The slow and hidden road to serfdom

Abstract

Without the rule of law limiting the discretionary powers of government agencies, but also of other organizations and in-dividuals no individual freedom is possible. If government re-presentatives or private persons can order at their discretion individuals to behave in certain ways, no individual liberty is guaranteed. As Immanuel Kant expressed it «man is free if he needs to obey no person but solely the law.» And even if indi-viduals are only obliged to follow the law, their freedom is al-ways threatened if these laws can be changed arbitrarily by any individuals or government authorities. This is even true for de-mocracies in which duly elected parliamentary majorities (that is minorities) are allowed to introduce new laws or change old ones relating to any sphere of human activities. The problem has been clearly stated by Alexis de Tocqueville (1945, vol. I, p.270):
 When I see that the right and the means of absolute command are conferred on any power whatever, be it called a people or a king, an aristocracy or a democracy, a monarchy or a republic, I say there is the germ of tyranny, and I seek to live elsewhere, under other laws.
 Similar ideas are expressed by Friedrich v. Hayek (1944, p. 62):
 The Rule of Law thus implies limits to the scope of legislation: it restricts it to the kind of general rules known as formal law, and excludes legislation either directly aimed at particular people, or at enabling anybody to use the coercive power of the state for the purpose of such discrimination.