İnstitute of Graduate Studies - lisansustu@gelisim.edu.tr

Economics And Finance (Master) (Non Thesis)








 Private Property




Theoretical and legal ownership of resources, as well as how they can be used, are defined by property rights. Individuals, businesses, and governments can all hold these resources, which might be tangible or intangible. Individuals commonly exercise private property rights, or the rights of private persons, to amass, keep, delegate, rent, or sell their property in many countries. Therefore, property rights are the foundation for all market transactions in economics, and how property rights are distributed in a society influences resource efficiency.

After the agricultural revolution, humankind began to live and settled in complex towns. The new socio-economic order brought with it the need for new rules, and property rights were at the forefront of these rules. Nevertheless, in some of the former states, rulers had limited the right to private property. Today, in most modern states, private property is an extremely important right of a person except in some states which have communist or other anti-private property ideologies.

The fact that private property is seen as a natural right is not ancient. Whether the private property is a natural right is a matter of controversy over the years, but it is seen that all welfare states preserve private property rights. According to Daron Acemoğlu, for a state to become a welfare state, it requires inclusive institutions, guaranteed private ownership, and an impartial legal system. At the same time, these inclusive institutions should be under the control of a limited and widely dispersed political force. Locke - one of the first philosophers to express their views on property rights- argued that property is the source of power, and as a result, the state “cannot have any other purpose other than the protection of property”.

In my opinion, Hobbes's discourse of "homo homini lupus" remains valid today. Therefore, to protect private property rights, people need to be in mutual trust with each other. States should ensure the equality of all citizens before the constitution and Citizens must trust the state over the state's rights protection. Inclusive institutions should control law enforcement agencies and inclusive institutions should be controlled by limited political power, as Acemoğlu said