The Impact of Intellectuals on Policy and Public Perception

How does a movement win a war of ideas? What are the mechanisms by which politics and culture change over time? These were the questions behind Frederich Hayek's 1949 essay "The Intellectuals and Socialism." Hayek was a believer in free markets and libertarian politics. When he wrote this essay just after the Great Depression and World War II, free marketers like Hayek were an extreme minority. Forty years later the situation had flipped: the ideas of Hayek and his fellow free marketers were setting policy across the Western world. "The Intellectuals and Socialism" presents the strategy they followed to bring about this terrific change in the climate of ideas. Joining me (Tanner Greer) to discuss Hayek's seminal essay is Trevor Burrus. Burrus is a research fellow at the Cato Institute whose research focuses on constitutional law. He is the senior editor of the Cato Supreme Court Review and the co-host of the popular libertarian podcast Free Thoughts. The full show notes for this episode are available at www.scholars-stage.org.