Anthony de Jasay: il liberalismo e lo Stato preso sul serio

Hungarian-born economist Anthony de Jasay (1925-2019) was one of the most original voices in contemporary classical liberalism. Jasay started as an economist, had a go at finance and eventually became an independent scholar, being mostly interested in political theory. His magnum opus is The State (1985), which apparently contradicts one of the pillars of the contemporary economics of public choice: that is, methodological individualism, as it analyses the state as its operations were those of a power-maximizing individual mind. Yet Jasay was not trying to anthropomorphize collective action. He was advancing the thesis that there are incentives inherent to bureaucratic machineries, which necessarily tend towards the enlargement of state action. Jasay did not share the traditional liberal allegiance to written constitutions: for he had a liberal sensibility but was a political realist. Likewise, he refused the traditional rationales for the very institution of governments: from arguments based on public goods to the very rhetoric of natural rights. His political realism merged with his taste for analytical clarity in trying to use direct concepts as building blocks of his political theory. His liberalism was of the Humean bent, based on conventions rather than on rights. Lack of an academic affiliation may contribute to explain the fact his vast intellectual production has not been noticed as its originality deserved.