Market Order and Justice in Hayek's Political Theory: the Exclusion and Requirement of Substantive Politics

Papaioannou, Theodoros (2003). Market Order and Justice in Hayek's Political Theory: the Exclusion and Requirement of Substantive Politics. Social Science Information, 42(2) pp. 229–253.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018403042002004

Abstract

This paper approaches Hayek’s ideas concerning the market and procedural justice through his epistemology and his methodology. The paper provides an immanent critique of these ideas. It argues that the concept of the market as a catallaxy and the idea of justice as a system of general rules of conduct reflect a moral dimension that excludes but also requires substantive politics. The latter is a kind of politics that pursues goals which are formed through a normative/evaluative conception of social good. The moral dimension of Hayek’s theory excludes substantive politics because such politics can never be explained in terms of the praxeological presuppositions of social spontaneity and cultural evolution. At the same time, that dimension requires substantive politics because only by means of it can social spontaneity and cultural evolution be preserved as a social good in terms of liberalism.