Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

aut h 0 r 's Ene m i e s 0 f the Per man en t T h i n g s (N ew
Rochelle: Arlington House, 1969)•.
(111 )James Burnham, Suicide of the West (New
Rochelle: Arlington House, 1964), pp. 290-91.
(112) Ibid., p. 288.
(113)L. T. Sargent, Contemporary
Political Ideologies (Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press,
1972), p. 99.
(114)Kirk, Enemies, p. 282.
(115 )Burnham, p. 139.
( 11 6 ) " Co n s e r vat i v e s res pee t the wi s d om of the i r
ancestors ••• They think society is a spiritual reality,
possessing an eternal life but a delicate constitution:
it cannot be scrapped and recast as if it were a
machine." Kirk, The Conservative Mind, p. 6.
(117)For analyses that point out the authoritarianism
0 f con s e r vat ism see Ed i thEf fron, f1 Cons e r vat ism: A
Libertarian Challenge," The Alternative (October
1975), pp. 9-13; Murray Rothbard, "Conservatism and
Freedom: A Libertar ian Comment," Modern Age (Spring
1961), pp. 217-20; Murray Rothbard, "Confessions of a
Right-Wing Liberal," Ramparts (June 15, 1968), pp.
4 7 - 5 2.• The con t em p 0 r a r y soc i 0 log is t, Ro be r t Ni s bet ,
sees as least the traditional conservatism of Burke,
Lemmenais and DeBonald not only as highly pluralistic
but as a bulwark against political centralization and
the authoritarian state. See his "Conservatism and
Libertarians: UneaSy Cousins," Modern Age (Winter
1980), pp. 2-8; "Conservatism and Sociology," The
American Journal of Sociology (September 1952), pp.
167-75; and "DeBonald and the Concept of the Social
Group," Journal of the History of Ideas (June 1944),
pp. 315-31. In emphasizing the role that the "social
group" and tradition played in impeding the growth of
centralized power, Nisbet has highlighted an important
and un jus t I Y neg1e c ted aspe c t 0 f cons e r vat ism .' But t his
st i 11 doesn't negate the authoritarian streak in much of
conservative, particularly modern conservative, thought.
(118)Two things should be mentioned regarding the
"political spectrum." First, it might be argued that
thereisan i n v e r s ere 1a t ions hip betweenthe e con om i c
and political spheres -- as one increases the other must
decrease -- so that both spectrums are merely measures
of the same things. This, however, not only overlooks
the I a r ge bodY 0 f tho ugh t t hat f eItthat the rever s e wa s
true -- that the market presupposed a highly interventionist
and authoritarian state -- Marx, for example,
and Kropotk in -- but also ignores that group which desired
neither the market nor the state -- Kropotkin,
Bakunin and Berkman, to name just a few. It seems to me
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