Spontaneous order is the keystone idea in Hayek’s thought and it is at the basis of his reflections on the market, the State, and the law. Among the scholars that have been influenced by Hayek, Sugden is one of the most concerned with such an idea. Indeed, he has recently reaffirmed that the Austrian scholar influenced his understanding of the market as a spontaneous order. For this reason, the paper aims to provide a reading of Hayek’s spontaneous order theory through Sugden’s contribution on the matter. In addition to outlining the origins of the concept, the paper highlights similarities and differences in the thinking of the two scholars in order to explore some hidden features of Hayek’s spontaneous order through Sugden’s conceptualisation, which helps to ‘de-ideologise’ Hayek’s alleged ideological justification for capitalism.
AndersonTLHillPJ (2004) The Not so Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier. Stanford University Press.
2.
ArrowKJ (1967) Values and collective decision-marking. In: LaslettP (ed) Philosophy, Politics and Society. Basil Blackwell, pp. 215–232.
3.
BarryN (1982) The tradition of spontaneous order. In: BarryN (ed) The Tradition of Spontaneous Order, Vol. 5. No. 2. Literature of Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal Thought. Institute for Human Studies, pp. 7–58.
4.
BíróGI (2025) The case of the missing potatoes: reconsidering Michael Polanyi’s spontaneous order. Global Intellectual History10(1): 53–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/23801883.2023.2193704
5.
BoettkePJ (1998) Economic calculation: the Austrian contribution to political economy. Advances in Austrian Economics5: 131–158.
6.
BruniLSantoriP (2023) The theological stems of modern economic ideas: John Duns Scotus. The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought30(4): 577–595. https://doi.org/10.1080/09672567.2023.2226396
BruniLSugdenR (2013) Reclaiming virtue ethics for economics. The Journal of Economic Perspectives27(4): 141–164. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.27.4.141
9.
BuchananJ (1991) The Gauthier enterprise. In: BuchananJ (ed) The Economics and the Ethics of Constitutional Order. University of Michigan Press, pp. 195–213.
10.
ButosWNMcQuadeTJ (2023) Hayekian Systems: Research into the Structure of Social Interaction. Routledge.
11.
CaldwellB (2004) Hayek’s Challenge. University of Chicago Press.
12.
Colin-JaegerN (2024) Can we design spontaneity? Hayek, design, and the normative appeal of spontaneous orders. Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics17(1): 66–88. https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v17i1.736
13.
Colin-JaegerNDelceyT (2020) When efficient market hypothesis meets Hayek on information: beyond a methodological reading. Journal of Economic Methodology27(2): 97–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178x.2019.1675896
14.
CollinsGM (2022) Spontaneous order and civilization: Burke and Hayek on markets, contracts and social order. Philosophy & Social Criticism48(3): 386–415. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453721990683
15.
DemsetzH (1967) Toward a theory of property rights. In: The American economic review, papers and proceedings of the seventy-ninth annual meeting of the American economic association, May1967, Vol. 57(2), pp. 347–359.
16.
DoldMLewisP (2022) FA Hayek on the political economy of endogenous preferences: an historical overview and contemporary assessment. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization196: 104–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.01.019
17.
D’AmicoDJ (2015) Spontaneous order. In: BoettkePCoyneCJ (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics. Oxford University Press, pp. 115–142.
18.
EllicksonR (1991) Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes. Harvard University Press.
19.
ElsterJ (1978) Logic and Society. Wiley.
20.
ElsterJ (1983) Sour Grapes. Studies in the Subversion of Rationality. Cambride University Press.
21.
ElsterJ (1989) Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press.
22.
FergusonA (1767) An Essay on the History of Civil Society. T. Cadell.
23.
FleetwoodS (1996) Order without equilibrium: a critical realist interpretation of Hayek's notion of spontaneous order. Cambridge Journal of Economics20(6): 729–747. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a013647
24.
GausG (2017) Hayekian “Classical” liberalism. In: BrennanJvan der VossenBSchmidtzD (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism. Routledge, pp. 34–52.
GrayJ (1987) The idea of spontaneous order and the unity of the sciences. In: RadnitzkyG (ed) Centripetal Forces in the Sciences. Paragon House, Vol. 1, pp. 237–249.
28.
