Schmitt And Hayek: Origins Of Authoritarian Liberalism And Its Continuity In Neoliberal Thought

Abstract

This article aims to outline what in philosophical and political literature can be termed “authoritarian liberalism.” The primary focus is to highlight the similarities between the political and economic thought of Carl Schmitt and Friedrich Hayek.
The crisis of Weimar social democracy was largely followed by attacks on the notionof representative parliamentary democracy itself. In this context, Schmitt—famously anti-parliamentary—relied on the concept of qualitative total state, distinguishing it
from what he termed quantitative total state, which characterized the Weimar period. Additionally, Hayek partly constructed his notion of (limited) democracy using Schmittian categories, and ordoliberal thought did not hesitate to push its “social
market economy,” starting from the apparent Schmittian paradox, from a strong state to a “free” economy. 

Keywords

Carl Schmitt

Friedrich Hayek

Weimar Republic

ordoliberalism

social democracy

totalitarianism

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