In Pursuit of Happiness and Good Government - Hardcover

Murray, Charles

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9780671611002: In Pursuit of Happiness and Good Government

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671611003 ISBN 13: 9780671611002

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1988

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Pushes for a return of Jeffersonian ideals of democracy with government assuming a greatly reduced role in the everyday lives of people, outlining how present policies have debased the overall standard of living

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From Publishers Weekly:

Murray, a senior research fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the author of Losing Ground , launches a relentlessly unfocussed argument which includes the thesis that Jeffersonian democracy is perfectly applicable in the contemporary United States. Assuming that the pursuit of happiness should be a criterion in making public policy, he explores the enabling conditions of that pursuit (access to material resources, safety, self-respect prominent among them), then draws a fuzzy linkage between them and the concepts of challenge, competency and autonomy. His conclusion is that the pursuit of happiness is rooted in Edmund Burke's "little platoons" of work, family and community, and that the government, in order to encourage, nourish and protect these elemental functions, should keep interference to a minimum. He argues for "a radically more decentralized and limited government." Alas, Murray does not say how this might be brought about. First serial to National Review; Conservative Book Club dual main selection.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Murray's best seller, Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980, touted the virtues of small government. In this latest work, again sure to please conservatives and provoke liberals, he proposes that government not try to make people happy, but instead provide "enabling conditions" that ease their pursuit of happiness. These conditions notably include minimal welfare to provide merely the staples of life. Further attention to needy persons, he contends, should be provided by communities and local institutions. He acknowledges that his approach is especially difficult in poor inner cities with their alienation, impersonality, etc., but he nonetheless believes that typical governmental welfare only perpetuates poverty. A sophisticated treatment with potential broad appeal. David Steiniche, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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