In his treatise, The Constitution of Liberty (1960), F. A. Hayek emphasized the central role of the generality principle, as embodied in the rule of law, for the maintenance of a free society. This book extends Hayek's argument by applying the generality principle to politics. Several important policy implications emerge. There are no direct implications to suggest how much governments should do. The argument suggests strongly however, that, whatever is done politically, must be done generally rather than discriminatorily.

List of figures and tables; Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. Introduction: 1. Generality, law, and politics; Part II. Analysis: 2. Majoritarian democracy; 3. Eliminating the off-diagonals; 4. Extending the argument; 5. Generality and the political agenda; Part III. Application: 6. Generality and externality; 7. Market restriction and the generality norm; 8. The political efficiency of general taxation; 9. Deficit financing and intertemporal discrimination; 10. Generality and the supply of public services; 11. Generality and redistribution; 12. Generality without uniformity: social insurance; 13. Generality without uniformity: federalism; Part IV. Prospect: 14. The political shape of constitutional order; Endnotes; References; Index.