The Road to Serfdom

Summary

The Road to Serfdom is a short book by the Austrian-born economist F. A. Hayek, written in London during the Second World War and published by Routledge in March 1944 and by the University of Chicago Press that September. Hayek dedicated it to the socialists of all parties. His claim was that many in Britain and America who sincerely wanted freedom and prosperity were embracing central economic planning, and that comprehensive planning would, step by step and against the intentions of its supporters, lead to the kind of tyranny the Allies were fighting. The opening chapters describe the abandonment of the liberal tradition of the nineteenth century and the hope, shared by socialists of many kinds, that planning would bring both security and a new freedom. Hayek distinguishes two meanings of planning: the state may set general rules within which individuals plan for themselves, or it may direct the economy toward chosen ends. He supports the first, including rules on working hours, sanitation and dangerous substances, and opposes the second. In a modern economy, he argues, no central authority can gather the scattered knowledge needed to direct production, and no democratic assembly can agree on a single scale of values to rank every need. Planners will then demand powers to act without waiting for agreement. Chapter 6 contrasts the rule of law, in which government is bound by general rules known in advance so that people can foresee how coercion will be used, with discretionary rule by officials who must constantly decide whose needs count. Chapter 7 argues that control of economic life is control of the means to all our ends. Chapter 9 accepts that a society can secure everyone a minimum of food, shelter and clothing, and social insurance against sickness and accident, while warning against guarantees of a particular income or position. In Chapter 10, Why the Worst Get on Top, he argues that a planning regime rewards those willing to use coercion without scruple, and in Chapter 11 that it must enlist propaganda and bend science and language to its aims. Chapters 12 and 13 trace the socialist strands in German thought before Hitler and warn that similar ideas were spreading in Britain. The last chapters ask how material ends relate to moral ones and propose an international order of federated, rule-bound states rather than international economic planning. The book sold widely, especially after a Reader's Digest condensation in April 1945, and was answered at once by critics such as Herman Finer and Barbara Wootton. It remains in print in a definitive edition edited by Bruce Caldwell (2007). The library holds no text; the work is under copyright.

Top Lessons

• General rules versus particular commands

  Hayek's key distinction is between a government that lays down general rules known in advance and one that directs particular people toward particular goals. The first lets individuals use their own knowledge and plan their lives; the second requires officials to decide case by case. He calls the first the rule of law.

• Knowledge is scattered among many people

  No central planner can know all the local circumstances of millions of producers and consumers. Prices and competition, Hayek argues, coordinate this dispersed knowledge without anyone having to grasp the whole. This idea, developed further in his 1945 essay The Use of Knowledge in Society, underlies his doubt about central direction.

• Means and ends cannot be separated

  Hayek argues that economic control is not control of a separate, lesser part of life. Whoever controls the means of satisfying our needs also decides which needs are met. He answers those who said they wanted planning only of material things.

• Good intentions and unintended results

  Hayek does not accuse his opponents of wanting tyranny. He argues that the logic of comprehensive planning would pull even well-meaning governments toward coercion. His critics answered that he exaggerated this logic and underrated democratic checks. The book invites careful thought about how institutions shape outcomes regardless of motives.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

The book is economic and political, but Hayek's line between acceptable and unacceptable state action passes through public health. He accepts as consistent with competition rules forbidding poisonous substances or requiring precautions in their use, limits on working hours and required sanitary arrangements, and he supports state-organized insurance against sickness and accident. His objection is to comprehensive central direction, not to such general protections.

• Ch. 3, Individualism and Collectivism

  Regulation of poisonous substances, working hours and sanitary arrangements accepted as compatible with a competitive system.

• Ch. 9, Security and Freedom

  Support for a guaranteed minimum of food, shelter and clothing and for social insurance against sickness and accident.