Political Philosophy

Abstract

Within the world of political philosophy, government control of the free market has been a much discussed topic down through the ages. For liberal thinkers at the beginning of the 19th century, such as James Mill, the free market was the Promised Land. Laissez faire was the answer to all questions regarding the management of the economy. But just like Moses, the utilitarian liberals were only able to see the Promised Land far off in the distance. After all, the idea of a free market only achieved its high point in actuality between 1830 and 1870 (Polanyi, 1944: 77 and 83; Searle, 1998; Gray, 1998). The people who experienced this system at close quarters in the course of the 19th century didn’t take long to realize that the free market was a long way from being heaven on earth.