HamowyR (1987) The Scottish Enlightenment and the Theory of Spontaneous Order. Southern Illinois University Press.
29.
Hargreaves HeapSP (2022) Laboratory experiments and Austrian economics. In: D’AmicoDJMartinAG (eds) Advances in Austrian Economics: Vol. 26. Contemporary Methods and Austrian Economics. Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 55–67.
30.
HeritierP (1997) Ordine spontaneo ed evoluzione nel pensiero di Hayek. Jovene.
31.
HodgsonGM (2010) Hayek, evolution and spontaneous order. In: MirowskiP (ed) Natural Images in Economic Thought: Markets Read in Tooth and Claw. Cambridge University Press, pp. 408–447.
32.
HowitzS (2001) From Smith to Menger to Hayek. Liberalism in the spontaneous-order tradition. Independent Review6(1): 81–97.
JacobsS (2000) Spontaneous order: Michael Polanyi and Friedrich Hayek. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy3(4): 49–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230008403329
36.
KimbroughEOSmithVLWilsonBJ (2010) Exchange, theft, and the social formation of property. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization74(3): 206–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2010.03.017
37.
KolevS (2010) F. A. Hayek as an Ordo-Liberal Research Paper 5–11. HWWI Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
38.
KolevS (2024) When liberty presupposes order: F. A. Hayek’s contextual ordoliberalism. Journal of the History of Economic Thought46(2): 288–311. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1053837223000214
39.
LewisP (2014) Hayek: from economics as equilibrium analysis to economics as social theory. In: GarrisonRBarryNP (eds) Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics. Edward Elgar, pp. 195–223.
40.
LewisP (2023) The hand behind the invisible hand: reflections on a recurring theme in classical liberal political economy. Contributions to Political Economy42(1): 78–100. https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzad010
41.
LewisPLewinP (2015) Orders, orders, everywhere … on Hayek’s the market and other orders. Cosmos2(2): 1–17.
MackE (2006) Hayek on justice and the order of actions. In: FeserE (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Hayek. Cambridge University Press, pp. 259–286.
44.
MandevilleB (1924[1714]) The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Publick Benefits. Clarendon Press.
45.
MartinA (2015) Austrian methodology. A review and synthesis. In: BoettkePCoyneCJ (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics. Oxford University Press, pp. 13–42.
46.
NozickR (1974) Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Basic Books.
47.
NozickR (1994) Invisible-hand explanations. The American Economic Review84(2): 314–318.
48.
O’DriscollGP (1977) Economics as a Coordination Problem: The Contributions of Friedrich A. Hayek. Sheed Andrews and McMeel.
49.
PolanyiM (1951) The Logic of Liberty. University of Chicago Press.
50.
PosnerRA (2005) Hayek, law, and cognition. New York University Journal of Law & Liberty1: 147–165.
51.
PottsJ (2013) Rules of spontaneous order. Cosmos and Taxis1(1): 30–41.
52.
SearleJ (1990) Collective intentions and actions. In: CohenPRMorganJPollackM (eds) Intentions in Communication. MIT Press, pp. 401–415.
53.
SearleJ (2004) Mind: A Brief Introduction. Oxford University Press.
54.
ServantR (2017) Let’s agree not to agree: FA Hayek’s ‘calculus of consent. Cambridge Journal of Economics41(1): 259–281. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bew018
55.
SmithA (1976[1776]) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Clarendon Press.
SugdenR (1993) Normative judgements and spontaneous order: the contractarian element in Hayek’s thought. Constitutional Political Economy4(3): 393–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02393269
58.
SugdenR (1998) Spontaneous order. In: NewmanP (ed) The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law. Macmillan, Vol. 3, pp. 485–495. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230536791_1
59.
SugdenR (2004) The Economics of Rights, Co-operation and Welfare. 2nd edition. Palgrave Macmillan.
60.
SugdenR (2018) The Community of Advantage: A Behavioural Economist’s Defense of the Market. Oxford University Press.
SzafrugaP (2021) Politics and the Theory of Spontaneous Order. Routledge.
64.
ThébaudOLocatelliB (2001) Modelling the emergence of resource-sharing conventions: an agent-based approach. The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation4(2).
VaughnKI (1999) Hayek's implicit economics: rules and the problem of order. The Review of Austrian Economics11(1): 129–144. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1007784225432
