Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-12-2017

Abstract

Edward Peter Stringham’s book Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life (2015) is a compelling defense of the proposition that private governance is more widely used and more effective than most people think. Stringham looks to history to see how people solved problems of fraud and cheating without government intervention and provides example after compelling example to contradict the strong claim that a government or any third-party enforcer is necessary for voluntary exchange. While Stringham doesn’t take on the tough problem that private governance is not sufficient for its task, his book is intended to be the beginning, not the end, of thinking about private governance.

Comments

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of a book review accepted for publication in Review of Austrian Economics, volume 31, issue 2, in 2018. The final publication is available at Springer via DOI: 10.1007/s11138-017-0383-2.

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

Springer

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