One can therefore only second the verdict of Cristi that, “In truth, Hayek owed much to Schmitt, more than he cared to recognize” (1998, 23). For Hayek and the neoliberals, the Führer was replaced by the figure of the entrepreneur, the embodiment of the will-to-power for the community, who must be permitted to act without being brought to rational account. While Hayek probably believed that he was personally defending liberalism from Schmitt’s withering critique, his own political solution ended up resembling Schmitt’s “total state” far more than he cared to admit.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 2146