Liberty and Property.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

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Liberty and Property 11IAt the end of the eighteenth centurythere prevailed two notions ofliberty, each of them very differentfrom what we have in mind today referringto liberty and freedom.The first of these conceptions was purelyacademic and without any application tothe conduct of political affairs. It was anidea derived from the books of the ancientauthors, the study of which was then theThis article was originally delivered as a lecture at PrincetonUniversity, October 1958, at the 9th Meeting of the Mont PelerinSociety.11
12Liberty and Propertysum and substance of higher education. Inthe eyes of these Greek and Roman writers,freedom was not something that had to begranted to all men. It was a privilege of theminority, to be withheld from the majority.What the Greeks called democracy was, inthe light of present-day terminology, notwhat Lincoln called government by the people,but oligarchy, the sovereignty of fullrightcitizens in a community in which themasses were meteques or slaves. Even thisrather limited freedom after the fourth centurybefore Christ was not dealt with by thephilosophers, historians, and orators as apractical constitutional institution. As theysaw it, it was a feature of the past irretrievablylost. They bemoaned the passing ofthis golden age, but they did not know anymethod of returning to it.The second notion of liberty was no lessoligarchic, although it was not inspired byany literary reminiscences. It was the ambitionof the landed aristocracy, and sometimesalso of urban patricians, to preserve
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