Online Library of Liberty - The Tradition of Spontaneous Order: A Bibliographical Essay by Norman Barry (oll.libertyfund.org)
- Highlight Loc. 540-45 | Added on Thursday, January 12, 2012, 08:29 AM
It is not that the theory of spontaneous order precludes planning as such; it is that only planning by individuals in decentralized markets will tend towards an optimal use of knowledge. The central planner has only that knowledge available to him, which is less than that which is co-ordinated among all the agents in a market process. Furthermore, because the future is unknowable, a system that relies on liberty allows for the accidental and spontaneous. Hayek's main objection to the rationalist theory of liberty is that the rationalist associates the growth of knowledge with predictability and control; but those things which can be predicted and controlled comprise only a small part of social and economic experience.
