But evidence isn’t a consideration, as we’ve established. Instead, the reasoning is from first principles, i.e. democracy leads to totalitarianism. Hayek gets this from Mises and reiterates it throughout his work. He sees central planning as the result of democracy, central planning as socialism, and socialism as inherently totalitarian. So he supports the authoritarian crackdown. As Hayek said in a 1981 interview with Renee Sallas of Chile’s El Mercurio newspaper: “I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking in liberalism.” The Austrians have a history with this sort of
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