ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a set of arguments laid out in the context of the post-World War II welfare state, but which clearly bear the marks of a long tradition of liberal democratic theory. It demonstrates that although New Right liberal theorists claim to rely exclusively on a conception of freedom as noninterference or noncoercion in their critique of welfare to the nonworking poor, they also imply a more substantive conception of freedom. Among the liberal theorists of the New Right, F. A. Hayek provides the most developed analysis of the relation between liberalism and democracy. Hayek's interpretation of history and his identification of rational possibilities lay the foundation for distinguishing between the public and private spheres, that is, for distinguishing between the state and the free market. Ultimately, liberty and the public/private distinctions have important implications for the liberal meaning of citizenship.
