Frederick Bastiat's The Law
By
Jul 21, 2000
 rederick Bastiat's The Law explains how human beings twist the functions of government to benefit themselves rather than protect their rights and the rights of their fellow citizens. Life, liberty and property are naturally occurring rights that the state should work to defend. Beyond that, Bastiat argues, humans should be left to pursue their own aims. The tendency of humans to profit at the expense of their fellow man is chronicled as a "fatal tendency" that can be overcome if "everyone enjoyed the unrestricted use of his faculties and the free disposition of the fruits of his labor, social progress would be ceaseless, uninterrupted, and unfailing." The author explains that labor "is pain in itself" and men avoid it whenever possible, but plunder is easy and painless. Inevitably, when faced with a choice between plunder and labor, man will choose plunder. When this theory is combined with the fact that those in government, specifically those who make laws, come from one class, usually the privileged class, Bastiat feels it is difficult to defend the rights of all classes. "Lawful plunder" as it is referred to, produces victims and leads, essentially, to class warfare. When the plundered classes reach positions of power, they seek vengeance against their predecessors, and the rights of all are limited. Justice is an impossible goal, as law is supposed to maintain justice, but instead it becomes a mechanism for those who feel victimized to exact retribution. "In fact," he writes, "it is injustice, instead of justice that has an existence of its own. Justice is achieved only when injustice is absent." To achieve justice within a society, injustices must be eradicated rather than legislated. The only foolproof method of eradicating injustice is to make sure that the rights of all are equally protected, rather than giving special treatment to the less fortunate or punishing the wealthy.
Fredrick Bastiat's disdain for big government was ahead of its time, to say the least. The Law, published two years before the Communist manifesto, denounces socialism on the basis that it infringes on the natural rights of man by creating a bureaucracy filled with individuals intent on furthering their own interests. Calling socialism "legal plunder" Bastiat explains how government can be used by those in positions of power to limit the rights of citizens. "The law is perverted," he exclaims, calling it "guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish." And that is only the opening paragraph. From there the author details how the rights of man existed long before the modern creation of the state, and therefore government's function should be to defend those inherent rights, not attempt to bestow entitlements to the less fortunate.
When the law is used to redistribute property it is understandable that all classes will fight for legislative control. "Everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant and all-absorbing," Bastiat warns. "There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious," he continues. It is important, the author stresses, to recognize plunder where it exists and wipe it out. If this is not done, one law that limits citizens' rights "will spread, multiply and develop into a system." Acquired rights and entitlements will be bestowed and voraciously defended, as individuals will claim that the state has obligations to its citizens that need to be met through legislation. "Tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation ...guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits" and many other elements of socialism will work their way into the system, Bastiat warns, which will lead to legal plunder. At this point, a government has three choices: it can allow a few to plunder the many, permit everyone to plunder everyone else, or make a conscious decision to ban plunder in all its forms. The only true way to achieve justice is to ban plunder altogether, the author argues, because the law itself is "organized justice." It should be used as "the common force organized to act as an obstacle to injustice" which occurs when legislation goes beyond the scope of its intended power to "protect the free exercise of these rights, and to prevent any person from interfering with the free exercise of these same rights by any other person." Law should be organized in a manner that protects only what is essential to defend.
Bastiat also takes aim at some of his fellow philosophers, denouncing the theories of Rousseau and Montesquieu. Montesquieu, he claims, attempted to equalize fortunes with legislation, and called for legislators to "exercise their wisdom" on everything, even the basic human rights of life, liberty and property. Rousseau, Bastiat writes, was "the supreme authority of all the democrats" who believed that government bestowed its citizens with rights based on the so-called will of the people. Rousseau accepted the "theory of the total inertness of mankind in the presence of legislators" comparing the legislator to "the mechanic who invents the machine." However, if rights are naturally occurring, as Basiat argues, then citizens are not inert, rather it is government that should be as motionless and restricted as possible.
The Law explains how philanthropy, charity, and entitlements have no place in government, even though those who support them claim to have pure motives. Citizens will always choose the easy option over the more difficult one, and when government attempts to endow certain citizens with easy alternatives to difficult problems, the rights of everyone are compromised. The function of the law should be to preserve justice, and attempts to legislate on a case-by-case basis can only have negative consequences for society as a whole.
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