Time Frames & Democracy
April 18, 2005 · By Tom Cerber
Colby Cosh has an illuminating editorial in today’s National Post (subscription required) on the sorry affair of UNLV economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe.
Hoppe is from the Austrian school of economics, and counts Hayek and Mises as his inspirations. One of the concepts he likes to use is time-frame or time-horizon, which basically means that people’s actions can be explained in terms of whether they link in short- or long-term spans.
He got into trouble when he suggested that certain kinds of homosexual behavior can be explained by short-term time-horizons. Cosh’s editorial focuses on this, but he provides a more extended defence of time-horizong on his weblog that’s worth reading.
Hoppe has written a book called, Democracy: The God That Failed, in which he argues that democracies have a short-term time horizon, which helps to explain various poor decisions that democratic governments are consistently prone to make.
The importance of time-horizon makes intuitive sense. It’s the cornerstone of Alexis de Tocqueville’s account of individualism, which is the Achilles heel of democracy. I’ve used a form of it to defend the institution of heterosexual marriage, and have suggested that the same-sex marriage debate must be understood within the context of democracy’s short-term time-horizon (which hetero- and homosexuals share).
Hoppe’s own account of events can be read at http://www.mises.org/story/1792. For those who are not in the educational system it paints quite a shocking picture of the so-called “tolerance” such institutions preach.
Thanks for pointing that out Hugo. I notice that the complainant was a former seminarian. I think there’s a study to be made of former seminarians who are overly willing to use the coercive power of the state to promote their newfound values. I have come across several in the past while who fit this description.
hayek…
Interesting post. I came across this blog by accident, but it was a good accident. I have now bookmarked your blog for future use. Best wishes. Salma Hayek….