Bastiat asserted that the only purpose of government is to defend the right of an individual to life, liberty, and property. From this definition, Bastiat concluded that the law cannot defend life, liberty and property if it promotes socialist policies inherently opposed to these very things. In this way, he says, the law is perverted and turned against the thing it is supposed to defend. In Bastiat's Essays on Political Economy, he cross-examines the political economy and presents five essays on capital and interest, causality, government, the nature of money and the law.