A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism

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A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism is a treatise by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a student of Jürgen Habermas, which uses the ethics of argumentation, a Habermasian principle, as the foundation for self-ownership and private property as ethical principles.

Published in 1989, the book helped elevate Hoppe to a position of leadership within the anarcho-capitalism movement, second only to his mentor Murray Rothbard. Professor Hoppe defined a contract as the consensual use of another's property, aggression as the non-consensual use of another's property, and capitalism as institutionalized respect for property rights (and contract).

Socialism, in his view, is an institutionalized irrespect for, or aggression upon, property rights. He discusses the Böhm-Bawerkian time preference aspects of those different forms of property arrangement in terms of culture farsightedness and the economic prosperity of a given social system. The book goes on to distinguish among four possible types of socialism: Soviet-style, social democratic, Conservative and Technocratic (Neoliberalism proper) as opposed to a full private property order, i.e. capitalism. Each social system is discussed with historic examples and not only from an ethical-economic point of view, but also identifying the different political forces and groups that benefit from each particular form of policy, harming in different ways the maintenance and development of capital goods and social capital. A later chapter discusses the validity of the "public goods" dogma (as outlined by Paul Samuelson for example) and the last goes on to describe the possible outlook of a pure capitalist order in which state functions are carried on by private insurance and defense companies.