Anthony de Jasay Quote

"People who live in states have as a rule never experienced
the state of nature and vice-versa, and have no practical
possibility of moving from the one to the other ...
On what grounds, then, do people form hypotheses
about the relative merits of state and state of nature? ...
My contention here is that preferences for political arrangements of society are
to a large extent produced by these very arrangements, so that
political institutions are either addictive like some drugs,
or allergy-inducing like some others, or both,
for they may be one thing for some people and the other for others."

By:	Anthony de Jasay (more quotes by Anthony de Jasay or books by/about Anthony de Jasay)
	(1925- ) Hungarian writer
Source:	The State (Oxford: Basic Blackwell, 1985)
Categories:	Democracy, Drugs, Government, Health, Nature, Politics, Security, Socialism, Society
Rating: