Liberalism beyond Hayek: On the Renewal of Liberalism and the Institutional Infrastructure of Freedom

This paper suggests that the challenge to renew liberalism today may be seen to share some similarities with the first attempt to renew liberalism at the Colloque Walter Lippmann in 1938. Besides sharing intellectual, political and institutional dimensions, liberalism is once again under severe attack on many fronts, and it is once again seen by many to suffer a combined legitimacy and effectiveness crisis, reminding us of the main topic discussed in 1938. The first central argument of the paper is to show why a realistic and inclusive conception of liberty needs to be grounded in an extended institutional infrastructure of freedom, based on the interdependent and balanced relations between its four major institutional pillars: the rule of law, democracy, the market economy and civil society. Following this discussion, the paper challenges Friedrich Hayek’s attempt to rebuild liberalism based on a narrower conception of liberty and its institutional preconditions. The paper concludes by underpinning the need to move beyond Hayek in the renewal of liberalism in our time.