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November 14, 2005

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-CRAZED BUREAUCRACY: My colleague Ben Barton has a Harry Potter review coming out in the Michigan Law Review books issue (his email: "am I a salesman or what? Now Harry Potter is a book 'related to the law'). He argues that J.K. Rowling is a strong libertarian, and suggests that Rowling's disrespect for politicians and bureaucracy comes from her experience as a welfare recipient. Excerpt from the abstract: "The most cold-blooded public choice theorist could not present a bleaker portrait of a government captured by special interests and motivated solely by a desire to increase bureaucratic power and influence. . . . The critique is even more devastating because the governmental actors and actions in the book look and feel so authentic and familiar."

You can read a prepublication version here.