Arise Sir Simon!

Simon Heffer's got a nice piece out today. It provides me with an opportunity to trot out my standard line on what the State should and should not try to do.

1) There are things that only the State can do, that require that they be done both collectively and using the monopoly of legal violence and compulsion which we grant to the State.

2) There are things which need to be done collectively, but do not need such compulsion, they can be done voluntarily.

3) There are things which do not need to be done collectively.

The State must indeed do all of the things which are in number 1, things like a criminal justice system, defence.

The State should not do those in 2), for they will be better done without it: lifeboats perhaps. Note that this class contains a large number of things which are thought of as public goods, but that doesn't mean that they have to be provided publically.

The State shouldn't go anywhere near those things which do not need to be done collectively: like, say, staying or not staying off drugs.

In this framework politics becomes an argument over which things fit into class 1: and Heffer's argument, as it would be mine, is that this is a pretty small class. They're essential things to do, but there aren't that many of them.