Classical Liberal Class Analysis

The Frontispiece to Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651) [showing the two pillars of state authority - "throne and altar" - more]	James Gillray, "The British Atlas, or John Bull supporting the Peace Establishment (1816)

Here are some questions to consider about the nature of the state and who controls it. I attempt to answer these in my lecture:

The State:

• what is the State and how does it function?
• who controls it?
• why has it grown so much over the past 100 years? & where is it heading now?
• is there an optimal size of the State & can it be limited to just these powers?

The Ruling Class:

• who has access to State power & what do they do with this power?
• what are the key power centres & who controls them?
• who benefits from this control (cui bono?) & what are these benefits?
• who pays for this?
• if the same group/s who benefit from State power persist over time, can we call them a “ruling class”?
• if the number of people who benefit from State power come to exceed the number who pay for it, how (in a democracy) can we ever return to a free society?

This site contains the followng material on class analysis:

• an anthology on the history of classical liberal class analysis and many key works: The State and the Ruling Class: An Anthology of Key Works of Libertarian/Classical Liberal Class Analysis from La Boetie to Buchanan
• a lecture on "The State and the Ruling Class" with some accompanying diagrams on the schematic of class rule and class structure
• A bibliography on Class and the State
• a selection of quotations about class
• images of "The Ruled as Atlas" and "Images of the Ruling Class and the State"