Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3147901 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Give Me Liberty . . . or Give Me Bureaucracy!
Many Americans do not realize that there have been unprecedented inroads into long-established civil liberties in the last 20 years in the United States. The sources of these injustices have been a combination of an irritated electorate, an unchecked Congress siding with a more powerful Executive branch, aggressive use of new theories of prosecution, 'show trials' to appease voters,and the corrupting influence of money and power. Basically, what can happen is that when the whole society agrees that enough is enough, we can cede too much power to the authorities who pursue these forms of deviant behavior. The war against drugs has become a model of that potential for abuse.

The Tyranny of Good Intentions is good at noticing these issues, but does an inadequate job of being convincing about the degree and seriousness of the threat. A second weakness is that the book looks at the problem too much from the legal perspective and not enough from the political one. Perhaps the authors should have added someone to their team whose expertise is in the area of political analysis. Basically, this book is designed to preach to the choir, the converted, but will not scare most of those who are very concerned about the problems of drug dealing, income tax evasion, white collar crime, and environmental pollution. The main reason is that the case histories here are a bit too truncated, and the discussions of the cases would have been more convincing if they were more balanced. The points of view of the prosecutors, legislators, and law enforcement officials who are accused by the authors of overreaching are seldom displayed. I graded the book down two stars for these shortcomings. Despite that, I do encourage you to read the book, because you will benefit from the warnings here.

The structure of the book is built around providing the reader with a background on English civil liberties, and their bases in legal history. Next, the authors show the overwhelming power of the state versus the individual in the show trial of Bukharin during the Stalinist regime in the USSR. You will later get some eerie echoes from that show trial in hearing about the prosecutions of someU.S. citizens and corporations. Then a series of chapters look at specific examples where traditional civil liberties have been lost. You will also hear a lot about the theory of utilitarianism (the greatest good for the greatest number should outweigh the rights ofthe few) that Jeremy Bentham expounded, and how that kind of thinking is being employed today.

As an attorney, I found myselfdisagreeing with the authors on many of the cases cited as examples of citizen abuse. For example, I see no fault in the prosecution of Microsoft on antitrust charges. But I also found myself agreeing with the authors on many others. Clearly to me, Exxon, Charles Keating, and Michael Milken did not get their just due from the prosecutorial processes. Public opinion weighed too much in the balance in thesecases. The Leona Helmsley case is also a cautionary tale that one should avoid becoming unpopular. That unpopularity can make anindividual an irresistible target for prosecution, and the results can be overwhelming for the individual.

The proposed solution will surprise you. "Our constitutional system and its precepts havelost the allegiance of the American elites . . . . Without an intellectual rebirth, a revival of constutionalism, there is no hope for American." The authors despair of Congress reasserting its traditional role or of promoting constitutional values until this happens. If correct, that is a sad state of affairs.

I suspectthat the problem is not that severe. Greater publicity about losses of civil liberties can probably turn the tide faster and in a more fundamental way. The cases of the mighty in the book will move some, but the cases of the meek who are crushed will move all. One of the most pernicious legal abuses now are the laws related to drugs. Ifyou are suspected of having aided in drug trafficking, your goods are forfeit. This is true even if you are later found to be innocent of any wrong doing. Only the most wealthy can afford to fight these seizures successfully, and they do not always succeed.

Let me give you an example of what a threat this is. This law has been used to seize cash from people who are reluctant to use banks, as well as people who happened to be holding a single piece of paper currency that had come into contact with cocaine. The latter application is quite a problem for many people, because a significant percentage of used fifty and hundred dollar bills have been handled by those who either sell or buy cocaine. The residue stays with the bills for some time from contact with someone's hand, or from rolling the bill and using it as a "snorting" device. So you could end up having your cash and your car seized because you happened to unknowingly have such a tainted bill in your pocket or purse. I hope someone else will write a much better book on this subject. For although this book is flawed, the problems described here are real.

After you finishreading this book, let me encourage you to read and listen to newsaccounts differently. Ask yourself if use of legal power has provided for fairness for the defendant of the sort that you would like to have for yourself and your family. If it does not, write your newspaper,your congressperson, your senator, and anyone else you can think ofwho is influential. Also consider joining organizations that support civil liberties of a traditional sort. If we all speak up, a consensus against these abuses will be formed, and the abuses will recede.