Among the new arrangements that feeble mortals are invited to make trial of, there is one that is presented to us in terms worthy of attention. Its formula is: Association voluntary and progressive.
But political economy is founded exactly on the datum that society is nothing else than association (such as the above three words describe it) — association, very imperfect at first, because man is imperfect; but improving as man improves, that is to say, progressive.
Frédéric Bastiat, “Natural and Artificial Organizations (Journal des Economistes, January 1848), and later in Harmonies of Political Economy, book 1, chapter 1 (1850).
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Frédéric Bastiat
