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From Metternicht’s ‘Justice, Love and Peace’ to Mises’ ‘Oligarchic’ ‘Liberty’ and Russia of the Oligarchs

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Hayek: A Collaborative Biography

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Abstract

After the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler gradually worked his way towards an understanding that in ‘these elections democracy must be destroyed with the weapons of democracy.’ Hayek described his own struggle: ‘I think I was just taken in by the theoretical picture of what democracy was--that ultimately we had to put up with many miscarriages, so long as we were governed by the dominant opinion of the majority. It was only when I became clear that there is no predominant opinion of the majority, but that it’s an artefact achieved by paying off the interests of particular groups, and that this was inevitable with an omnipotent legislature, that I dared to turn against the existing conception of democracy.’ Hitler (who would shout: ‘Propaganda, propaganda, all that matters is propaganda’) referred to the ‘intellectual classes’: ‘Unfortunately we need them; otherwise we might one day, I don’t know, exterminate them or something like that. But unfortunately we need them.’ Likewise, Hayek stated that ‘what I call the intellectuals, in the sense in which I defined it before--the secondhand dealers in ideas--have to play a very important role and are very effective.’ It was ‘increasingly my concern to persuade the intellectuals in the hopes that ultimately they could be converted and transmit my ideas to the public at large. That I cannot reach the public I am fully aware. I need these intermediaries.’ While secular education promotes critical thought and the evaluation of evidence, Mises promoted subservience to his prejudices, and Hayek hoped to promote a ‘turn against the existing conception of democracy.’ This would leave ‘shaped opinion’ to ‘wealthy man of affairs’ and those that do their ‘bidding- - their secondhand dealers in opinion.’ If this failed, ‘Fascists’ were required (Mises), or a ‘dictator’ who ‘can say no’ (Hayek). This chapter examines the neo-feudal ‘spontaneous’ order—from Metternicht’s Concert of Europe to Mises’ oligarchic ‘liberty’ and beyond.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    While ‘liberty’ in both its positive and negative sense has a useful abstract quality, as a slogan it becomes ‘a snare and a delusion.’

  2. 2.

    http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/114503.

  3. 3.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Leo Rosten 15 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  4. 4.

    http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/114504.

  5. 5.

    ‘It seems to be true that it is on the whole the more active, intelligent, and original men among the intellectuals who most frequently incline toward socialism, while its opponents are often of an inferior calibre.’ Nobody ‘who is familiar with large numbers of university faculties (and from this point of view the majority of university teachers probably have to be classed as intellectuals rather than as experts) can remain oblivious to the fact that the most brilliant and successful teachers are today more likely than not to be socialists, while those who hold more conservative political views are as frequently mediocrities.’

  6. 6.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  7. 7.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  8. 8.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  9. 9.

    ‘But apart from this very troubling issue of expropriation, I think all limitations–certainly all discriminatory infringements of property rights–I object to.’ Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Bork 4 November 1978 and Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  10. 10.

    Hayek Archives. Box 34.17.

  11. 11.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Leo Rosten 15 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  12. 12.

    ‘Equality before the law, the application of the same rule to every citizen is an absolute essential foundation of liberty, but if you have equality before the law you cannot make people materially equal because people are in fact very unequal in their gifts, in their environment, in their opportunities. And if you want to make people who are very unequal in their gifts and opportunities equal, you have to treat them differently. In this sense, treating under the same rule and making people equal are absolutely in conflict. I’m all in favour of treating people under the same rule for equality under the law, but I’m all against Governmental effort of making people equal because that requires treating them differently.’

  13. 13.

    According to Leube (2003, 14) the ‘party’ was a student association: the Deutsch-Demokratische Hochschüler Vereinigung. In his interview with Skousen and North, Hayek also referred to an ‘association.’

  14. 14.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Jack High date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  15. 15.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  16. 16.

    The Queen Mother’s Private Secretary declined the offer of a complimentary copy of Hayek’s Constitution of Liberty on the grounds that the author was not ‘personally known’ to her. Hayek Archives. Box 18.26.

  17. 17.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  18. 18.

    Outside Austria, the Fourth Estate means the press.

