Tocqueville, Hayek, and American Intellectual Conservatism
This article appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of The Independent Review.
Friedrich Hayeks analysis of democracy, central planning, and the threat of administrative despotism owed much to his reading of Alexis de Tocquevilles Democracy in America. Painting himself as a classical liberal in the tradition of Burke, Acton, Smith, and Tocqueville, Hayek drew freely, frequently, and plausibly upon Tocquevilles political thought. This article examines Tocquevilles influence on Hayek and on twentieth-century American intellectual conservatism more generally.
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