Roger Scruton tackles that question near the end of the book Liberty and Civilization: The Western Heritage, which collects essays on liberty-related themes that originally appeared in The American Spectator.

If there is any feature of Western political systems that distinguishes them from their rivals in the modern world it is this — that they are designed not just to govern people, but also to guarantee their sovereignty. Individuals in Western states are sovereign over their own households; they enjoy consumer sovereignty through the market and political sovereignty through elections. They are sovereign in their projects and careers, in that neither the state nor their fellow citizens can compel them in a favored direction. They have a right to life, limb, and property, and these rights are secure against the state, subject to principles of good behavior enshrined in the criminal law, and recognized by all, or almost all, as valid. …

… Seeing things that way, we will surely agree with Paul Johnson’s recognition of private property as a cornerstone of liberty. A property right is a fragment of individual sovereignty: it says that the use, exploitation, or consumption of a certain thing can take place only with the consent of the individual owner, whose interest will be protected by the law. As Johnson points out, private ownership of land was one of the factors that forced the kings of England to grant liberties to their subjects. And it is the lack of private ownership that left the victims of communism unprotected against the communist party and its members. Likewise, the invasion of property rights by the unscrupulous use of “eminent domain” is a growing threat to liberty in America. Private property enables us to close a door on our oppressors and open it to our friends. It enables us to deal freely in good and strike bargains for our needs. The free market is a natural extension of private property, and as we have seen in the dire history of 20th-century Europe, the abolition of the market economy went everywhere hand in hand with the oppression of the individual and his subjection to the state.

It’s no wonder that Daren Bakst gets so excited about eminent domain abuse.