans-Hermann Hoppe, “Democracy: a False and Vicious Idea,” Rothbard-Rockwell Report (Feb. 1996): 1, 3–4.
From Grok: This is an early formulation of Hoppe’s critique of democracy (one-man-one-vote + free entry into government as a machinery of redistribution, tragedy of the commons in politics, time-preference effects, family destruction via welfare, etc.).
These ideas were greatly expanded into his major book, Democracy: The God That Failed (Transaction Publishers, 2001). Hoppe has explicitly noted that the book grew out of his 1990s RRR-era writings and conference speeches. Many chapters trace back to that period’s output. The book systematically develops the arguments previewed in the 1996 RRR piece (and related talks). Related later collections (The Great Fiction, Economy, Society, and History) also contain overlapping or expanded essays on democracy, redistribution, and the state.
- Democracy: The God That Failed (Transaction, 2001)
- Economy, Society, and History (Mises Institute, 2021)
- The Great Fiction: Property, Economy, Society, and the Politics of Decline (Laissez Faire Books, 2012; second revised edition, Mises Institute, 2021)
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