Socialism and the Classical Liberal Critique

About this Collection

Modern socialism emerged in the 1830s and 1840s in France and England at a time when classical liberalism was beginning to have an impact with reforms such as the First Electoral Reform Act of 1832 and the success of the Anti-Corn Law League. The success of socialist ideas in the revolutions of 1848 meant that classical liberals increasingly had to turn their attention to combatting calls for government intervention in the economy from the “Left” as Frederic Bastiat did in the last few years of his life. As classical liberalism began to decline in the late 19th century it fell to a handful of radical individualists like Thomas Mackay and Herbert Spencer to oppose the gradualist, Fabian school of socialism in Britain, and to strict laissez-faire advocates like Eugen Richter in the German parliament. It was only after the rise of the Bolsheviks to power in Russia after the First World War that the most coherent and devastating critique of socialism appeared in the work of Ludwig von Mises and later in that of Friedrich Hayek.

Key People

Titles & Essays

A – Z List

Collections. Series. Collected Works

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Commerce

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Economic Theory. Demography

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Industries. Land Use. Labor

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Philosophy, Psychology, And Religion

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Political Theory

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Social Sciences

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Socialism. Communism. Anarchism

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Not Categorized

Ce qu'on appelle des idées nouvelles en 1848

Amédée de Noé (author)

A panel of six anti-socialist cartoons which ridicules the ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Pierre Leroux, Étienne Cabet, Victor Considerant, Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin, and Louis Napoléon Bonaparte.

LIBERTY MATTERS

LIBERTY MATTERS

LIBERTY MATTERS

Perspectives on Mises' Socialism After 100 Years (August 2022)

By: Virgil Henry Storr, Alberto Mingardi, Yana Chernyak, and Clemens Schneider

In 1922 Ludwig von Mises published his third book, Die Gemeinwirtschaft: Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus, translated into English in 1936 under the title Socialism. The LibertyClassics edition was published in 1981. It seems…

LIBERTY MATTERS

LIBERTY MATTERS

LIBERTY MATTERS

LIBERTY MATTERS

LIBERTY MATTERS

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Quotes

Socialism & Interventionism

Frédéric Bastiat argues that socialism hides its true plunderous nature under a facade of nice sounding words like “fraternity” and “equality” (1850)

Frédéric Bastiat

Socialism & Interventionism

Mises on “interventionism” as a third way between the free market and socialism (1930)

Ludwig von Mises

Notes About This Collection

For additional information about Socialism and the Classical Liberal Critique see the following: