Hayek's Law, Legislation, and Liberty—a great book, but not a good book

Eamonn Butler

Chapter 1 in Hayek’s Living Legacy in Economics, Philosophy and Policy, 2026, pp 1-14 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: F.A. Hayek was the author of many remarkable books and was one of the most important social thinkers of the twentieth century. In Law, Legislation, and Liberty, he turned to evolutionary explanations of social institutions and highlighted the dangers of imagining that one can replace evolving social institutions wholesale by a social structure that might be more to one's liking. The chapter presents the origins, main themes, and outline of the book, emphasizing the difference between evolved orders and deliberate organizations. Hayek underlines that our worldwide great society, as he calls it, of today cannot possibly be run through specific commands telling each of us what to do. Finally, he provided an analysis of the dereliction (and public distrust) into which our political systems have fallen, and his solutions to that. The key argument is that the cultural evolution of our values and institutions is far more important than we realise.

Keywords: Social Institutions; Evolved Order; Deliberate Organization; Great Society; Political Crisis; Political Reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035394234
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