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The Welfare State: An Affront to Freedom?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Christopher John Nock
Christopher John Nock
Affiliation:
Linacre College, Oxford University
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Abstract

Libertarian writers such as Hayek, Friedman, Hospers and Nozick have insisted that welfare state policies are, per se, inimical to the classical liberal notion of freedom. The purpose of this article is to test the internal coherence of the libertarian attack upon the welfare state. Special attention is given to Friedman's contentions in his Capitalism and Freedom. It is argued that the libertarian attack upon the welfare state is misguided. Indeed, it is suggested that in order to achieve the type of individual liberty that libertarians wish to secure the state must be assigned a positive welfare role.

Résumé

Des théoriciens libertaires—Hayek, Friedman, Hospers, Nozick—ont tenté de démontrer que les politiques de l'État-providence sont antithétiques à l'idée libérale classique de liberté. Cet article analyse la logique interne de cet assaut à l'État-providence et en particulier les prétensions de Friedman dans son livre, Capitalism and Freedom. En démontrant que l'assaut libertaire à l'État-providence n'est pas toujours bien fondé, cet article propose en fait qu'on doit assigner à l'État un rôle providentiel positif pour achever la liberté individuelle que les libertaires eux-mêmes recherchent assidûment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 757 - 770
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1988

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References

1 See Friedman, Milton, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962)Google Scholar; Hospers, John, Libertarianism: A Philosophy for Tomorrow (Los Angeles: Nash, 1971)Google Scholar; Hayek, F. A., The Constitution of Liberty (Chicago: Regnery, 1972)Google Scholar; Hayek, F. A., Law, Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political Economy, vol. 1: Rules and Order (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973)Google Scholar; Hayek, F. A., Law Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political Economy, vol. 2: The Mirage of Social Justice (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976)Google Scholar; Hayek, F. A., Law, Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political Economy, vol. 3: The Political Order of Free People (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979)Google Scholar; David, Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism (Cambridge: Harper Colophon, 1973)Google Scholar; and Nozick, Robert, Anarchy, State and Utopia (Cambridge: Basic Books, 1974).Google Scholar

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7 ibid., 15.

8 ibid., 12.

9 ibid.,

10 ibid.,

11 ibid., 13–14.

12 ibid., 14 (emphasis in original).

13 Macpherson, C. B., “Elegant Tombstones: A Note on Friedman's Freedom,” in Macpherson, C. B, Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), 146 (emphases in original).Google Scholar

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18 ibid.

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25 ibid.,

26 ibid., 53.

27 ibid.

28 ibid., 59.

29 ibid.