Synopses & Reviews
What is the role of human agency in Friedrich Hayek's thought? This volume situates Hayek's writing as it relates to economic organization and activity, particularly to assess what role Hayek assigns to leaders in determining economic progress. Peart and Levy explore the scope for policy makers leading the economy through crisis, how much agency policy makers should assume, and the leadership role that economists should legitimately play in the development and implementation of new economic policy.
Hayek held that economists should take center stage in terms of advocating economic policy but his was a quite different sort of advocacy. He disagreed with some of his contemporaries on what economic policies were best suited to promote economic expansion and stability, seeing economic aggregation as fraught with methodological difficulties and, therefore, that no scientist or policy maker had the wherewithal to direct market transactions. The volume examines the nature of these disagreements along with a number of other themes that characterize Hayek's lifelong work.
Review
"This interdisciplinary collection of essays ranges widely across Hayek's life and ideas, yielding valuable new insights about his moral theory, the origins of his social philosophy, and his influence on political reforms in the final decades of the twentieth century." - Angus Burgin, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University, USA"Anyone unfamiliar with F.A. Hayek may wonder why this volume enjoys a place in a series dedicated to the study of leadership. Serious students of leadership should look again. To paraphrase Hayek, it is the curious task of leaders to recognize how little they really know about the complex social processes others may imagine they control. Emphasizing the nature of knowledge systems in social processes, this volume fills a critical gap in leadership studies." - Emily Chamlee-Wright, Provost and Dean of the College, Washington College, USA"This collection expands upon David Levy's half century of considering the relation of Mandeville and Smith to F. A. Hayek, and Peart's long engagement with Mill and Hayek. The several authors engage the contributions of Hayek, such as to knowledge, and to evolutionary thought. Students of Hayek will discover new facets of his sources and thinking." - Leonard P. Liggio, Professor, Atlas Economic Research Foundation
"This collection makes a significant contribution to the crowded field of Hayek scholarship. The essays are original and make use of archival materials, and they manage to avoid the overploughed areas in that field. Peart and Levy have assembled a volume that will add substantially to our understanding of Hayek's work, its historical context, and its contemporary relevance." - Steve Horwitz, Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics, St. Lawrence University, USA
About the Author
Dr. Sandra J. Peart became the fourth dean of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies in 2007. A national leader in her field, Dr. Peart is a former president of the History of Economics Society and co-director of the annual Summer Institute for the History of Economic Thought. Sandra has authored or edited seven books, many with David M. Levy, a professor of economics at George Mason University, including The Street Porter and the Philosopher: Conversations on Egalitarian Economics. She is the author of more than 50 refereed journal articles on ethics and economics, rationality, utilitarianism, race and eugenics, the transition to "modern" economics, and leadership in public goods experiments. Her research has been supported by the NEH and the SSHRCC. Dr. David Levy's publications include four scholarly books, ninety journal articles, dozens of book reviews and chapters in academic books. The " Vanity of the Philosopher" (2005) , written with Sandra J. Peart, was awarded a Choice Academic Honors. The Economic Ideas of Ordinary People has been republished twenty years after the first publication in 1991. His long association with James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock helped with the Peart-Levy view of analytical egalitarianism as a claim in model space. His service on the American Statistical Association's Professional Ethics Committee helped to develop the Levy-Peart model of sympathetic bias in estimation. In 2012 Levy was made a Distinguished Fellow of the History of Economics Society.
Table of Contents
Introduction; Sandra J. Peart & David M. Levy
PART I: FOUNDATIONS
1. On Hayek's Unsentimental Liberalism; Peter McNamara
2. F. A. Hayek and the 'Individualists'; Sandra J. Peart and David M. Levy
PART II: CONTRIBUTIONS TO POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
3. The Evolution, Evaluation, and Reform of Social Morality: A Hayekean Analysis; Gerald Gaus
4. Hayek and the Conditions of Freedom; Kenneth Minogue
5. F. A. Hayek and the Early Foundations of Spontaneous Order; Emily Skarbek
6. Hayek and the Nomothetes; Christopher S. Martin
PART III: HAYEK AND POLICY-MAKING
7. The Control of Engagement Order: Attlee's Road to Serfdom?; Andrew Farrant and Nicola Tynan
8. Hayekian Perspectives on Canada's Economic and Social Reforms of the 1990s; Jason Clemens and Niels Veldhuis
9. The Conjoint Quest for a Liberal Positive Program: 'Old Chicago,' Freiburg, and Hayek; Ekkehard Köhler and Stefan Kolev
10. Hayek and My Life; Václav Klaus
Conclusion: The Hayek Difference; David M. Levy and Sandra J. Peart