TY  - BOOK
AU  - Gallagher,Susan E.
TI  - The Rule of the Rich?: Adam Smith’s Argument Against Political Power 
SN  - 9780585282442
AV  - JC176.S63 G35 1998eb
U1  - 320/.01/1 21
PY  - 1998///]
CY  - University Park, PA
PB  - Penn State University Press
KW  - POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - -0 0-271-02496
KW  - -8 Political Theory Political Philosophy Philosophy History
KW  - 0-271-01774
KW  - Adam Smith's
KW  - Argument
KW  - Susan E. Gallagher
KW  - against Political Power
KW  - apologist laissez-faire capitalism British
KW  - aristocracy moral obligation public good private gain Mandeville Bolingbroke Hume
KW  - civic humanist sermons limited government The Wealth of Nations
KW  - incompetence British
KW  - upper class
N1  - Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; Acknowledgments --; Introduction --; I Commerce and the Question, Who Should Rule? --; II Thanks, But No Thanks: Mandeville's Defense of Court Whig Hypocrisy --; III Bolingbroke's Search for a Patriot King --; IV Hume' s Critique of the Whig Supremacy --; V Adam Smith and the End of Aristocrasy --; Postscript --; Notes --; Bibliography --; Index; restricted access
N2  - Usually viewed as the premier apologist for laissez-faire capitalism, Smith is seen in this new interpretation within the context of an earlier tradition that condemned the British aristocracy for relinquishing its moral obligation to promote the public good in favor of an unceasing pursuit of private gain.Through separate chapters on Mandeville, Bolingbroke, and Hume, Gallagher shows that Smith echoed civic humanist sermons against the avaricious inclinations of the nobles who profited most from commercial expansion. Unlike earlier critics, however, Smith concluded that the most prudent response to aristocratic corruption was not to hold ministers, kings, and social notables to higher standards but to limit their access to political power. The Rule of the Rich? accordingly shows that the case for limited government made in The Wealth of Nations was not a defense of individual liberty so much as a concession to the apparent incompetence of the British upper class
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1515/9780585282442?locatt=mode:legacy
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780585282442
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780585282442/original
ER  -