F. Hayec's Critque Of Conservativism As It Is Manifested In The US

The following quote is from F. Hayec's preface in The Road To Serfdom.  His book has often been used by conservatives to attack many aspects of the welfare state.  He believed that it provided a slippry slope to socialism and totalitarianism.  Hayec was also a critic of some forms of conservatism. His critque of conservatism applies very well to the major thrusts of conservatism as it is practiced in the US.

" Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society, is not a social program; in its paternalistic, nationalistic, and power adding tendencies it is oftern closer to socialism rather than to true liberalism; and with its traditionalistic. anti-intellectual, and often mystical propensities it will never, except in periods of disillusionment, appeal to the young and all others who believe that some changes are needed to make the world a better place.


A conservative movement by its very nature is bound to be a defender of established privlege and to lean on the power of government for the protection of privlege. The essence of the liberal position, however, is the denial of all prvilege, if privlige is understood in its proper and original meaning of the state granting and protecting rights to some which are not available on equal terms to others"

Hayec was not a supporter of the New Deal, but he would not be a supporter of the GOP which appeals to the perverse form of conservative that he criticized.  He used liberalism in the traditional way that it was used by liberals in England who opposed the granting of privlege to elites.  There is a tradition within US liberalism to also oppose the granting of privlege and the protection of privlege held by elites.  Many liberal programs have been developed for that purpose. 

It is understandable that Hayec would have been concerned about the misuse of state power that he witnessed in the 1930's.  However, he would also have opposed oligarchy and plutocracy.  One of the major purposes of government is to provide a countervailing power against entities that seek and obtain privlege. That is the major objection that conservatives in the US have against the state.  They want the state to insure privlege, and to increase the power of private entities that have attained privlege.  Given the power of large business enterprises there is no alternative to the state as a countervailing power.  The function of democracy is to assure that the state is an instrument that supports freedom and which opposes the misuse of private power.  Conservatives in the US seek to control the democratic process so that it can use the state for its own purposes.  They are a greater threat to freedom than a democratically elected government. Democracy is the enemy of hierarchy.  Conservatism as it is practiced in the US is the defender of hierarchy.  Our problem in the US is to do our best to make it work as it supposed to work.