Social Contract, Free Ride: A Study of the Public Goods Problem

By Anthony De Jasay

Book Overview

This book offers a compelling new account of the public goods dilemma. Showing how the social contract, in its quest for fairness, actually helps to breed the parasitic "free riding" it is meant to suppress, De Jasay argues that the incentives created by the attempt to render public provisions assured and fair are a principal cause of the poor functioning of organized society. This study will be of great value to political and moral philosophers, political theorists, and economists.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198239122
• ISBN13: 9780198239123
• Release Date: February 1991
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"