A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism: Economics, Politics, and Ethics (Ludwig Von Mises Institute's Studies in Austrian Economics)

Hoppe gives a careful definition of what he means by the terms ''capitalism'' and ''socialism'' and then proceeds to analyze many variants, including Russian-style Socialism, Social Democracy, Conservatism, and piecemeal Social Engineering. He also explores the provision of so-called ''public goods'' (i.e., national defense, justice, security), and the problems of monopolies in capitalist nations. "The following study on the economics, politics and morals of socialism and capitalism is a systematic treatise on political theory. Interdisciplinary in scope, it will discuss the central problems of political economy and political philosophy: how to organize society so as to promote the production of wealth and eradicate poverty, and how to arrange it so as to make it a just social order. [...] the major goals of this treatise to develop and explain the conceptual and argumentative tools, economic and moral, needed to analyze and evaluate any kind of empirical social or political system, to understand or appraise any process of social change, and to explain or interpret similarities as well as differences in the social structure of any two or more different societies." --[page 1]