Planning for Serfdom: Legal Economic Discourse and Downtown Development

Robin Paul Malloy examines efforts at urban development and revitalization as prototypical examples of a monumental transformation in American law. His investigation reveals that America has rejected a belief in the marketplace, individual freedom, and autonomy, and has instead opted for an ideological commitment to concepts contrary to the rhetoric upon which this country was founded. The urban landscape and its ideological infrastructure are being corrupted by greedy special interest groups and a political system unable to avoid its own excesses.

This book is unique in its blending of legal and economic analysis. With a detailed and fresh new interpretation of Adam Smith, Malloy undertakes to challenge some of the most highly promoted urban panning devices and concludes that American law and values are in transformation. He also examines the legal and economic arrangements that have led America down this path of ideological drift and focuses on examples of urban revitalization efforts in several cities, including Indianapolis, Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Louisville.

Recommendations for change are provided. Fundamentally, however, he concludes that change must begin with the reinvigoration of individual values-values that respect individual freedom, liberty, and human dignity-values being readily displaced by the current ideological drift of American legal and economic culture.

Planning for Serfdom is an important and controversial book that will be of interest to scholars and students of law, economics, politics, and philosophy.