The glass is half-full

Half of this book, and most of its analytical meat, seeks to show that too many critical social interactions, notably those involving the respect for property and the provision of public goods for large groups, are genuine prisoners’ dilemmas and do not have efficient equilibria. Since their invisible-hand solutions are “spontaneous disorders” rather than orders, anarchy is severely sub-optimal, and the state is a Pareto-improving institution. It is good to have some of it, ma non troppo: too much state turns out to be, well, too much.