Name: The constitution of liberty
ISBN: 9780226320847

The constitution of liberty

"One of the great political works of our time,... the twentieth-century successor to John Stuart Mill's essay, 'On Liberty.'"--Henry Hazlitt, Newsweek "A reflective, often biting, commentary on the nature of our society and its dominant thought by one who is passionately opposed to the coercion of human beings by the arbitrary will of others, who puts liberty above welfare and is sanguine that greater welfare will thereby ensue."--Sidney Hook, New York Times Book Review In this classic work Hayek restates the ideals of freedom that he believes have guided, and must continue to guide, the growth of Western civilization. Hayek's book, first published in 1960, urges us to clarify our beliefs in today's struggle of political ideologies.

What Hacker News says

abecedariusMay 2022

OK, sorry, I take back "yay democracy".

The point remains that restrictions on even democratic government are not a novel idea in liberal politics; it goes back to the beginning of written political theory. Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty is excellent on history and background and explores some ideas on modern issues.

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andromeduckJan 2021

Same, I'd highly recommend Hayek's Road to Serfdom and Constitution of Liberty if you haven't read it already, along with Cato's letters and the the Federalist papers. It's honestly amazing and depressing how accurate they were but I suppose human nature is timeless.

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nostromoOct 2018

If you want details, you'll have to look beyond internet comments. :)

Read The Road to Serfdom and The Constitution of Liberty by Hayek for a deep discussion of liberalism.

The Wealth of Nations and Free to Choose are also great books to consider.

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dratsNov 2010

1) The Chinese are not breaking new ground and are doing a lot of catching up. I am not saying that it's as easy as following in the path of an icebreaker that has gone before, but it is easier. When the Chinese overtake the USA in GDP terms in the next few decades it will not be in per capita terms, that will take beyond our lifetimes. This is off the shelf engineering. And a lot of the high tech stuff is being done for American companies off the back of American R&D too. But the investment of the Chinese in university league tables, and then in investing heavily in research to climb up them shows they are well aware of what they need for the next stages of their development.

2) China was centrally controlled to disastrous results for a long time but from Deng Xiaoping onwards - where we see most of the growth - there have been more and more reforms both to regulation and to government. So not only are there now a lot of capitalist-like incentives and "special economic zones" as well as partnerships with companies outside of China the regional governments have been give more power to customize things to their local conditions. That's not to say the party isn't in control and there isn't massive corruption, but it's a very sophisticated system that's entirely different to the mechanisms of government and economic calculation that the Soviets employed. The recycling of sovietology is not fruitful though. Timothy Geithner being an Asia specialist is no accident. Also, there is a significant faction in the party that wants to transition to democracy (or a "Chinese version" of it), including some in the party central think tank and former generals. It's beyond me to gauge its strength other than to say it wouldn't surprise me if they won the argument and that we'd see a transition in the next three decades to something that looks like a cross between post-war South Korean/Japanese authoritarian democracy and post-communist Russian plutocratic democracy.

All that said, it must also be remembered that the USA is not purely free markets either and has had a significant portion of the economy state-funded and directed via military and space investment; to say nothing of the unique role that universities play in all western capitalist democracies that often goes under the radar of economists. That said, look at the wikipedia list of US inventions and Nobel prizes. There is much more to that incredible record than free markets, it's common law, bankruptcy law and many democratic anti-corruption techniques. Hence Hayek's "The Constitution of Liberty"[1], and Popper's "The Open Society and its Enemies"[2] which continue the reading above to the complex of arguments about the rest of the social aspects of free societies. From across the sea, this has to be the greatest problem with a certain brand of American free marketeer that turns to Mises' work, done before Hayek, and merely sees Hayek as a regurgitation. This is not the case Hayek has a much more powerful articulation of a political philosophy beyond just an economic theory. Agree or not, it's something which needs to be engaged with. I hope these qualifications and extensions help.

[1]http://www.amazon.com/Constitution-Liberty-F-Hayek/dp/022632...

[2]http://www.amazon.com/Open-Society-its-Enemies-Routledge/dp/...

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alphonsegastonApr 2017

>What? That is absurd. Maybe it could be claimed that other people who were partially inspired by Marx made modern states, but that's about all.

Go read the history of just about any left-wing politcal party in these countries, who fought for and won these social democratic concessions, and get back to me.

>Clearly you have not actually read or understood Hayek. This often gets repeated but everybody that knows anything about Hayek understands that this is false.

Chapter 17 of his "The Constitution of Liberty" is literally titled "The Decline of Socialism and the Rise of the Welfare State," and argues that the latter has replaced the former as the foremost enemy of liberty. At one point he seemed to be in favor of something like universal healthcare and basic income, but withdrew from it when he figured out that doctrinaire rightism curried more favor.

>I'm not gone address this because its so clearly false. There is a huge industry with 100000s of firms all over the world. Also I work in a small tech company who sells to other firms of very different sizes.

Let me know how many are left standing when the tech bubble pops.

>Again simply false. You can look at any indicators of economist opinions and you will see a huge majority of opposition everywhere in the world.

As you would expect living under the Pax Romana of an empire that will undo your state if you disagree with their ideology.

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fjarlqJan 2017

Website overloaded... here's a cache.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps...

"What books would be entering the public domain if we had the pre-1978 copyright laws?"

  Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
  John Updike, Rabbit, Run
  Joy Adamson, Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds
  William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
  Friedrich A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty
  Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties
  Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Politics of Upheaval: The Age of Roosevelt
  Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
  Scott O’Dell, Island of the Blue Dolphins
  John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor
  Jean-Paul Sartre, Critique de la raison dialectique

"Consider the films and television shows from 1960 that would have become available this year."

  The Time Machine
  Psycho
  Spartacus
  Exodus
  The Apartment
  Inherit the Wind
  The Magnificent Seven
  Ocean’s 11
  The Alamo
  The Andy Griffith Show (first episodes)
  The Flintstones (first episodes)

Also listed: songs from 1960 (e.g. Elvis's "It's Now or Never"), and copyrighted scientific research from 1960 still behind paywalls (e.g. 1960 papers on the structure of hemoglobin and myoglobin).

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