, Columnist
A Warning to Trump From Friedrich Hayek
The theorist revered by conservatives described how arbitrary commands subvert the rule of law.
What kind of commander?
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If American conservatives have an intellectual hero, it might well be Friedrich Hayek -- and rightly so. More clearly than anyone else, Hayek elaborated the case against government planning and collectivism, and mounted a vigorous argument for free markets. As it turns out, Hayek simultaneously identified a serious problem with the political creed of President-elect Donald Trump.
One of Hayek’s most important arguments in his great classic, "The Road to Serfdom," involves the Rule of Law, which he defined to mean “that government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand.” Because of the Rule of Law, “the government is prevented from stultifying individual efforts by ad hoc action.”