The Social Organization of Competition

Government, Dunoyer (1825: 323-4) wrote, “has the character of an industrial under­taking with the sole difference that, instead of performing for particular persons or asso­ciations only,... it acts on behalf of the society at large, which entrusts it to people of its choice, at a price and conditions it judges the most advantageous”, but its functions, Dunoyer specified, are so specific that “they cannot be assumed by private activity” (1845, III: 353). This thesis Molinari rejected in 1849: he defended the idea that it is in the interest of the consumers that the production of security be supplied in competitive conditions. Later, he abandoned this position and adopted the right to secession.