The Road to Serfdom and the Definitions of Socialism, Planning, and the Welfare State, 1930-1950
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4296754 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gabriel F Benzecry (0000-0001-7079-6831), Nicholas Jensen, Daniel J Smith (0000-0001-6776-9971, Political Economy Research Institute, Middle Tennessee State University ([email protected])) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 441-475 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History of Political Economy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-2702 • E-ISSN: 1527-1919 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00182702-11773500 |
| OpenAlex | W4407417480 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 50 |
There is a long-standing debate about whether the central hypothesis of F. A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, warning of the incompatibility between socialism and democracy, extended to welfare states. The empirical validity of Hayek's hypothesis hinges on his definition of socialism. We build on previous works contextualizing and interpreting The Road to Serfdom by examining the common definitions of socialism, capitalism, and the welfare state primarily between 1930 and 1950 according to (1) socialist intellectuals, especially those Hayek was engaging in The Road to Serfdom, (2) reviews of and responses to Hayek's book, and (3) prominent politicians and other public intellectuals in London. We find that socialism was commonly understood to mean economic planning under state ownership or control of the means of production. Those advocating for the expansion of welfare programs often held that state control or ownership of the means of production was necessary to fund social redistribution. Our findings bolster the interpretation of Hayek's central hypothesis in The Road to Serfdom as being limited to economic planning under state control or ownership of the means of production
Economic history · Economic system · Economics · Market economy · Neoclassical economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Serfdom · Socialism · State (computer science · Welfare · Welfare state · Computer Science · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political Economy and Marxism
The State in Theory and Practice
The Political Economy of the Welfare State
Full Employment in a Free Society (Works of William H. Beveridge)
Welfare State
The Politics of Democratic Socialism
Collusion and combines in Canada, 1880–1890
The Road to Serfdom
Planning and the Price Mechanism
Barbara Wootton, Friedrich Hayek and the debate on democratic federalism in the 1940s
Hayek, Keynes, and the Origins of Neo-Liberalism
An Inquiry into the Principles of the Good Society
Rent seeking for madness
Examining the public interest rationale for regulating whiskey with the pure food and drugs act
On the Economic Theory of Socialism
Democracy and Socialism in Britain
The Road to Serfdom . Friedrick A. Hayek
The Mainstreaming of Marx
Freedom Under Planning
The Independent Labour Party and Planning, 1920–26
Practical Socialism For Britain
Social Insurance and Allied Services
New Jerusalems
Historical newspaper data
Socialist Calculation
The Road to Serfdom
Professor Hayek on Economic Planning and Political Liberty
The Theory of National Economic Planning
At the Origins of Neo-Liberalism
Problems of ‘Socialist Planning’
The Economics of Control
Hayek's Slippery Slope, the Stability of the Mixed Economy and the Dynamics of Rent Seeking
Freedom, the Common Good, and the Rule of Law
The private mint in economics
Freedom under Planning
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |