[A contemporary cartoon by Amédée de Noé showing the anarchist-socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, carrying a pick with which he destroys the foundations of the free market, is confronted by the Greek playwright Aristophanes, a Greek legislator, and a Roman soldier, who accuse him of having plagiarised their ideas.]
I recently gave a talk at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney on “‘Unfortunately, hardly anyone listens to the Economists’: The Battle against Socialism by the French Economists in the 1840s.”
- Lecture notes and images can be found here.
- A PDF [6.5 MB] of the lecture overheads are here.
- A video of my talk is available from youtube and
- a more compressed version here. The talk lasts for 47 mins. Page with video embedded.
Date: Tuesday, 8 July 2014, 6.00 pm.
Location: The Centre for Independent Studies, Level 4, 38 Oxley St, St Leonards, Sydney 2065
Topic: David M. Hart, “‘Unfortunately, hardly anyone listens to the Economists’: The Battle against Socialism by the French Economists in the 1840s.”
Summary: The 1848 Revolution in France saw the first attempt by socialists to create a government which would introduce some key aspects of the modern welfare state as we know it today, namely government guaranteed (taxpayer funded) unemployment relief, make work schemes, and the “right to a job” for all workers. This was vigorously opposed by the group of free market political economists (known as “les Économistes” or “the Economists”) who had become organised during the 1840s in Paris and played an active and important role during the Revolution in opposing socialism in the press, on the streets, and in the Chamber of Deputies. Some of the leading figures in this liberal opposition to socialism were young men who had come to Paris from their homes in the provinces and formed a network of active and innovative economists who changed the face of French classical liberal thought with their original and radical ideas. This talk will examine how the Economists organised themselves to fight socialism, some of the key ideas in the ideological battles they fought, the strategies they adopted to do this, and the lessons liberals in the present day can draw from their struggle.