Kuvin, Herbert A.

English

University of Miami School of Law

University of Miami Law Review Volume 6 Number 3 Article 21 4-1-1952 FREE ENTERPRISE AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE. By Marshall E. Dimock. University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1951. Herbert A. Kuvin Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr Recommended Citation Herbert A. Kuvin, FREE ENTERPRISE AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE. By Marshall E. Dimock. University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1951., 6 U. Miami L. Rev. 519 (1952) Available at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol6/iss3/21 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact library@law.miami.edu. BOOK REVIEWSpossible within the scope of this book to analyze deeply the reasons for thechanging use of the due process tool. A partial explanation lies in the factthat the legislatures and the justices saw eye to eye on most matters duringthese years. Equally important is the conviction on the part of most of thejustices that the Court in these areas should not try to substitute itsjudgment for that of the legislature. As the pressure of international tensionsdrives legislatures to more incursions on the freedoms of the first amend-ment the Supreme Court will perhaps be forced to reveal which of theseexplanations is sounder. Decisions of the last few years apparently indicatethat the majority of the Court, though doubtful of the wisdom of certainideas, will find nothing in the Constitution to prevent their enactment.Two small omissions slightly impair the usefulness of this book. Theabsence of an introductory chapter summarizing the development of dueprocess in the field of economic legislation prior to 1932 handicaps thenon-specialist who is unacquainted with the judicial history of the previoushalf-century. This is only partially overcome by occasional references toseveral of the leading cases of the past. The other deficiency is the lackof a table showing the number of cases decided in each category in eachyear and whether the decision was favorable to the governmental action.Certainly the quantitative approach has its limitations but here it wouldbe a justifiable supplenent to the qualitative analysis. This reviewer foundhimself much more convinced of the early tendency toward change in theeconomic field after constructing one for himself.DR. THOMAS J. WOOD AssoCiATE PROFESSOR Or COVENMNTUmVrrrT oF MIAMFREE ENTERPRISE AND T=E ADMINISTRATIVE STATE. By Marshall E. Dimock.University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1951. Pp. 179. $2.50.The author, a teacher of political science in several of the outstandinguniversities of this country and Puerto Rico, who is also a writer of manyworth-while books on business, government, administrative agencies andpolitical enterprises, approaches the subject with a wealth of personallygained knowledge, experience and study.He approaches the subject by first establishing his interpretation of"Free Enterprise" as the system in which the predominant characteristicsare individual ownership, competition, and managerial freedom, and the"Administrative State" as the control of economy by government or bypublic administration.The book deals with a series of related problems and is divided intofive "essays" (as the author chooses to designate them) or chapters: thefree enterprise system, what it is and what causes it to change; the problemsof monopoly and antitrust laws, with the conclusion that administrativefactors will be the center of any lasting solution; consideration of theMIAMI LAW QUARTERLYfactors common to big business and big. government with particular referenceto the limits of administrative decentralization; exploration of the conceptfactors common to big business and big government with particular referenceof efficiency of bigness and the reliability of the tool for judging the results;and an attempt to project some of the findings and conclusions and seethe future for managerial freedom and the role of government.Mr. Dimock's theory is that when concentration of power occurs ineither business or government or both, it affects all institutions; that thebigger the institutions of business and government become the more theyresemble each other; and that the way to preserve free enterprise andpopular government is to decentralize - which has its problems. He findsthat individual ownership and numerous competing units are the conditionsprecedent of free enterprise; that as these conditions change there is asteady increase toward the possibility of the administrative state andsocialism coming into being.The author maintains that to strengthen free enterprise there must bemore ownership and more operators of their own businesses - whether incommerce, farming or by skilled labor. The ownership of stock in largecorporate enterprise is not such ownership as is advocated.The author believes and indicates that, basically, government is ourservant; as such it performs essential functions in the realm of internationalrelations, defense, protection of persons and property and communityservices; and that the course of the citizens should be to see to it thatgovernment is made more responsible, is more ably led in both policy andadministration, and that it undertakes less functions and concentrates onthose that are essential.Business, by development of its bigness through mergers (horizontal,vertical and conglomerate), has not only caused concentration of power,but also caused the increase of governmental administrative agencies whichattempt to cope with this situation, so that we are confronted with theinevitable spiral situation, ultimately resulting in non-democratic gov-ernment. Thus, big business, unwittingly, by its concentration of growthand increase of power, is inevitably heading us into an administrative stateor even socialism.The future lies with both business and government. Both must learnto pull together, each doing its appointed job and each staying within itsproper sphere as made by the conditions existing at the time.The book has liberal references to other authorities, and this revieweris of the opinion that it is a "must" for all who are interested in this subjectwhich is so vital to our economic and political well-being as a nation.HERBERT A. KuvuN INSTRUCTOR IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAWUrmVnsrry OF MIAMI

FREE ENTERPRISE AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE. By Marshall E. Dimock. University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1951.

https://repository.law.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4036&amp;context=umlr

FREE ENTERPRISE AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE. By Marshall E. Dimock. University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1951.

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Miami School of Law