P.T. Bauer argued egalitarian redistribution would inevitably spread totalitarian government.

Evidence

From this perspective, political intervention that sought to restrain or compensate for the results of the market would lead to coercion and conflict. Echoing this perspective, Bauer argued that, if successful, Third World demands for ‘wealth transfers’ would result in ‘the spread of totalitarian government and a further erosion of the position of the West’. These results would be greatly exacerbated if international redistribution was combined with egalitarian domestic measures, as equality could only be achieved through ‘an immense extension of the use of the coercive power of governments over individuals’ in order to homogenise the diversity of existing nations and individuals. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 435

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is this a defensible causal claim or a rhetorical conflation between redistributive policy and totalitarian coercion? Worth interrogating for the market-ethics debate.
• XREF: connects to: Peter Bauer reframed development economics to prioritize markets over security concerns — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1334; MPS revisionism shaped Bauer’s denial that Western colonialism caused Third World poverty. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1308

Broader Connections

• Peter Bauer reframed development economics to prioritize markets over security concerns #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1334
• MPS revisionism shaped Bauer’s denial that Western colonialism caused Third World poverty. #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1308