As Hayek frequently repeated, many intelligent and informed people of his day had been taken in by the claim that National Socialism was the next logical and historical phase of a collapsing capitalism. His point, one that most would accept today as evident, was that fascism and communism both represent totalitarian systems that have much more in common with each other than either does with the sorts of governments and economic systems that exist under liberal free market democracies. The Nazis demonized and persecuted the communists, to be sure, but it was not because they themselves were capitalists.
-Bruce Caldwell (Intro, 2017 edition, The Road to Serfdom)
Adds Prof. Boudreaux:
Fascism, communism, and socialism (whether “National,” “democratic,” “market,” “Fabian,” or whatever) are all isms the adherents of which demand the use of the state’s coercive power to engineer economic outcomes. Adherents of each of these isms either deny the existence of, or reject the results of, the free-market’s spontaneous-ordering forces.
When one is talking about all forms of Government, the question to be asked is “Who is in Charge?” and if it isn’t you, you’re living under some form of a totalitarian, Hobbesian government. Capitalism is ONLY an economic system and it REQUIRES Freedom for Individuals to choose for themselves in order to work. Capitalism / Free Market-ism depends not on Government sponsored allocation of capital in the creation of goods and services but the Free Will of Individuals, seeking to enhance their self-interest (and not greed as the Statists all claim) for themselves and families.
All other systems are intertwining of some combination of Governance and Economics (and often, Religion as well). Choice is removed from the Individual as Communism (and Socialism, the waypoint to Communism), Fascism, and all others depend on, and are defined by, the subservience of Individials to the State. Monarchies as well and any other system, even if using (in part) a democratic process to select “leaders”, where the Individual isn’t foremost in the resulting hiearchy.
This is the point that the rising “Democrat Socialists” of today wish for you to ignore. Sure, they talk about “Democracy” everywhere but in the end, it is Government making all the major decisions (governmentally, economically, and often, spiritually and morally) and not you yourselves.
Only Capitalism let you do the deciding – all it needs and wants is a Price point on which producers and consumers can voluntarily exchange value with each other.
And that requires a Constitutionally limiting republican (NOT a big “R” republican!) style of governance in which Govt is constrained.
