Hand Behind the Invisible Hand

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-NDMade famous by the Enlightenment thinker Adam Smith, the concept of an invisible hand might be taken to imply that a government that governs least governs the best, from the viewpoint of society. Here an invisible hand appears to represent unfettered market forces. Drawing from this much-contested notion, Mittermaier indicates why such a view represents only one side of the story and distinguishes between what he calls pragmatic and dogmatic free marketeers. Published posthumously, with new contributions by Daniel Klein, Rod O Donnell and Christopher Torr, this book outlines Mittermaier s main thesis and his relevance for ongoing debates within economics, politics, sociology and philosophy.