From Aristocracy to Monarchy to Democracy

A Tale of Moral and Economic Folly and Decay

By: Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Narrated by: Millian Quinteros

Length: 1 hr and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

In this tour de force essay, Hans-Hermann Hoppe turns the standard account of historical governmental progress on its head. While the state is an evil in all its forms, monarchy is, in many ways, far less pernicious than democracy. Hoppe shows the evolution of government away from aristocracy, through monarchy, and toward the corruption and irresponsibility of democracy to have been identical with the growth of the leviathan state. There is hope for liberty, as Hoppe explains, but it lies not in reversing these steps, but rather through secession and decentralization. This pocket-sized, eye-opening pamphlet is ideal for tabling, conferences, or sharing with friends. It can revolutionize the way a listener sees society and the state.

©2016 Ludwig von Mises Institute (P)2016 Ludwig von Mises Institute

Eye opening!

An excellent summary of Hoppe's political theory that I was initially introduced to in his book 'Democracy: the God that Failed'.

good narration unique ideas

hoppe has a refreshing and specific view of the history of government, worth checking out

Great simle explanation of democracy

and how it is used against the rights of people, mostly the middle-class. Not long, no unaissisairy fluff

An eye opener

This book should be read by all. A masterpiece on freedom. It's amazing how people have been and continue to be fooled by governments.

Libertarian theory in one hour

I thought this was brilliantly summarized and explained. It feels like the author really has understood human behavior and incentives.

Solid logic from terrible premises.

Hoppe is restricted to two fundamental premises:

1) he makes the error of interpreting all human action as inherently economic, and sees the rise of both Aristocracy and Monarchy as attempts to solidify economic power, exclusively.

2) he relies heavily on the idea of universal and abstract principles, which are one of the primary criticisms of Alistair's book. In some real sense, one cannot divorce Morals, Economics, or Virtue from the tradition from which they were identified and exposited. For instance, when Kant tried to do this with his Universal Maxim of Goodwill, he simply reinterpreted Protestant Theology into a secular Theory of Ethics. To Hoppe, economic theory IS ethical theory, and the universal law is property ownership. The traditions through which people actually live and conduct themselves dont exist outside of economic fictions spun by the elites to swindle the Yeoman into servitude.


Hoppe's "optimism" is then that decentralization will happen to such a degree that any kind of economic "tyranny" would be either simply impracticable or so undesirable that it couldn't feasibly happen. Not only does this discount human motivations and environments playing a role in such things, but the fact that humans focus on narrative more than brute facts makes both his synopsis of history and his prognostications highly suspect.

Governmental power has been established in a number of ways, but previously it had more to do with the symbol the leadership represented and how well they did so. This alone can disprove Hoppe's claims, in my view.