Contesting Democracy by Jan-Werner Müller

Author:Jan-Werner Müller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-300113211
Publisher: Yale University Press

While he was trying to say nice things about socialism, Hayek could not help pointing out that it was plagued by a crucial moral problem: a central authority could never just benevolently distribute goods; it would have to make choices about priorities and values and thus ultimately need to impose one vision of the good life on society, rather than allowing citizens to co-ordinate their activities spontaneously. In short, there could be no such thing as a non-totalitarian socialism.

Hayek insisted that he was no anarchist, but that states should simply establish a framework of general and predictable laws – at times going so far as calling for a uniform minimum income for all citizens. Keynes would take him to task for the apparent indeterminacy of where general laws ended and arbitrary state intervention started:

you agree that the line has to be drawn somewhere, and the logical extreme is not possible. But you give us no guidance whatever as to where to draw it. It is true that you and I would probably draw it in different places. I should guess that according to my ideas you greatly underestimate the practicability of the middle course. But as soon as you admit that the extreme is not possible, and that a line has to be drawn, you are, on your own argument, done for, since you are trying to persuade us that so soon as one moves an inch in the planned direction you are necessarily launched on the slippery path which will lead you in due course over the precipice.82

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.