Books
Every year, the Cato Institute publishes at least a dozen books that meet the highest standards of scholarship, are accessible to a broad readership, and explore policy alternatives consistent with the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. The titles listed below, as many others, may be purchased from our store.
Featured Titles
How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution
Cato adjunct scholar Richard Epstein, one of the nation's
leading legal scholars, takes a look at constitutional history in his new book,
How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution.
Epstein explores the fundamental shift in political and economic thought the Progressive Era brought
about and how the Supreme Court in the early decades of the 20th century, invoking those ideas,
undermined the Constitution.
Downsizing the Federal Government
In Downsizing the Federal Government Cato Institute budget expert Chris Edwards provides policymakers with solutions to the growing federal budget mess. Edwards identifies more than 100 federal programs that should be terminated, transferred to the states, or privatized in order to balance the budget and save hundreds of billions of dollars.
Healthy Competition: What's Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It
Michael F. Cannon, Cato's director of health policy studies, and Michael D. Tanner, Cato's director of health and welfare studies, explain how market competition makes products of ever-increasing quality available to an ever-increasing number of consumers. They demonstrate how market competition can do the same for medical care and health insurance. The authors even show how encouraging competition can lower the cost of public health programs and improve government regulation of health care.
Cowboy Capitalism
NOW IN PAPERBACK!
German reporter Olaf Gersemann revisits common misperceptions of the American economy and demonstrates how misleading they are. He exposes the nonsensical myths that too many Europeans believe about the American economy, a solid rebuttal to the likes of Paul Krugman and Michael Moore, who would have us believe that our economy is in dire straits.
Water for Sale
More than a billion people worldwide lack access to clean, safe water. Some 12 million people die annually as a result, and millions more are struck by diseases associated with the lack of sanitary water. Those afflicted live mainly in poor countries where water distribution is run by inefficient public providers. Water for Sale presents compelling evidence that moving the control of water distribution into the hands of private enterprises will enable more people to have access to clean and safe water.
What America Can Learn from School Choice in Other Countries
Editors David Salisbury and James Tooley present evidence that consumer choice educational systems in countries around the world produce better results than the current bureaucratic system in the United States. What America Can Learn from School Choice in Other Countries is essential reading for anyone who recognizes the need for change in America's educational system.
Cato Handbook on Policy
Now in its sixth edition, the Cato Handbook on Policy sets the standard in Washington for real cuts in federal spending, taxes, and power. Breathtaking in scope, the 69 chapters offer an issue-by-issue blueprint for reducing the federal government to the limits intended by the Founding Fathers. Cato’s Handbook is an invaluable resource for policymakers and anyone else interested in securing liberty through limited government.
The Republican Revolution 10 Years Later: Smaller Government or Business as Usual
In their 1994 Contract with America, Republicans promised to end “government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money.” In this collection, Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, the primary architects of the 1994 takeover, and 14 policy experts assess the Republican record in major policy areas. Did the reform spirit of 1994 create a lasting change, or fall victim to the special interests of those in power?
Recent Publications
Go Directly to Jail
With thousands of federal offenses and regulations on the books, it is now frighteningly easy for American citizens to be hauled off to jail for actions that no reasonable person would regard as crimes. Go Directly to Jail examines America's ever more centralized and punitive criminal justice system and proposes reforms that could rein in a criminal justice apparatus at war with fairness and common sense.
Shakedown
In Shakedown, Robert A. Levy uncovers the worst abuses of a judicial system run amok, and offers concrete proposals to fix the problems. Baseless lawsuits encourage the notion that individuals can engage in risky behavior, and force someone else to pay for their mistakes. Antitrust laws have been co-opted by frustrated competitors who curry favor with bureaucrats, and are now a subsidy used to promote the interests of politically favored companies.
Meltdown
Climatologist Patrick J. Michaels argues that scientists, politicians, and the media too often exaggerate their claims about the environment, especially with regard to global warming. He documents hundreds of exaggerations, misstatements, and errors that have appeared in major peer-reviewed scientific journals and media outlets, and explains why the gap between perception and reality persists.
Exiting Iraq
A special task force of scholars and policy experts examines the continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq and calls into question the Bush administration's intention to "stay as long as necessary." They argue that the presence of troops in Iraq distracts attention from fighting Al Qaeda and incites a new class of terrorists to take up arms against the United States. In this report, they chart a path for a prompt withdrawal. The task force's findings are essential reading for anyone concerned with the ongoing conflict and the war on terrorism.
Social Security and Its Discontents
Social Security is facing pressures that threaten future retirement benefits for today's young workers. In Social Security and Its Discontents, Milton Friedman, June O'Neill, and other leading experts examine the fatal problems of the current system and offer concrete proposals for reform. This authoritative collection is part of Cato's Project on Social Security Choice.
You Can't Say That!
George Mason University law professor David E. Bernstein takes on a similar menace in You Can't Say That!: The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws. This excellent book demonstrates that, in case after case, "activists" for one cause or another have shown a willingness to trample on the rights of others. In the name of weeding out bigotry and male chauvinism, political conservatives are silenced by campus speech codes at public universities; in the name of tolerance, religious landlords are forced to accept tenants of whom they disapprove morally; in the name of defeating homophobia, the New Jersey supreme court tried to make itself the final arbiter of who should and should not be admitted to the Boy Scouts."
--National Review
Cato Supreme Court Review: 2003-2004
The Cato Supreme Court Review is an annual critique of the Court's most important decisions from the term just ended, plus an incisive look at the cases ahead. In a collection of essays by scholars, lawyers, and Supreme Court litigators, it examines the Court's decisions and its upcoming cases in light of the nation's first principles -- liberty and limited government -- as articulated in the Declaration of Independence and secured by the Constitution. Purchase the book at the Cato online store.