On the complementarity of liberalism and democracy – a reading of F.A. Hayek and J.M. Buchanan

Abstract

The principal claim of this paper is that liberalism and democracy are not only compatible ideals, as F.A. Hayek has suggested, but rather complementary ideals. The argument in support of this claim is based on a distinction between three different levels at which liberalism and democracy can be compared, the level of their institutional embodiment, the level of their principal ideals, and the level of their underlying normative premise. It is argued that liberalism and democracy share as their common normative foundation the principle of individual sovereignty, and that their respective core ideals, the liberal principle of private autonomy and the democratic principle of citizen sovereignty, can be best understood as applications of the ideal of individual sovereignty to the realm of the private law society on the one side and to the ‘public’ realm of collective-political choice on the other.

Liberal constitutionalism, constitutional liberalism and democracy

“…I concur with Hayek's view on the need to reconcile the ideals of liberalism and democracy (Vanberg 2008). Indeed, I suppose that the future of liberalism will depend on its ability to present itself as an outlook at politics that is compatible with the fundamental ideal of democracy.…”

Hayek: A Collaborative Biography

“…(Vanberg, 2011 : 3; see also Vanberg, 2008 ) To recapitulate: a comparative analysis of political structures as viewed by Eucken and Hayek shows that the heart of the matter is the relationship between freedom and order. Ordoliberals basically conceive a liberal, that is free, society as a society devoid of any concentration of powers, defying both economic and political totalitarianism.…”

The Consumer as ‘‘Voter,’’ ‘‘Judge,’’ and ‘‘Jury’’: Historical Origins and Political Consequences of a Marketing Myth

“…Markets, money, private property, and consumer choice were thus the ultimate guarantors of freedom, and von Hayek declared it to be a ''truth'' that if free markets disappeared all other democratic freedoms would disappear with them (von Hayek 1944(von Hayek /2001. Although von Hayek's own interpretation of the nature of democracy became more nuanced after World War II (von Hayek 1960(von Hayek /2006, the renaissance of the free market ideology during the 1980s saw a return of the earlier structural identification of von Hayek and von Mises of markets and democracies (Friedman and Friedman 1980, 1-12, 222-27;Friedman 1982, 3-16;Phillips-Klein 2009, 34-52;Vanberg 2008).…”