“Bureaucracy of liberalism”, isn’t that an oxymoron like “tolerance of racism” or “smartness of stupidity”? Yes, indeed, but a friend of mine who devoted his life to refuting liberalism thinks that it exists. Unfortunately, apart from Rawls, all the cornerstones of classical liberal thinking are perfectly unknown to him. Since he has never heard of Ludwig von Mises before, I may quote him here from the preface of his outstanding 1944 work “Bureaucracy”:
This book will try to demonstrate that no profit-seeking enterprise, no matter how large, is liable to become bureaucratic provided the hands of its management are not tied by government interference. The trend toward bureaucratic rigidity is not inherent in the evolution of business. It is an outcome of government meddling with business. It is a result of the policies designed to eliminate the profit motive from its role in the framework of society’s economic organization. (…)
Today the fashionable philosophy of Statolatry has obfuscated the issue. The political conflicts are no longer seen as struggles between groups of men. They are considered a war between two principles, the good and the bad. The good is embodied in the great god State, the materialization of the eternal idea of morality, and the bad in the “rugged individualism” of selfish men. In this antagonism the State is always right and the individual always wrong. The State is the representative of the commonweal, of justice, civilization, and superior wisdom. The individual is a poor wretch, a vicious fool.
When a German says “der Staat” or when a Marxian says “society,” they are overwhelmed by reverential awe. How can a man be so entirely corrupt as to rise in rebellion against this Supreme Being? (…)
This is the essence of the philosophy of bureaucratism. The written laws are in the eyes of the officials barriers erected for the protection of scoundrels against the fair claims of society. Why should a criminal evade punishment only because the “State” in prosecuting him has violated some frivolous formalities? Why should a man pay lower taxes only because there is a loophole left in the tax law? Why should lawyers make a living advising people how to profit from the imperfections of the written law? What is the use of all these restrictions imposed by the written law upon the government official’s honest endeavors to make the people happy? If only there were no constitutions, bills of rights, laws, parliaments, and courts! No newspapers and no attorneys! How fine the world would be if the “State” were free to cure all ills!
It is one step only from such a mentality to the perfect totalitarianism of Stalin and Hitler.
(…) The officeholders and the bureaucrats are not the State. They are men selected for the application of the laws. One may call such opinions orthodox and doctrinaire. They are indeed the expression of old wisdom. But the alternative to the rule of law is the rule of despots. (…)
European totalitarianism is an upshot of bureaucracy’s preeminence in the field of education. The universities paved the way for the dictators.
I think that should settle the question once and for all.
