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Frédéric Bastiat on the State and the Free Market

The following is a collection of key articles and chapters by the 19th century French political economist Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) which have been selected to give a representative sample of his thinking on the nature of the state, the proper limit of its functions, the nature of the free market, and individual liberty,

For more information see:

• the main Bastiat page in the OLL
• Essays on Bastiat in the Forum

• A Collection of Quotations by Bastiat on the State and the Free Market

  This is a collection of quotations by Bastiat which have appeared on the Online Library of Liberty website in the collection called Quotations about Liberty and Power:

  • Bastiat on the most universally useful freedom, namely to work and to trade (1847)
  • Bastiat on the spirit of free trade as a reform of the mind itself (1847)
  • Bastiat on the state vs. laissez-faire (1848)
  • Bastiat on the many freedoms that make up liberty (1848)
  • Bastiat on the scramble for political office (1848)
  • Bastiat on the need for urgent political and economic reform (1848)
  • Bastiat on the fact that even in revolution there is an indestructible principle of order in the human heart (1848)
  • Bastiat asks the fundamental question of political economy: what should be the size of the state? (1850)
  • Bastiat on the state as the great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else (1848)
  • Bastiat, while pondering the nature of war, concluded that society had always been divided into two classes - those who engaged in productive work and those who lived off their backs (1850)

  Source: Quotations about Liberty and Power

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1609&Itemid=281 on 2011/9/1

• A Petition from the Manufacturers of Candles to the Honorable Members of the Chamber of Deputies (1845)

  The “Petition from the Manufacturers of Candles” is one of Bastiat’s best known “economic sophisms” which were short, witty, but very insightful critiques of commonly held but false economic views which he wrote in the mid and late 1840s. Here he writes a mock petition from a vested interest who want protection at tax-payer and consumer expence from the government.

  To read more of Bastiat’s economic sophisms see Economic Sophisms, trans. Arthur Goddard, introduction by Henry Hazlitt (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996).

  Frédéric Bastiat, Economic Sophisms, trans. Arthur Goddard, introduction by Henry Hazlitt (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996). Chapter: First Series, Chapter 7: A Petition

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/276/23342 on 2011-10-10

  Published online with the kind permission of the copyright holders, the Foundation for Economic Education.

• The State, or “the great fiction” (1848)

  Bastiat wrote a first draft of his famous essay on the state during the Revolution of 1848 in Paris. He wrote it in an effort to persuade the people of Paris that it was an illusion to expect the new government to give them all something for nothing. It later appeared as a pamphlet which has been reprinted many times.

  Frédéric Bastiat, Selected Essays on Political Economy, trans. Seymour Cain, ed. George B. de Huszar, introduction by F.A. Hayek (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995). Chapter: 5: The State 1

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/956/35453 on 2011-10-10

  Published online with the kind permission of the copyright holders, the Foundation for Economic Education.

• The Fallacy of “The Broken Window”: or “the seen” and “the unseen” (1850)

  “The Broken Window” comes from a series of short essays called What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen (1850) which was one of the last works written by Bastiat. Here he uses the device of a story or parable about “Jacques Bonhomme” (called John Goodfellow in this translation) who has to repair a broken window. Bastiat debunks the notion that Jacques’ expenditure to replace the broken window is a net gain for the economy. This myth gets trotted out every time a natural disaster strikes and homes, roads, and other infrastructure have to rebuilt. This is a good example of Bastiat’s theory of “the seen” and “the unseen” in economics.

  For the entire set of essays in What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen (1850) see here.

  Frédéric Bastiat, Selected Essays on Political Economy, trans. Seymour Cain, ed. George B. de Huszar, introduction by F.A. Hayek (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995). Chapter: 1. The Broken Window

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/956/35427 on 2011-10-10

  Published online with the kind permission of the copyright holders, the Foundation for Economic Education.

• The Law, or the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense (1850)

  This is another late pamphlet by Bastiat in which he provides an explanation of his notion of “the law” based upon a theory of natural rights which are anterior and superior to any laws which might be enacted by the state. It was designed to counter the arguments of the socialists which had become prominent during the 1848 Revolution.

  Frédéric Bastiat, Selected Essays on Political Economy, trans. Seymour Cain, ed. George B. de Huszar, introduction by F.A. Hayek (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995). Chapter: 2: The law 1

  Accessed from oll.libertyfund.org/title/956/35439 on 2011-10-10

  Published online with the kind permission of the copyright holders, the Foundation for Economic Education.