Hayek’s political solution resembled Schmitt’s total state despite his liberal self-image

Evidence

One can therefore only second the verdict of Cristi that, “In truth, Hayek owed much to Schmitt, more than he cared to recognize” (1998, 23). For Hayek and the neoliberals, the Führer was replaced by the figure of the entrepreneur, the embodiment of the will-to-power for the community, who must be permitted to act without being brought to rational account. While Hayek probably believed that he was personally defending liberalism from Schmitt’s withering critique, his own political solution ended up resembling Schmitt’s “total state” far more than he cared to admit. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2146

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader historiography of liberalism’s debt to Schmitt that runs through critiques of the Mont Pèlerin project. — connects to: Neoliberals reframed Schmitt’s critique as a positive blueprint for world order. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 51; Hayekian theory lacked a theory of constitutional founding; Schmitt supplied the moment of decision. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 706; Neoliberalism’s double-truth doctrine originated in Hayek’s covert borrowing from Schmitt — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 239 (+6 more)
• SEED: Essay angle: the intellectual genealogy linking totalitarian thought (Schmitt) to postwar liberal economics through shared hostility to democratic sovereignty.

Broader Connections

• Hayek preferred a liberal dictator over a democracy that impinges on markets #exemplifies (0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 363
• Hayek publicly defended self-limiting dictatorships as possibly more liberal than unrestrained democracy #exemplifies (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2151
• Carl Schmitt had anticipated Hayek’s liberal-competition argument decades earlier #complicates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2163
• Hayek held liberalism adaptive, maximizing spontaneity and minimizing coercion #complicates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 565