Slobodian's Hayek's Bastards Fails to Convince on Austrian Economics Link

The book points to Gerard Radnitzky, an Austrian-school libertarian, who argued that a notion of human nature sits at the bedrock of Austrian economics. Slobodian also sees Pat Buchanan's 1990s presidential campaigns, advised by libertarian Murray Rothbard, as a vehicle for bringing libertarian dreams into reality. Many Buchanan supporters would take issue with that characterization, but Slobodian does not cite them.

Slobodian includes ethnonationalist works such as Thilo Sarrazin's Germany Abolishes Itself and Jean Raspail's Camp of the Saints as part of the libertarian tradition. He also treats Steve Bannon as a figure who injected the logic of libertarianism into collective identity. Bannon's intellectual influences include the traditionalist Catholic right and the French Nouvelle Droite, not the Austrian school. Slobodian traces this movement back to Hayek's turn toward embracing the morals and values of the Christian West in the 1980s, but he does not explain how that turn connects to Bannon's worldview.

The book ignores the dominance of evangelicals who reject Darwinism and advocate for human equality. It also ignores the dominance of neoconservatives in the 1990s and 2000s, who argued for the liberal self as opposed to biology and ethnicity. The contemporary embrace of neoconservatives like George W. Bush by the Left is not surprising because both believed in the fundamental equality of all humans, Slobodian might respond, but he does not address that overlap in the text.

There is not much discussion of left-wing libertarianism or the strong presence of anti-capitalist thought in the New Right. The New Right figures Slobodian cites are often critical of capitalism. Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land, both influential in the online right, are not mentioned. The book's focus stays on the figures who fit the pro-capitalist, racialist frame.

Slobodian does make an effective case that some advocates of racial inequality take from elements of the libertarian tradition. That is a narrower claim than the book's title and marketing suggest. The Austrian school is not responsible for Charles Murray's views on IQ, and Hayek is not responsible for Steve Bannon. Slobodian knows this. He says so in the introduction. But the book proceeds as if the connection is deeper than he admits, and the evidence he marshals does not close the gap.