Politics of Evolution: Hayek’s Naturalization of Neoliberalism

The article delves into Friedrich Hayek’s theory of cultural evolution as a framework for understanding his “restatement” of liberalism. Beginning in the 1950s, Hayek increasingly embraced a naturalistic perspective, leading to a conceptualization of the market in evolutionary terms. His definition of the market sharply contrasts with the one proper to laissez-faire liberalism of the nineteenth century. Unlike classical liberalism, Hayek claims that the market is “unnatural,” as it has culturally evolved in opposition to innate human traits. The article will argue that Hayek’s concept of “evolutionary rationalism” establishes a new political rationality aimed at cultivating conditions that promote the flourishing of the market order and protect it from innate human instincts. According to this political rationality, the cultural reproduction of the market order maximizes the evolutionary “progress” of the human species and must be upheld to prevent the purported decline of modern civilization attributed to political rationalities based on “primitive” behavioral traits such as “solidarity” and the pursuit of “common goals.”