Which human qualities can economic liberalism be based on?

Abstract

The article asks which human qualities can serve as the base for a liberal economic policy. The author is looking for an answer to this question in the classical works of economic liberalism - in the books by F. Bastiat, L. von Mises, F. von Hayek, W. Eucken, and M. Friedman. The two main qualities can be summarized as follows: the relatively high rank of freedom among human values and rational utilitarian calculus. It is assumed that in those countries where the both human prerequisites are present the liberal policy (for instance, liberal reforms) can be self-supportive and may have good results. On the contrary, if the first prerequisite is missing and a liberal policy can be based only on rational calculus, the “paternalistic” liberalism prevails and chances for success are much smaller.