The road to bondage

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The road to bondage is the work of Friedrich August von Hayek , recipient of the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics . It marks the beginning of his struggle with socialism . The book was written between 1940 and 1943 and was published in England in 1944 under the title The Road to Serfdom. A German translation was published in 1945, but in 1947 the book was also banned in the West because of its anti-Soviet stance. A new edition was published in 2009. It is next to The Constitution of Liberty (The Constitution of Liberty) as one of the major works of Hayek.

content

Hayek warns of the danger of tyranny that inevitably results from the control of economic decision-making processes through central planning of the government, and advocates the thesis that the abandonment of classical liberalism and individualism inevitably leads to the loss of freedom, to the creation of a repressive society, to tyranny Dictator and lead to serfdom of the individual.

He doubts the notion popular among British scholars that fascism was a capitalist reaction against socialism . Hayek, on the other hand, sees a common root behind fascism and socialism in central economic planning and in the power of the state over the individual. In this sense, the text appears as a continuation of the analyzes of socialism by the Austrian School , which Ludwig von Mises had published in his work Die Gemeinwirtschaft, investigations on socialism in 1922.

The road to bondage corresponds in many ways to the ideas of Hannah Arendt's later study Elements and Origins of Total Domination (1951). Hayek postulates that freedom and the rule of law can only thrive in a market economy.

"Unfortunately, it is completely unfounded for people to be lulled into security by the belief that control of the economic sector is only of secondary importance, a belief that allows them to take the threat to our economic freedom lightly."

The planned economy and total domination are mutually dependent, because a planned economy includes domination over consumption, which means the incapacitation of the consumer and the elimination of consumer democracy in the market economy.

“Our freedom of movement in a competitive society stands or falls with the fact that when one person refuses to satisfy our desires, we can turn to another. But if we are dealing with the owner of a monopoly, we are at the mercy of him and a planned economy that controls the entire economy would be the most powerful monopoly imaginable. "

reception

  • The period of October 10, 1946, wrote in their review of the book that von Hayek viewed socialism and fascism as failed ideologies because of their planned economy and that private property was important as a guarantee of freedom.
  • The economist Michael Wohlgemuth reviewed the book on Deutschlandradio Kultur . He sees Hayek's warning in the book that not only fascism and socialism, but also the Western welfare state pose dangers to freedom. However, he emphasizes that it is a common mistake that Hayek advocates the "anarchy of a 'laissez-faire'". In this publication, Hayek shows himself to be an ordoliberal advocate of a competitive system in which the state controls the market economy rules. Social security systems also have a place in his mind.

expenditure

  • The Road to Serfdom. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1944.
  • The road to bondage. Eugen Rentsch, Erlenbach-Zurich 1945.
  • The road to bondage. Olzog, Munich 2009.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ - Admonitions from a Liberal . In: Deutschlandradio Kultur . ( deutschlandradiokultur.de [accessed on February 27, 2017]).
  2. ↑ a b The time of October 10, 1946
  3. ↑ Hayek Prize Winners / Lectures ( Memento of the original from December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Manhattan Institute for Policy Research  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.manhattan-institute.org
  4. ^ Friedrich A. v. Hayek, The Path to Servitude, Munich 2011, Forewords by Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt and Dr. Otto Graf Lambsdorff, p. 120.
  5. ^ Friedrich A. v. Hayek, The Path to Servitude, Munich 2011, Forewords by Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt and Dr. Otto Graf Lambsdorff, p. 125.
  6. ↑ Admonitions of a Liberal, Friedrich August von Hayek: "The way to servitude" Michael Wohlgemuth on Deutschlandradio Kultur in June 2010
  7. ↑ Review by FA Hayek: "The way to bondage". In: Die Zeit , October 10, 1946.
  8. ↑ Review Michael Wohlgemuth : Admonitions of a Liberal. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur , July 11, 2010.