Conservatism and Libertarianism
True Conservatives Need to Be Libertarian
This article is an AI-assisted translation.
Continental European conservatism is deeply shaped by a belief in state and collective solutions. Yet truly principled conservatives should recognize freedom as the highest good—if their own moral convictions are truly sacred to them.
The thinkers of the Austrian School—especially Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich August von Hayek—always referred to themselves as liberals, never as conservatives. In The Constitution of Liberty, Hayek even explained in detail why he was not a conservative.
Conservatism, as the Latin root conservare (“to preserve”) suggests, seeks to conserve moral and value systems, whereas libertarianism embraces reason, change, and progress. Thus, conservative ideals among libertarians are always a matter of subjective preference. Values and morals may evolve and adapt, so long as the ethical principle of absolute individual freedom remains untouched.
Consequently, one could argue that there are hardly any genuine conservatives left—let alone reactionaries. Who among those who call themselves conservative truly wishes to return to a hierarchical, authoritarian order of ranks and estates, or to restore the pre-industrial world? Almost always, advocates of such positions append the caveat: “But with some modern conveniences that make life easier.”
From a libertarian perspective, moral values and traditions are the starting points for an individual’s actions and for the circumstances of his or her environment. Every human being must necessarily adhere to at least a minimal set of values and traditions to engage in social cooperation at all. These emerge from countless individual actions within a definable group of people. They simplify coexistence and ensure social stability. But whenever, for whatever reason, traditions and moral norms are no longer observed by a critical mass of individuals, they fade away. This process is what followers of the Austrian School describe as spontaneous order.
The subjective theory of value is the only consistent theory of value—it not only resolved the paradoxes of other value theories but goes much further. According to it, moral and ideal values, as well as faith itself, are part of human action and therefore subject to exchange. Accordingly, even faith, moral convictions, and ideals can have a price once they become part of an exchange between people. Since prices are merely intersubjective value denominators, a price in this sense expresses what an individual is willing to trade their values for.
This can best be tested through absolute beliefs. Suppose someone truly believes in God but, dying of thirst in the desert, faces the excruciating choice of renouncing their faith in exchange for a bottle of water. Under these conditions, the “price” of abandoning faith would be one bottle of water in the desert. Which person would remain faithful and die of thirst, and which would reach for the bottle and save their life at the cost of their faith? The actual decision and the act that follows demonstrate the individual’s preference and reveal the relative price of their belief.
Of course, this is a deliberately extreme hypothetical. In reality, any faith community would recognize the human instinct to survive and forgive the believer’s choice. Yet this vivid example illustrates how subjective values play a crucial role in human economic behavior—far beyond the narrow exchange of goods and services envisioned by neoclassical, Keynesian, or Marxist schools of thought.
What does this mean for conservatism? True conservatism depends on voluntary action. Only values demonstrated through action can preserve traditions, customs, and faith. Belief or morality imposed by force—let alone through political coercion—can never create genuine faith, true traditions, or authentic ideals. Rarely do values born from coercion and violence endure over time. For when force is required to sustain action, those values are inherently worth less than those upheld voluntarily, because voluntary action demonstrates a higher valuation than coerced behavior.
Conservatism, therefore, thrives on voluntary exchange—on individuals who freely recognize the additional value of their faith and traditions for themselves. The common conservative mistake lies in longing for state power or other forms of political compulsion.
The internet term “cuckservative” likely emerged because many mainstream conservatives not only misunderstand fundamental principles of economics but actively reject them in the name of their moral convictions. This yearning for authority rests on the same economic fallacies that have led socialists to destroy entire nations—and with them, their traditions and values. It is no coincidence that Hayek addressed The Road to Serfdom to “the socialists of all parties.”
Conclusion:
If conservatives wish to preserve, live out, and spread their values, state power and collective coercion are the wrong path. Only freedom can preserve conservatism in the long run.