If Men Were Angels: The Basic Analytics of the State Versus Self-Government

"Lest anyone protest that the state's true 'function' or 'duty' or 'end' is, as Locke, Madison, and countless others have argued, to protect individuals? rights to life, liberty, and property, the evidence of history clearly shows that, as a rule, real states do not behave accordingly. The idea that states actually function along such lines or that they strive to carry out such a duty or to achieve such an end resides in the realm of wishful thinking."