Chapter 6, Planning and the Rule of Law Summary and Analysis

The Rule of Law means that there are certain rules that bind even a government. Individuals are allowed to pursue their own goals within the confines of the rules of law without the interference of government. Planning results in the opposite of conformance with the Rule of Law, eventually requiring a decision about what is more important in that society. Government ceases to be impartial when it knows the results of its actions on people and it imposes them. Hayek infers that the collectivist state, such as Nazi Germany, becomes a "moral" institution, where it defines and imposes its own "moral" views on the populace, no matter how truly moral or immoral the views may be. This ideation of morality by the collectivist states infers that the liberal state...