  19. 19.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Thomas Hazlett 12 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  20. 20.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  21. 21.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  22. 22.

    http://www.greatspeeches.net/2013/05/adolf-hitler-no-more-territorial-demands.html.

  23. 23.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Leo Rosten 15 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  24. 24.

    http://www.greatspeeches.net/2013/05/adolf-hitler-no-more-territorial-demands.html.

  25. 25.

    Hayek Archives. Box 26.28.

  26. 26.

    http://www.laffercenter.com/the-laffer-center-2/.

  27. 27.

    Laffer has been ‘Distinguished’ University Professor at Pepperdine University and a member of the Pepperdine Board of Directors and the Charles B. Thornton Professor of Business Economics at the University of Southern California (1976–1984). http://www.laffercenter.com/the-laffer-center-2/.

  28. 28.

    http://www.polyconomics.com/gallery/Napkin003.jpg.

  29. 29.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-12-04/laffer-curve-napkin-doodle-launched-supply-side-economics.

  30. 30.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  31. 31.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Thomas Hazlett 12 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  32. 32.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Armen Alchian 11 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  33. 33.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Leo Rosten 15 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  34. 34.

    Allan G. B. Fisher (9 August 1975) to Roger Randerson. Hayek Archives. Box 45.5.

  35. 35.

    Arnold Plant’s widow, Edith (1 May 1978), reminded Hayek of the ‘halting beginnings of your knowledge of the English language when we first met you here.’ Hayek Archives. Box 43.31.

  36. 36.

    http://www.lfs.org/index.htm.

  37. 37.

    http://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/feb/12/guardianobituaries.usa.

  38. 38.

    http://mises.org/pdf/asc/essays/kuehneltLeddihn.pdf.

  39. 39.

    Self-interest combined with idealism: many were excluded from office by the aristocratic establishment.

  40. 40.

    As a major Hayekian fundraiser put it, in conversation with the AIEE editor.

  41. 41.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Leo Rosten 15 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  42. 42.

    Norman Cousins (1962, 174–175), the editor of the Saturday Review, to whom Hayek (Hayek Archives. Box 62.7) sent a complimentary copy of Constitution of Liberty, reported that the head of the Los Vegas civil defence agency sought to recruit a 5000 strong militia to protect local citizens from ‘the swarm’ of survival-seekers who would need to escape from a nuclear-attacked Los Angeles. Cousins also reported that a religious journal advised Christians to ‘think twice before they rashly give their family shelter space to friends or neighbours or to passing strangers.’

  43. 43.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Leo Rosten 15 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  44. 44.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  45. 45.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Bork 4 November 1978 and Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  46. 46.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  47. 47.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Bork 4 November 1978 and Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  48. 48.

    http://contemporarythinkers.org/friedrich-hayek/multimedia/interview-hayek-gary-north-part-1/.

  49. 49.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  50. 50.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Leo Rosten 15 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  51. 51.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Bork 4 November 1978 and Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  52. 52.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Leo Rosten 15 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  53. 53.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  54. 54.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Bork 4 November 1978 and Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  55. 55.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Axel Leijonhufvud date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  56. 56.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  57. 57.

    http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/117193.

  58. 58.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Leo Rosten 15 November 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  59. 59.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Jack High date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  60. 60.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  61. 61.

    Bork retorted: ‘Dr. Hayek, I think you just laid down a rule of law with that. [laughter]’ Hayek (1978a) replied: ‘Well it depends on whether you call this a rule of law. It’s a rule of organization determining what powers particular people have.’ Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Bork 4 November 1978 and Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  62. 62.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by James Buchanan 28 October 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  63. 63.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Bork 4 November 1978 and Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

  64. 64.

    Friedrich Hayek, interviewed by Robert Bork 4 November 1978 and Robert Chitester date unspecified 1978 (Centre for Oral History Research, University of California, Los Angeles, http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/).

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Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics (and Related Projects)

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Leeson, R. (2019). From Metternicht’s ‘Justice, Love and Peace’ to Mises’ ‘Oligarchic’ ‘Liberty’ and Russia of the Oligarchs. In: Hayek: A Collaborative Biography. Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78069-6_8

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