Hayek’s Modern Family

Scholars within the Hayekian-Austrian tradition of classical liberalism have done virtually no work on the family as an economic and social institution. In addition, there is a real paucity of scholarship on the place of the family within classical liberal and libertarian political philosophy. Hayek's Modern Family offers a classical liberal theory of the family, taking Hayekian social theory as the main analytical framework. Horwitz argues that families are social institutions that perform certain irreplaceable functions in society. These functions change as economic, political, and social circumstances change, and the family form adapts accordingly, kicking off the next wave of developments in the social structure. In Hayekian terms, the family is an evolving and undesigned social institution. Horwitz offers a non-conservative defense of the family as a social institution against the view that either the state or "the village" is able or required to take over its irreplaceable functions.

PART I: CLASSICAL LIBERALISM AND THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS1. Introduction: The Family and Classical Liberalism2. Two Sorts of Worlds at OncePART II: CAPITALISM AND THE CREATION OF THE MODERN FAMILY3. The Family in a World of Poverty4. Capitalism and the Emergence of the Modern Family5. Gender and Family in the Twentieth CenturyPART III: THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FAMILY 6. Marriage, Divorce, and the Market Process7. The Family in a World of Abundance8. Why Parenting Matters: The Importance of Play, Risk, and Failure for Classical LiberalismPART IV: CLASSICAL LIBERALISM AND FAMILY POLICY9. Knowledge, Incentives, and Parental Rights: A Framework for Classical Liberal Family Policy10. Classical Liberalism and the Contemporary Evolution of Marriage