Alan O. Ebenstein - Government Quotes

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Although Hayek would have protested being characterized as a democratic welfare statist in The Constitution of Liberty, this is what he was. While he favored less government rather than more, government at the local level rather than national level, the provision of social welfare through private charitable organizations rather than government at any level, and the private competitive provision of government services, there was much in his work that any modern, twentieth-century liberal could support.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Both Hayek and Locke thought that this is best achieved by limiting government's potential actions and restricting these potential actions to known general rules applicable to all. Both sought a government of rules rather than commands, the latter of which, by their nature, are not known in advance and may be arbitrary—not applicable to all. Hayek's goal was the society of law.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Government creates the market and law. Law is not the negation of liberty; it is its fulfillment. Right law is not a restriction on people's liberty; it makes their freedom possible. Right law is liberty; liberty is right law.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Freedom or liberty referred originally to the state of not being a slave. Free men were not slaves. This idea of freedom had nothing to do with receiving government services or benefits, or the right to vote.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Keynes ultimately placed his hopes for good government in exceptional men. The focus in Hayek's work was rules.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Hayek's practical political thought was flawed not where he postulated too small a role for government, but where he sanctioned too great a role. In his late work, Hayek the classical liberal became Hayek the libertarian.

Alan O. Ebenstein