Book Review: Liberalism’s Last Man: Hayek in the Age of Political Capitalism

The structure of Yadav’s book is to revisit the main themes of The Road to Serfdom but update not with socialism in mind, but with political capitalism in mind. Whereas liberal capitalism is characterized by the rule of law, the entrepreneurial market as a competitive process of discovery, and institutional checks against arbitrary power, political capitalism is characterized by authoritarian government, technocratic government, weak notion of the rule of law, and a state-guided economy.

The reader will come to appreciate Yadav’s approach to teaching contending perspectives in political economy as much as the core argument that emerges in the exercise. The book is well researched, well written, and an important addition to the bookshelf of teacher/scholars of the history of political and economic thought, and to the field of development economics.

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