“Very difficult, perhaps altogether impossible”: Smith’s political science at Econlib

“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical.”

The passage, attributed to Adam Smith posthumously by Dugald Stewart, is a popular one in some circles and not only (though certainly in part) for its appeal to low taxes. It seems to offer a comforting assurance about politics. The “natural course of things” will mean that politics will tend to work out reasonably well. Governing well is not difficult, as it mostly consists of not doing things: not going to war, not raising taxes. To the modern economists who think that they are the true intellectual heirs of WN, the implication that political science isn’t that difficult might be an added bonus.