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Article: Exposing the invisible hand: the roots of laissez-faire's hidden influence *.
- Article from:
- Polity
- Article date:
- July 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Palgrave Macmillan, a Division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I love my country, it's the government I'm afraid of--Bumper sticker
Introduction
In his closing remarks at the third and final 2000 presidential debate, George W. Bush proclaimed, "I trust people, I don't trust the federal government." Putting aside the more obvious problems with such a statement (Does he trust snake oil salesmen? Who, precisely, does he presume runs the federal government?), we can safely say that it captures well a certain American ethos. U.S. politics has traditionally reflected both a distrust of government and a faith in the benign nature of power stemming from the private sector. (1) Of course, neither conviction was born in, nor ...