ingale, and Albert Schweitzer; no one of these opened new fron-
tiers in human knowledge and understanding, in literature, in
technical possibilities, or in the relief of human misery in re-
sponse to governmental directives. Their achievements were the
product of individual genius, of strongly held minority views, of
a social climate permitting variety and diversity.

Government can never duplicate the variety and diversity of
individual action. At any moment in time, by imposing uniform
standards in housing, or nutrition, or clothing, government
could undoubtedly improve the level of living of many individ-
uals; by imposing uniform standards in schooling, road con-
struction, or sanitation, central government could undoubtedly
improve the level of performance in many local areas and per-
haps even on the average of all communities. But in the proc-
ess, government would replace progress by stagnation, it would
substitute uniform mediocrity for the variety essential for that
experimentation which can bring tomorrow's laggards above
today's mean.

This book discusses some of these great issues. Its major theme
is the role of competitive capitalism -- the organization of the
bulk of economic activity through private enterprise operating
in a free market -- as a system of economic freedom and a neces-
sary condition for political freedom. Its minor theme is the
role that government should play in a society dedicated to free-
dom and relying primarily on the market to organize economic
activity.

The first two chapters deal with these issues on an abstract
level, in terms of principles rather than concrete application.
The later chapters apply these principles to a variety of particu-
lar problems.

An abstract statement can conceivably be complete and ex-
haustive, though this ideal is certainly far from realized in the
two chapters that follow. The application of the principles can-
not even conceivably be exhaustive. Each day brings new prob-
lems and new circumstances. That is why the role of the state
can never be spelled out once and for all in terms of specific
functions. It is also why we need from time to time to re-examine

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