A Hayekian Theory of Social Justice
As Justice gives every Man a Title to the product of his honest Industry, and the fair Acquisitions of his Ancestors descended to him; so Charity gives every Man a Title to so much of another’s Plenty, as will keep him from extream want, where he has no means to subsist otherwise.
– John Locke
The purpose of this essay is to critically examine Friedrich Hayek’s broadside against the conceptual intelligibility of the theory of social or distributive justice. This theme first appears in Hayek’s work in his famous political tract, The Road to Serfdom (1944), and later in The Constitution of Liberty (1960), but he developed the argument at greatest length in his major work in political philosophy, the trilogy entitled Law, Legislation, and Liberty (1973-79). Given that Hayek subtitled the second volume of this work The Mirage of Social Justice, it might seem counterintuitive or perhaps even absurd to suggest the existence of a genuinely Hayekian theory of social justice. Not-withstanding the rhetorical tenor of some of his remarks, however, Hayek’s actual conclusions are characteristically even-tempered, which, I shall argue, leaves open the possibility of a revisionist account of the matter.
