Despite the late Friedrich Hayek's popular reputation as an advocate of free markets and an opponent of government intervention, his work has important implications for public administration. Hayek argued for the desirability of decentralized systems of human interaction in light of the limits on human rationality, the importance of rules in a social and political order, and the limits of democracy as expressed through majority rule. These ideas can be interpreted as supporting the exercise of significant administrative discretion in public policy within rules that limit arbitrary actions against citizens. As such, his work suggests the continuing relevance of the ideas of classical liberalism to the modern administrative state.
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