Modern government has grown out of all proportion, becoming a serious threat to life, liberty, property, and the public interest. Establishing a basis for this claim in an intellectual climate that sees the state as a benign force tasked with intervening in every manner of personal, social, and economic crisis, Professor Ratnapala goes back to basics. Drawing on political thinkers including Madison, Locke, Hume, Rothbard, Nozick, and von Mises, he expounds a vision of the ideal liberal state.