Information, Knowledge and the Close of Friedrich Hayek's System: A Comment

Elias Khalil's "Information, Knowledge and the Close of Friedrich Hayek's System," argues that an internal contradiction exists within Hayek's political economy relating to his use of information and knowledge. As a result, Khalil argues that neither Hayek's critique of planning nor his defense of liberalism are coherent. To the contrary, this paper argues that Khalil has misread Hayek's work in economics and political economy and that once Hayek's work is placed in its appropriate context no internal contradiction exists. Furthermore, this paper argues that Hayek's economics and political economy are grounded in his recognition of the cognitive imperfections of man and thus Hayek represents an approach to political economy which seeks to identify "robust" institutions as opposed to ideal institutions.Information; Knowledge; Friedrich Hayek

Lessons on Economics and Political Economy from the Soviet Tragedy

This paper explores the economics and politics of the tragic Soviet experiment with socialism. Beginning with the period of “War Communism” between 1917 and 1921, the Soviet government’s attempt to implement socialism failed to achieve its stated objectives, namely to create social harmony, eliminate class struggle, and to unleash advanced material production. It attempted to achieve these ends by abolishing private property and market prices in the means of production, eliminating the incentives and information necessary to guide production in an efficient manner. The unintended political and economic results were disastrous, leading to tyranny, famine, and oppression. Failing to achieve its stated objectives, after 1921 the Soviet Communist regime continued to survive only by changing the meaning of socialism. De jure socialism in the Soviet Union continued to mean the abolition of private property and market competition of the means of production. However, de facto, this meant the monetization of political control over resources, via black market exchange, in a shortage economy, and competition for leadership in the Communist Party to control such resources. As a result, the Soviet political system failed to achieve the ideals of socialism on its own terms, not only because central planning eliminated the institutional conditions necessary to allocate resources productively, but also because central planning created the institutional conditions by which the worst men, those most able and willing to exercise force in a totalitarian environment, got to the top of the political hierarchy

Uma Retrospectiva sobre O Caminho da Servidão de Hayek:: A Falha de Governo no Debate Contra o Socialismo

This paper argues that F. A. Hayek’s argument in the book The Road to Serfdom was as much a demonstration of the limits of democracy as well as it was an examination of the foibles of socialism. Yet, this aspect of Hayek’s book is often ignored within the contemporary Public Choice literature. This paper makes the case that Hayek, along with the scholars more frequently recognized in the literature, should be considered a founder of the economic analysis of politics.O presente artigo afirma que o argumento de F. A. Hayek no livro O Caminho da Servidão, além de uma demonstração dos limites da democracia, foi também um exame das deficiências do socialismo. No entanto, esse aspecto específico do livro de Hayek é comumente ignorado na literatura contemporânea da Escolha Pública. Este artigo defende a posição de que Hayek, juntamente com os acadêmicos reconhecidos mais frequentemente pela literatura, deva ser considerado um fundador da análise econômica da política

Hayek's The Road to Serfdom Revisited: Government Failure in the Argument against Socialism

Karl Marx perhaps the most astute student of economic doctrine, once made the famous and apposite observation that in substantial passages of "The Wealth of Nations" Adam Smith "was very copiously infected with the conceptions of the Physiocrats." In parallel fashion this paper agues that in substantial portions of "The General Theory," J. M. Keynes was a mere Gesellist, particularly but not uniquely, in his expressions of political philosophy vis-a-vis the relationship between state and economy.