The Road to Serfdom (Routledge Classics)

Hayek's book is a frontal attack on the socialist dream of a centrally planned economy, which should wipe out the cyclical swings in a free market system.
For Hayek, a centrally planned economy is a synonym for slavery.
Hayed argues rightly that the replacement of free enterprise and competition by collectivism equals he abolition of democracy.
As L. Trotzky remarks (quoted in this book): 'In a country where the sole employer is the state, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle - who does not work shall not eat - has been replaced by a new one - who does not obey shall not eat.'

A centrally planned economy creates a totalitarian system where the end justifies the means, which in other words means a denial of all morals. Moreover, the individual is not respected as a man but becomes a cog in an enormous bureaucracy, where tolerance is not tolerated.

For real liberals (like B. Russell) power has been the archevil; to the strict collectivist it is a goal in itself.
Hayek is by any means not a pure liberal, because he insists that every state should provide a system of social insurance wth a minimum income for all.

Hayek's warnings have been gravely vindicated by the gruelng inhumanity of the totalitarian regimes, created after World War II.

This is a great book about liberty and independence, truth and intellectual honesty, peace and democracy and respect for the individual qua man.
A must read.


The most important book you will read   February 4, 2004
B. Jacobs (London)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

Written in 1944, in clear, modern English, this book must be one of the all time classics. In a forensic but highly readable analysis, Hayek explains that social justice is the goal of all systems, Socialism, Liberalism etc, and that they are just different approaches as to how to achieve it. He then shows how Socialism despite its very good intentions inevitably leads to the opposite of its goal. Liberalism is seen as the only genuine method to achieve true social justice. It is one of the most rigorous deconstructions of political thought I have ever read and is worthy of a law court, yet remains hugely readable.


An excellent book which truly enlightens us about socialism.   April 4, 2001
willpacker50@hotmail.com (London, England)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book written by the world renown Hayek was a revelation at its time of print (1944). Hayek challenged the notion that planning was the true way forward in the post-war world. He pointed to the examples of the Nazis and the Russians in the way in which planning can easily go wrong. This book is written in such a way to be accessible to those who have little previous economic knowledge. In all an excellent book.


A lesson for everyone   April 27, 2004
D. Boulton (Bristol)
18 out of 22 found this review helpful

Hayek sets out the case, in concise and clear language, for political andeconomic liberty (and their necessary interconnection) in a morecompelling way than you will find anywhere else. This is the greatestvindication of liberal democracy and market economics that has ever beenwritten, and is a text that should be read by anybody anxious to preventtotalitarian and illiberalism dominating this century in the way that itdid the last.
Most significantly, the inherently illiberal nature of socialism isexposed. Liberty and egalitarianism are NOT, Hayek explains, compatible:freedom and socialism are conflicting, not complementary, concepts. Thelogic that socialism and fascism are, essentially, parts of the sameideology - binding individuals to the state and suppressing enterprise andendeavour - is compelling.
Hayek's most significant theme, however, is that political and economicliberalism are not separate concepts that can be adopted in isolation fromeach other. Free societies and free economies, he suggests, necessarilyand naturally co-exist.
As a 1st year politics student, I just wish that more people had read thisseminal work in political philosophy before swallowing whole warpedMarxist notions that associate the words 'socialism' and 'democracy', and'freedom' and 'equality', in ways that simply ignore their utterincompatibility and explain why the world was at war when Hayek wrote thisbooks in 1944 and why we lived for 50 years under the threat of socialistswith nuclear weapons.
You do not need to be a political anorak to gain a lot from this book. Itraises crucial questions about the world in which we live and reacheslargely undeniable conclusions. Read with an open mind, and the logicreally is utterly compelling and does provide a vital lesson for everyone.