Two major political leaders in the 1930s agreed that increasing complexity required bigger government than otherwise. Friedrich Hayek, in his 1944 book, The Road to Serfdom, argued that precisely the opposite is true: The more complex a society, the more difficult it is for government to plan an economy.
Probably more than two leaders believed this. But I found a particularly clear statement of the belief in the words of two leaders.
Here’s one:
We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become.
Here’s the other:
Instinctively we recognized a deeper need—the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization.
Without googling, try to guess who the two leaders were and which one said which. You need not share your guesses, although you truly do not google, but simply guess, I would be interested.
READER COMMENTS
David D Boaz
Aug 6 2020 at 7:29pm
I’m going for Hitler, FDR.
Steve Winkler
Aug 6 2020 at 8:13pm
My guesses as well.
Steve Fritzinger
Aug 6 2020 at 8:49pm
The first quote says “We were the first to assert…” I’m going with Mussolini and FDR.
Mactoul
Aug 7 2020 at 2:15am
It isn’t obvious that these quotes are wrong. Modern life is constrained and regimented in numerous ways unknown even 200 years ago, leave 2000 or 20000 years ago. For example, you may not have a coal fire in many cities, you may cross roads in specified places only, you may hunt only with a permit in specified times only.
And who is to rule on these. Surely it is government. So Hayek’s point stands along with the brute fact that coordination is required and which is not fully to be supplied by market. Indeed to set-up markets in particular things, it again requires State–consider markets in CO2 credits.
Thomas Knapp
Aug 7 2020 at 4:56am
Like some other commenters, I’m going to assume that one of the two (the latter) is FDR. I think the former is probably Stalin.
john hare
Aug 7 2020 at 4:58am
They have a 19th century vibe to me. I’m not well read enough on the subject to guess though.
Philo
Aug 7 2020 at 2:14pm
Or an early twentieth-century vibe–so much so that these quotations would sound natural in the mouths of dozens of political leaders of the time; without googling, it’s impossible to attribute them to any one in particular.
robc
Aug 7 2020 at 6:34am
No googling, no looking at others before me: FDR and Hitler respectively are my guesses. Assuming the 2nd is a translation and not a direct quote.
Jens
Aug 7 2020 at 7:20am
It is of course always dangerous to interpret quotations out of context. But without context it is easier to concentrate on what is given. The interesting thing about the two quotes, regardless of who they come from, is that in which they differ. Thinking about who they’re coming from may distract me from the content.
The first author speaks that the freedom of the individual must be restricted (for whatever reason exactly “complicated forms assumed by civilization”). One has the impression that he is happy to be able to come to such a conclusion, whichever way his logic has to go, as long as he is the first.
The second speaks of a common purpose (the existence of which can, of course, always be denied, just as ultimately anything can be denied) and that problems should be solved for the individual (of course I would have if I were washed up on an island like Robinson Crusoe , certain problems that I have now because I live in Central Europe, but on the other hand, as Robinson Crusoe, of course I would have certain problems that I do not have now).
So the first one seems to talk about restricting freedom, the second one talks about expanding freedom.
Steve Horwitz
Aug 7 2020 at 8:29am
Agreeing with Mussolini and FDR, respectively. I didn’t Google. They were fans of each other after all.
RPLong
Aug 7 2020 at 8:39am
My initial guesses were Hitler in the first quote and Stalin in the second.
Thomas Hutcheson
Aug 7 2020 at 1:41pm
It seems likely to me that increasing complexity of society will throw up more instances in which one person’s actions will produce external effects and more cases on which asymmetric information will be a problem. While it is also the case that some of these will be best dealt with by tort or fraud law, my guess is that not all.
ChrisH
Aug 7 2020 at 2:55pm
My guesses are 1) Hoover and 2) Mussolini
Maurice Painter
Aug 7 2020 at 2:59pm
FDR and Churchill
David Seltzer
Aug 7 2020 at 3:45pm
Roosevelt and Stalin. FDR sent aides to study Stalin’s Soviet experiment.
Gerald Rodriguez
Aug 7 2020 at 4:13pm
I too think it to be Stalin and FDR.
nicholas ronalds
Aug 7 2020 at 7:45pm
I was going to say Hoover, the archetype of the technocrat, and FDR, but thought Hoover might not be thought to be a “1930s leader” since his term ended in Jan. 1933. Hitler wasn’t intellectual enough to have an opinion about complexity. Stalin thought the need for the “dictatorship of the proletariat” was already a given, so the question of whether government should be bigger or not is not a question he would even entertain. So not Stalin. Moussolini was philosophically weird, but perhaps something similar could be said about his thinking. A contrarian answer would be Churchill as the other leader besides FDR, so I’ll take a flyer and say FDR and Churchill. Government as the answer to complexity is a conventional prescription, and though Churchill was great, he wasn’t particularly original on matters of political philosophy. Obviously FDR wasn’t either.
Donald Tucker
Aug 7 2020 at 8:32pm
I’m going to say John Maynard Keynes was one and the other was FDR.
Comments are closed.