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In 'The Soul of Classical Liberalism' (2000b), James Buchanan argued that modern advocates of the liberal order must move beyond the mid-twentieth-century project of 'saving the books' and 'saving the ideas' and instead embrace the challenge of 'saving the soul' of liberalism. His argument is fairly straightforward: the vast majority of modern defenders of classical liberalism are scientific economists, and they base their defense on the logic and evidence that they work with. But these insights understandably do not translate easily into the popular imagination. The prospects for establishing a genuine liberal order, however, turn on capturing the intellectual imagination of a significant segment of the population. The expectation, Buchanan told his reader, that the teacher of economics could effectively communicate the principles of economics to the broad class of the intelligentsia as well as to the masses was grounded in hubris and folly. Adapted from the source document.

Efforts to export democracy and liberty through military intervention have often been ineffective and have resulted in unintended and undesirable consequences. Countries are free because of belief systems, and institutions that follow from those beliefs, which support and reinforce political and economic freedom. Rational constructivist attempts at nation building are therefore likely to fail in places where there is no tradition of such beliefs and institutions. In this superb book Coyne argues that principled non‐interventionism and free trade have historically had the greatest degree of success and should be our guiding policies today.

Comments on Theodore Burczak's "socialism after Hayek" (1996/97) from a Hayekian liberal perspective. Agreement is registered with Burczak that the transcendent project of traditional Marxism must be rethought because of the failure of central planning. However, Burczak's vision for a post-Hayekian socialism is rejected. It is suggested that Burczak has ignored Hayek's argument on the limits of agreement for workers' self-management. Taken seriously, Hayek's argument indicates that the wage-labor contract may be more difficult to overcome than Burczak assumes, unless equity is to wholly replace issues of efficiency & justice. Despite these criticisms, it is concluded that Burczak & Hayek share a criticism of the totalizing project of modernity & of the practice of actually existing political economy, & also a concern for the postcommunist future. These affinities constitute a firm basis on which to engage in a fruitful dialogue on these issues. 22 References. D. Ryfe