PRESTOPUNDIT

Madsen Pirie gives this brief of his case for saying Hayek is a conservative. Quotable:

There is the conservative disposition, which likes to keep familiar things as they are. Michael Oakeshott expressed this brilliantly in Rationalism in Politics. Hayek was not like that at all; he wanted to improve things, not keep them the same.

Alongside this temperament, there is also the political tradition of conservatism. This represents a resistance to taking society in any preconceived direction, and especially towards any earthly paradise. Those of this school try to keep society spontaneous, and oppose any attempts to impose 'visions' upon it. Hayek said that conservatives had no goal, whereas his goal was for a free society. I suggested that conservatives have not only tried to retain the spontaneity of society, but also to restore it when it had been compromised. In seeking to preserve freedom, to extend it and restore it, Hayek fitted quite comfortably within that political tradition.