Is freedom as non-domination a right-wing idea?
| Published date | 01 January 2022 |
| Date | 01 January 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1474885120929539 |
| Subject Matter | Review Articles |
Review Article EJPT
Is freedom as
non-domination a
right-wing idea?
Stanislas Victor Richard
Central European University, Hungary
Sean Irving, Hayek’s Market Republicanism: The Limits of Liberty, Routledge:
London, 2019; 180 pp.: £120, ISBN 978-0-429-42302-4, hbk
Abstract
Sean Irving’s book Hayek’s Market Republicanism: The Limits of Liberty shows that the
commonly accepted reading of Hayek as a liberal thinker is mistaken, and that his
political writings are best understood as belonging to the broader tradition of repub-
licanism. The distinction is important for understanding many aspects of Hayek’s
thought, and especially his rejection of social justice and majoritarian democracy.
In that sense, one of the book’s more general merits is its implicit contribution to
ongoing debates between republican ‘freedom as non-domination’ and liberal ‘freedom
as non-interference’. Irving focuses on what he sees as a contradiction between Hayek’s
chief concerns about the state as the main source of domination and his disregard for
private forms of power, and especially within the capitalist firm. I argue, however, that
the example of Hayek should lead us to consider a more prosaic conclusion: freedom as
non-domination is a concept less useful for criticising the free market than Irving and
left-leaning Republicans seem to assume.
Keywords
Frederick Hayek, freedom, freedom as non-domination, freedom as non-interference,
liberalism, Republicanism
Corresponding author:
Stanislas Victor Richard, Central European University, Nador 9, Budapest, 1051, Hungary.
Email: Richard_Stanislas@phd.ceu.edu
European Journal of Political Theory
!The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/1474885120929539
journals.sagepub.com/home/ept
2022, Vol. 21(1) 187–196
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