Todd on Property Rights

Progress and Property Rights

by Walker F. Todd

This work is available as a paperback and pdf from the American Institute for Economic Research.

Todd reviews the basic history of property rights from ancient to modern times, with an emphasis on English and American developments.

This reading works well for two meetings. Suggested review questions follow.

Review Questions for Todd I: Pages 1-49 (Through Chapter 5, "The Virginia Declaration of Rights.")

1. What happens to nations that fail to protect property rights and enforce contracts? (Page 1, Introduction)

2. What are the benefits of protecting private property rights? (Page 2, Introduction)

3. What is property? (Page 2, Introduction)

4. What are the broadest influences on Anglo-American property rights? (Pages 2-4, Introduction)

5. How have individual property rights been eroded? (Pages 4-6, Introduction)

6. How is property presented in the Bible and Homer? (Pages 7-9, "Property Rights in the Classical World")

7. What were views of property presented in Classical Greece, and how did those views influence America's founders? (Pages 9-11, "Persons and Liberty")

8. In what ways did the Romans advance the theory of property rights? (Pages 11-12, "The Influence of the Roman Republic")

9. What were the legal precursors of feudalism in Europe? (Pages 13-14, "The Rise of Europe")

10. What were the major reforms of the Corinthian Charter of 1101, the Magna Carta of 1215, and the Confirmation of Charters of 1297? (Pages 15-21, "Aftermath of the Norman Conquest" through "A Defining System of Land Tenure")

11. How did the English economy transform from serfdom to industry from the 14th to the 19th Centuries? (Pages 23-27, "The Birth of Modern Liberty," "Enclosures")

12. How did the concept of individual rights develop in 17th Century England? (Pages 27-30, "The First Middle-Class Constitution")

13. What was the central ideological dispute between Hobbes and Locke? (Pages 31-33, 36-41, "Thomas Hobbes," "John Locke")

14. In what ways did the English Declaration of Right (1689) influence the American Declaration of Independence? (Pages 34-36, "The English Declaration of Right" and "Bill of Rights")

15. In Locke's theory, how does an individual rightly acquire property? (Pages 37-38, "John Locke")

16. What ideas in The Independent Whig and Cato's Letters inspired the American Revolutionaries? (Pages 43-45, "Enlightenment in America")

17. What are the main differences between English land charters and the Lockean view of property rights? (Pages 45-47, "Colonial Charters and Independence")

18. What were the key provisions of the Virginia Declaration of Rights? (Pages 48-49, "The Virginia Declaration of Rights")

Review Questions for Todd II: Page 49 ("Why Constitutions Matter") to Page 98

1. How have Americans attempted to address the tension between democracy and individual liberty? (Pages 49-51, "Why Constitutions Matter")

2. How did the Declaration of Independence address property rights? (Pages 52-54, "The Declaration of Independence")

3. What is the clash between Virginia and Massachusetts regarding church and state? (Pages 54-55, "John Adams and the Massachusetts Constitution")

4. In drafting the Massachusetts constitution, how did John Adams attempt to "balance the tension between necessary governmental processes and individual liberty?" (Pages 55-56, "John Adams and the Massachusetts Constitution")

5. What were the Northwest Ordinance's major provisions regarding property rights? (Pages 57-60, "The Northwest Ordinance")

6. What were the original goals of the Constitutional Convention and what basic goals did the Convention actually achieve? (Pages 61-63, "The U.S. Constitution")

7. In the U.S. Constitution, how do the "general welfare" and "necessary and proper" clauses fit with the governmental powers allowed and forbidden by Article I, Section 8? (Pages 63-65, "The U.S. Constitution")

8. How do Articles II to IV of the U.S. Constitution protect property rights and restrain direct democracy? (Pages 65-66, "The U.S. Constitution")

9. How did James Madison, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson seek to restrain federal power in the debates over the Bill of Rights? (Pages 67-68, "The Bill of Rights")

10. How does the Bill of Rights protect property rights, and how has the Supreme Court eroded these rights? (Pages 68-71, "Property Rights Provisions in the Bill of Rights")

11. How have other Amendments to the U.S. Constitution protected property rights, and has the 14th Amendment been misapplied to corporations? (Pages 71-73, "Other Relevant Amendments")

12. What were the major American advances in ending slavery? (Pages 73-75, "Slavery and Property Rights")

13. What was the fundamental dispute between Hamilton and Jefferson regarding Constitutional interpretation? (Pages 76-78, "Reflections on the Constitution")

14. What was the inspiration for the 1791 French Declaration of the Rights of Man, and what were its contents? (Pages 80-82, "The French Revolution")

15. In what ways did Robespierre undermine property rights? (Pages 83-86, "Robespierre's Speech")

16. Is "utility" a proper measure of value either for an individual or for a society? (Pages 86-86, "Bentham and the Rise of Utilitarianism")

17. In what ways does utilitarianism clash with classical liberalism regarding property rights? (Pages 87-89, "Bentham and the Rise of Utilitarianism")

18. In what ways was corporatism a reaction to socialism, and in what ways are the two ideologies similar? (Pages 90-91, "Origins of Corporatism or Statism")

19. What is Todd's view of corporations? What corporate activity is legitimate and what is not? (Pages 91-94, 97, "Corporatism in America")

20. Given recent history, what are today's prospects for property rights? (Pages 95-98, "Regulation of Western Land Use" and "The Expansion of Modern American Corporatism")

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