ABSTRACT
Since in this book we are mainly concerned with the limits that a free society must place upon the coercive powers of government, the reader may get the mistaken impression that we regard the enforcement of the law and the defence against external enemies as the only legitimate functions of government. Some theorists in the past have indeed advocated such a 'minimal state'.1 It may be true that in certain conditions, where an undeveloped government apparatus is scarcely yet adequate to perform this prime function, it would be wise to confine it to it, since an additional burden would exceed its weak powers and the effect of attempting more would be that it did not even provide the indispensable conditions for the functioning of a free society. Such considerations are not relevant, however, to advanced Western societies, and have nothing to do with the aim of securing individual liberty to all, or with making the fullest use of the spontaneous ordering forces of a Great Society.
