Can a Dictator Turn a Constitution into a Can-opener? F.A. Hayek and the Alchemy of Transitional Dictatorship in Chile

Andrew Farrant and Edward McPhail

Review of Political Economy, 2014, vol. 26, issue 3, 331-348

Abstract: Commenting on the Pinochet regime, Friedrich Hayek famously claimed in 1981 that he would prefer a 'liberal' dictator to 'democratic government lacking liberalism.' Hayek's defense of a transitional dictatorship in Chile was not an impromptu response. In late 1960, in a little known BBC radio broadcast, Hayek suggested that a dictatorial regime may be able to facilitate a transition to stable limited democracy. While Hayek's comments about Pinochet have generated much controversy, this paper neither provides a blanket condemnation of his views (he did not advocate dictatorship as a first-best 'state of the world') nor tries to excuse his failure to condemn the Pinochet junta's human rights abuses, but instead provides a critical assessment of Hayek's implicit model of transitional dictatorship.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1080/09538259.2014.932063

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