VALID TODAY AS IT WAS IN 1944 The following paper will explore the book, The Road to Serfdom, by F.A. Hayek. I challenge that many of Hayek’s assumptions are still valid today even though his book was written in 1944. Hayek’s assumptions regarding 1) the government’s rule of the law, 2) the concept of government-directed economic activity that includes artificial separation of economics and politics, and 3) the notion that the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful, are still true in today. Hayek was anti-central planning yet not anti-welfare state, and he was a libertarian. As a libertarian he believed that the emphasis of the government should be on individual freedom. Hayek wanted to limit government to certain basic functions such as protecting the nation against foreign enemies, protecting individuals against coercion by other individuals, and mediating disputes. Beyond those basic functions, Hayek contended that the government causes trouble. Hayek believed that Socialism, on the other hand, provided a new freedom of equality. He quotes DeTocqueville who asserted in 1848, Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. (Hayek, p. 28).Hayek followed the doctrine of freedom and liberty, of “qua man, that is, the recognition of his own views and tastes as supreme in his own sphere” (Hayek, p. 17). Any government that allows the rule of the law has the danger of becoming arbitrary according to Hayek.The rule of the law thus implies limits to the scope of legislation: it restricts it to the kind of general rules known as formal...
