Philanthropy, Markets, And Commercial Society: Beyond the Hayekian Impasse (Friedrich Hayek) (Critical Essay‪)‬

Introduction Like many classical liberals of the Cold War era, F. A. Hayek was of two minds about the role of philanthropy in modern commercial societies. In digressions sprinkled throughout his published works, Hayek hailed philanthropy as a Tocquevillian alternative to the welfare state and praised voluntary associations for their uniquely effective "recognition of many [philanthropic] needs and discovery of many methods of meeting them that we could never have expected from the government" (Hayek 1979, 50).