ON POWER

Documenting the process by which government and controlling majorities have grown increasingly powerful and tyrannical, Bertrand de Jouvenel demonstrates how democracies have failed to limit the powers of government. This development Jouvenel traces all the way back to the days of royal absolutism, which established large administrative bureaucracies and thus laid the foundation of the modern omnipotent state.

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About the Author:
Bertrand de Jouvenel (1903-1987) was a French philosopher, political economist, and futurist known for his many works in political philosophy. He taught at many universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, and the University of California. Unlike many other French intellectuals at the time, de Jouvenel acknowledged the early twentieth-century movement of economic theory and welfare economics that emerged in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, and Austria. His many books include The Pure Theory of Politics and The Ethics of Redistribution.