Akademik

(1899–1992)

Austrian economist. Born and educated in Vienna, Hayek taught at London and Chicago before returning to his native country in 1962. In a succession of economic analyses, and in more popular works (such as The Road to Serfdom, 1944), he propounded an extreme laissez-faire economic individualism, allied with the political belief that anything in the nature of state action or collective action (such as that of trade unions) undermines liberty and paves the way to totalitarianism. He was a notable influence on the economic and political right wing, especially in the 1980s in Britain.