The Political Economy of Civil Society

Hegel and Henry George both addressed the subject of political economy in their respective works, the Philosophy of Right and Progress and Poverty, and the problem of poverty significantly influenced each author's account thereof. Hegel was unable to determine a means by which to confront both the physical deprivation and the social alienation that accompany poverty in Civil Society, while maintaining the freedom necessary for its rational development. George sought to articulate a potential remedy to the problem he framed as follows: how is it that poverty increases despite a steady increase in production, and how might it be possible to systemically rectify this social conundrum? The following argues that George's single tax policy embodies the necessary remedial conditions required to alleviate both the physical deprivation and social alienation intrinsic to the poverty that Hegel viewed as a bi-product of modern industrialized economies. It will also be proposed that the reality George defined as the problem of individual life, understood as particularity in Hegel's Civil Society, prevented his remedy from being implemented.