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What do the Paradise Papers, Thomas Piketty, the Occupy movement and the Trudeau government's fiscal reform all have in common? Answer: They play on the perception that there exists an undeclared war between the classes. The talk of inequality that appears almost daily in the media is always based on an opposition between different social classes vaguely defined by their income levels. In the United States, this vision of class warfare due to inequality is also increasingly prevalent. A new book released in June accuses the American right of having a secret plan to limit the ability of governments to engage in "wealth redistribution." The author, Nancy MacLean, teaches at Duke University. She accuses economist and Nobel laureate James Buchanan of having developed public choice theory in order to sow mistrust of government action among Americans. She then accuses Charles and David Koch, the multibillionaire brothers often cited by conspiracy theorists, of having devoted funds to the dissemination of these ideas. Together, Buchanan and the Koch brothers, modern-day arch villains, apparently achieved the tremendous feat of chaining democracy, hence the title of her book: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America.

Carlo Allegri / Reuters Businessman David Koch.

We might think that Americans' appetite for conspiracy theories is well-known, as we were reminded of recently by the release of documents concerning the assassination of JFK, and that north of the 49th parallel, we are immune to such things. After all, accusing the Republicans in Congress of secretly wanting to reduce income taxes, or of clandestinely limiting government waste, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And yet, there are many intellectuals and media outlets here in Canada that harbour vague suspicions that defenders of the free market are actually serving the interests of the rich and powerful and don't really believe the things they say. Ms. MacLean attacks the theory of public choice without ever rebutting its fundamental principles. As president of the Montreal Economic Institute, I have often heard these kinds of more-or-less veiled accusations, implying that we are paid mouthpieces of X or in the pocket of Y. The funding of the MEI, a private organization, is a recurring theme among our opponents when they have no factual arguments left. This kind of criticism omits (intentionally or not?) any consideration of the relevant fundamental causal link — namely that the people who support us do so because we say what we say, not that we say what we say because these people support us. Yet this basic nuance is easy to grasp. Ms. MacLean attacks the theory of public choice without ever rebutting its fundamental principles. This theory takes as a starting point the fact that politicians and bureaucrats are not angels in the service of some common good, but simply human beings who also have their own interests at heart. All of the intellectuals, the organizations and the university centres who share the ideas of James Buchanan become suspect in the eyes of the author not because they proclaim falsehoods, but simply because they disseminate ideas that she herself abhors. She thus insinuates that there is a hidden agenda behind all this. Yet inefficient government programs and waste are very real things.

Bettmann via Getty Images Prof. James McGill Buchanan is the economist at the heart of MacLean's critique.