Debunking Hayek’s Road to Serfdom: Economic Planning and “Totalitarianism” (Part 3)

Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom” is your typical “classical liberal” (or “libertarian”/”anarchist”) philosophy book, and this post does a great job of dissecting most of the usual talking points employed by Hayek (and, by extension, his various disciples).

Anti-Imperialism.org

Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

Chapter 6: Planning and the Rule of Law

As the title would suggest, Hayek begins chapter six by promoting what he refers to as the ‘Rule of Law’. While many legal and political interpretations exist of the ‘Rule of Law’, Hayek importantly draws distinction between his version of this ‘Law’ and what he calls “arbitrary government”. He goes onto provide a fairly concise explanation of what he means at the most basic level:

“Stripped of all technicalities, this means that government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand – rules which make it possible to foresee with fair certainty how the authority will use its coercive powers in given circumstances and to plan one’s individual affairs ont he basis of this knowledge.” [1] 

Essentially, what Hayek is describing is more than simply the ‘rule of law’…

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