According to Hayek, "most of all institutions hitherto have been the result of human action, not of human choice." "Isn't there some truth?Is the system spontaneous?
Some philosophers believe that institutions are the result of human reason, not spontaneous creation. Voltaire once said: "If you want to be good, you can burn out the old canon and make a new law." The root of this is that human development needs rational support and some wise men to guide them to create a "reasonable civilization". After the fact, human beings can understand the laws and further design the system, which is the embodiment of human rational freedom. In fact, it is precisely the embodiment of unfreedom. It is difficult to say that using the system to restrain one's own behavior and the behavior of others is a manifestation of freedom.
In an essay published in Tokyo entitled "The Principles of the Liberal Social Order," Hayek noted: "The central idea of liberalism is that under the universal principle of righteous action, the protection of a well-defined sphere of individual activity, the extremely complex human activity can form a spontaneous order that cannot be produced by any deliberately pursued arrangement." The "spontaneous order" refers to "a system in which man has no choice." Institutions are the result of human behavior, not human design. In ancient times, people lived in clans, and there was not much institutional design. When the number of people exceeds a certain number level, a certain system must be designed. And this design is the result of human behavior, some people go beyond the boundaries of behavior, there are things that harm people's lives, there are things that rob survival resources, and there are even many things that challenge the leader. The leader has to design certain rules that people must follow to ensure the long-term survival and development of the existing population. Otherwise, just infighting will lead to the destruction of the population, so how can we talk about development?
Human civilization is something that people have tried hard and accumulated from generation to generation, and it is not something that can be achieved overnight. In the process of human civilization, although some tribal leaders designed the system, and some emperors wanted to design the system, this design must be based on the existing level of productivity, not beyond the level of productivity. Historically, Wang Anshi's reform and Wuxu reform were unsuccessful because they surpassed the level of development of productive forces at that time and the level of feudal system design at that time. Although there are many reasonable factors and good intentions, they end up being failures in the process of operation. Either it was deviated by the execution of the low-level officials, or it was interfered with by the imperial power, and the result can be imagined. Even if the imperial power participated in the formulation of some institutions, it was only for the purpose of stabilizing the existing order, not for the purpose of breaking the old and creating the new. Many emperors adhered to the admonition that "the law of the ancestors is immutable", and they should design the existing system according to the system of the previous dynasty. This design is destined to the stability of the feudal system itself, and it is also destined to be difficult to change the feudal social system.
Human development requires a certain system of fairness and justice, and it must be strictly implemented. It's just that the systems of all dynasties are not fair and just, and not all of them are strictly enforced. From the moment the system emerges, it is not fair and just, but can only ensure the stability of the existing society to the greatest extent, ensure that the power possessed by the ruling class is not taken away, and ensure that the ruling class continuously extracts the fruits of labor from the ruled class. The social system should ensure that people can give full play to their abilities, and this kind of play is limited to a certain range, not at will, let alone casually challenging the imperial power. People are mostly controlled by power, and they have to keep to themselves and support themselves. As a result, most of the people of all dynasties in ancient times were peasants, and they had to farm all year round in order to have the possibility of survival. The ruling class, on the other hand, holds power and ensures that the fruits of its labour are constantly extracted from the peasantry. In this way, the system itself has class characteristics, and it is not fair and just. And the formation of the system itself is not something that the ruling class can call the shots, but needs to develop society to a certain extent and form it naturally.
It is like the market economy system, which was formed spontaneously in the process of development, with its own system of regulation, without the intervention of power. The balance of supply and demand in the market, labor-management relations, etc., are the result of the spontaneous adjustment of the market, and human intervention is not good, which can easily lead to imbalance in market development. According to Hayek, the concept of "social justice" that is commonly talked about is simply absurd, because strictly speaking, the "standard of justice" of each person's contribution, performance, degree of need, etc., can not be devised by anyone, and it is naturally formed in the process of social development, including democratic institutions. That is to say, when human civilization develops to a certain extent, a certain system will be formed, and not one or two people can complete the system design. In particular, in the development of social development based on the economy, when the economic development reaches a certain level, the economic system is naturally formed, and the social and political system is naturally formed.
The economy is the foundation of social development, and politics is the superstructure. If economic development can naturally form a certain system, then the political system will also be naturally formed. Without free economic development, there can be no free political development. From an economic point of view, institutions do arise spontaneously.