Rotten Boroughs 1489 reformist and inclusive liberalism, detailed in Contingency, Irony, while the state is synonymous with coercion, exploitation, and Solidarity (1989). Although no beliefs whatsoever may be , and war. Whereas markets promote efficiency, assessed objectively (that is, standing outside one’s accultura- rational economic calculation, and production, states are nec- tion), what has resulted are sets of beliefs by means of which, essarily parasitic, inefficient, and destructive. Rothbard envi- and about which, converse, and which they may sions a future libertarian society in which the nonaggression revise. Rorty recommends that the open conversation about principle is enshrined in a Libertarian Law Code, regulating and revision of habits for action be taken seriously, while the activities of voluntarily financed competitive defense and the countless unsuccessful attempts to ground them in puta- judicial agencies. tive foundations or essences be abandoned. Thus the liberal This anarchocapitalist perspective drew from the works of “ironist” engages in an “anti-foundational ist” or “anti-essen- individualist anarchists such as , Benjamin tialist” “cultural politics.” Tucker, and . However, the most important influence on Rothbard’s thought was the work of his mentor, See also Decisionism; Empiricism; Essentialism; Freedom; Lan- the Austrian economist . Rothbard’s works guage Policy; Language and Politics; Liberal Theory; Political Phi- in political economy, such as Man, Economy, and State (  ) losophy; Politics; Postmodernism; Pragmatism; Relativism. and Power and Market ( ), extend the principles of Mise- ...... JOHN DUNCAN sian theory, examining state intervention as the root cause of business cycles, inflation, unemployment, monopolies, war, and BIBLIOGRAPHY imperialism. Rothbard maintained that no government action Murphy, John P. Pragmatism: From Pierce to Davidson . Boulder, Colo.: Westview was neutral and that state intervention created class (or caste) Press, 1990. Rorty, Richard. Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge conflict by enriching certain groups at the expense of others. University Press, 1989. Drawing from the work of revisionist historians —. Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth: Philosophical Papers, Volume 1. Cambridge, such as Gabriel Kolko, William Appleman Williams, and James UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Weinstein, Rothbard focused on the monopoly of the state —. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, over the money supply, which structurally privileged banks 1979. and their capital-intensive beneficiaries. He advocated the end of central banking and the imposition of a strict  per- Rothbard, Murray N. cent gold reserve requirement on all banks to prevent what Murray N. Rothbard (  – ) was a twentieth-century he characterized as legalized counterfeiting and its deleterious political economist and social theorist in the modern liber- consequences. His ideal society is one that celebrates the free tarian tradition. The author of more than twenty-five books and voluntary exchange of goods, services, and ideas. and thousands of articles, he constructed a libertarian politics that drew from neo-Aristotelian realism, Lockean natural See also ; Economic Systems, Comparative; Libertarian- rights theory, , the of ism; Political Theory. economics, and new left revisionist history. He advocated a ...... CHRIS MATTHEW SCIABARRA version of anarchism known as anarchocapitalism, in which all goods and services, including defense and judiciary, are BIBLIOGRAPHY An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard. provided by free markets. Raimondo, Justin. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus,  . In The Ethics of (  ), Rothbard begins with Aris- Rothbard, Murray N. America’s Great Depression. d ed. Kansas City: Sheed totelian principles of natural law, placing central priority on and Ward,  . the as a rational, acting being. For Rothbard, the ———. The Logic of Action One: Method, Money, and the Austrian School. Lyme, axiom at the base of all politics is the principle of self-own- N.H.: Edward Elgar,  . The Logic of Action Two: Applications and Criticism from the Austrian ership: individuals own their own bodies and the products of ———. School. Lyme, N.H.: Edward Elgar,  . their labors. By appropriating the material objects of nature Sciabarra, Chris Matthew. Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical . and mixing their labor with the land, people justly acquire University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,  . property based on first use, as well as title transfer, whether through free exchange, gift, or inheritance. In Rothbard’s view, individual rights are founded on a nonaggression principle: Rotten Boroughs no one has the right to initiate the use or threat of physical Rotten boroughs is primarily an English term used to describe violence against others or their justly acquired property. Every electoral districts with very small populations. Initially the individual retains the right of self-defense. phrase applied to English districts in the late seventeenth Throughout history, Rothbard argues, the state has system- century, but today, the term typically refers to the dominant atically violated individual rights by imposing a monopoly on political party within a district, which likely remains uncon- the use of force within a given geographical area. In such works tested due to their popular constituency support. Prior to as ( ), Rothbard views the nineteenth century electoral reforms, the aristocracy in Eng- and the state as polar opposites. The free market is synonymous land used these constituencies to maintain influence in the with individual freedom, mutual benefit, harmony, and peace, House of Commons where the less-populated rural districts