It is not every day the iconic F.A. Hayek is associated with support for one-world government. Yoram Hazony's critique of Hayek on that score highlights interesting fissures in theories of political economy on the Right. In some of his newspaper writing, and in The Virtue of Nationalism, the Jerusalem-based academic argues that Hayek advocated replacing independent nations with a world-wide federation.
The book, Hazony's fourth, is a strong defense of nationalism that has been welcomed by many conservative free marketeers. Yet it portrays the great economist Hayek—a leading proponent of liberty who was beloved by Hazony idol Margaret Thatcher, and by many supporters of Hazony's case for nationalism—as one whose views on international order would stifle liberty.
The apparent contradiction signals a conspicuous divide on questions of national sovereignty between classical liberals and conservatives.
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