All these premises having, as I think, been clearly made out, it is impossible that the rulers now on earth should make any benefit, or derive any the least shadow of authority from that, which is held to be the fountain of all power, Adam's private dominion and paternal jurisdiction; so that he that will not give just occasion to think that all government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts, where the strongest carries it, and so lay a foundation for perpetual disorder and mischief, tumult, sedition and rebellion, (things that the followers of that hypothesis so loudly cry out against) must of necessity find out another rise of government, another original of political power, and another way of designing and knowing the persons that have it, than what Sir Robert Filmer hath taught us.

Two Treatises of Government.

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Anarchy, state, and utopia

Capitalism and Freedom

A recent literature has constructed top income shares time series over the long run for more than twenty countries using income tax statistics. Top incomes represent a small share of the population but a very significant share of total income and total taxes paid. Hence, aggregate economic growth per capita and Gini inequality indexes are sensitive to excluding or including top incomes. We discuss the estimation methods and issues that arise when constructing top income share series, including income definition and comparability over time and across countries, tax avoidance, and tax evasion. We provide a summary of the key empirical findings. Most countries experience a dramatic drop in top income shares in the first part of the twentieth century in general due to shocks to top capital incomes during the wars and depression shocks. Top income shares do not recover in the immediate postwar decades. However, over the last thirty years, top income shares have increased substantially in English speaking countries and in India and China but not in continental European countries or Japan. This increase is due in part to an unprecedented surge in top wage incomes. As a result, wage income comprises a larger fraction of top incomes than in the past. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and empirical models that have been proposed to account for the facts and the main questions that remain open.

Top Incomes in the Long Run of History

This paper explores some legal and philosophical issues surrounding the practice of dwarf tossing, the sport by which dwarfs are thrown for fun and profit. Part I provides an overview. Part II provides some background information regarding the sport. Part III analyzes the body as property argument and tentatively concludes that individuals have an absolute right to do with their bodies as they see fit. Part IV discusses whether the balancing of interests argument is a valid limitation on the body as property argument and concludes that it is not. Part V looks at the argument that dwarf tossing should be banned or restricted on public policy grounds. Part VI asks whether dwarf tossing should be outlawed and concludes that there are no valid arguments to justify outlawing or restricting the practice.

If Dwarf Tossing Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Toss Dwarfs: Is Dwarf Tossing a Victimless Crime?

In 1944, Martin Crowe, a Catholic priest, wrote a doctoral dissertation titled The Moral Obligation of Paying Just Taxes. His dissertation summarized and analyzed 500 years of theological and philosophical debate on this topic, which identified three basic philosophical positions on the issue. Since Crowe’s dissertation, not much has been written on the topic of tax evasion from an ethical or religious perspective. The present paper is an empirical study, the goal of which is to determine the strength of the 15 arguments justifying tax evasion that Crowe identified plus 3 more recent arguments. A survey was constructed using a seven-point Likert scale that included all three positions and all 18 arguments and distributed to 149 graduate students at a business school in Kerala, India. The 18 arguments were ranked in terms of strength, from strongest to weakest. Comparisons were also made according to gender and religion to determine if the viewpoints for these demographics were significantly different.

Tax Evasion and Ethics: A Survey of Indian Opinion

Marital status is another variable that has an influence on ethical beliefs and attitude toward paying taxes. The World Values surveys collected data on this variable. It was thought that marital status might have some effect on attitudes toward tax evasion but the effect it has is unclear. One might assume a priori that married people are more responsible than single people and thus would be more averse to tax evasion. On the other hand, married people might have more expenses than younger people and might have less ability to pay taxes, which could have just the opposite effect on their opinion on the issue of tax evasion. Thus, it is necessary to test the a priori assumptions. The results are reported below.

Marital Status and the Ethics of Tax Evasion

This article addresses the question of whether sanctions constitute violence in the broad sense of that term, and whether, and under what conditions, sanctions can be justified. The sanctions imposed against Iraq and Cuba are discussed as case studies and several ethical theories are applied to determine whether sanctions can be justified on ethical grounds. The views of Joy Gordon, George A. Lopez and Frederic Bastiat are examined as representative of three approaches that can be taken. The conclusion is that the imposition of sanctions constitutes unethical conduct regardless of which set of ethical principles are applied. A bibliography with links to other Bastiat studies is also included.

Three Views on Violence, Sanctions and Ethics: A Law & Economics Analysis of Gordon, Lopez and Bastiat

Insider trading legislation requires insiders to publicly report their trades through securities commissions and prohibits them from using confidential, undisclosed information that is material to the value of securities in connection with the trades.' In Canada, insider trading is both a civil and quasi-criminal offense.' In the United States, Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act is often cited as authority for prosecuting insider trading cases. We will examine this subject.

Robert W. McGee

Papers

If Dwarf Tossing Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Toss Dwarfs: Is Dwarf Tossing a Victimless Crime?

Tax Evasion and Ethics: A Survey of Indian Opinion

Marital Status and the Ethics of Tax Evasion

Three Views on Violence, Sanctions and Ethics: A Law & Economics Analysis of Gordon, Lopez and Bastiat

Information, Privilege, Opportunity, and Insider Trading