Terry L. Anderson, Bruce L. Benson, & Thomas E. Flanagan, eds., Self-Determination: The Other Path for Native Americans

摘要

Political bodies have not always extended the best treatment to Native Americans. Although government now spends billions of dollars each year on programs relating to Native Americans, they have numerous problems, including a poverty rate twice that of whites. Can economics help explain the situation or offer any suggestions to improve it? To the editors of Self-Determination: The Other Path for Native Americans, rent seeking and various commons problems created by government are the root cause. This collection of ten essays includes contributions by political science, law, and economics scholars, many of whom are clearly influenced by public choice economics. The volume offers positive analysis and some possible solutions. As the editors (p. ix) write, "This book tries to illuminate 'the other path' that Native Americans could take-the path of self-determination, individual ownership, investment in human and physical capital, and competitive investment in the market economy." Hernando de Soto's (1989) The Other Path talks about recognizing property rights as a way of improving the well being of many people in the Third World; this volume applies a similar analysis to the situation faced by many Native Americans.