Liberalism versus Democracy. Hayek and Demarchy

The end of an order shapes our contemporaneity. The continuous production of crises challenges the neoliberal form of government. Some interpreters see the emergence of authoritarian liberalism and illiberal democracies as a response to the excesses of the market. In this article, however, through the figure of Friedrich A. Hayek, we show how the neo-liberal proposal itself originated as an attack on the Keynesian liberal democracy that emerged after World War II. Hayek’s work on the political and legal lexicon highlights the intention to untie liberalism from democracy. The analysis focuses on Hayek’s institution: “demarchy,” as a form that limits the will of the people through the rules of private law.