Richard Cobden (1804-1865) was a British member of Parliament who championed free trade, the repeal of the Corn Laws, and a laissez-faire economy.[A speech delivered in Manchester, England, January 15, 1846]I shall begin the few remarks which I have to offer to this meeting by proposing, contrary to my usual custom, a resolution; and it is, “That the merchants, manufacturers, and other members of the National Anti-Corn-Law League claim no protection whatever for the manufactured products of this country, and desire to see obliterated forever the few nominally protective duties against foreign manufacturers, which still remain upon our statute books.”Gentlemen, if any of you have taken the pains to wade through the reports of the Protectionist meetings, as they are called, which have been

Mises had hoped that democracy would lead to free societies after World War II ended. He did not foresee the illiberal turn in the West in the last decade.

Original Article: "Libertarian Law by Democratic Means: The Power of Ideologies and Public Opinion"

Previously I explained Ludwig von Mises’s descriptive philosophy of the consent of individuals as the only thing that gives value to norms and authority. Individuals interpret norms and authority as useful—whether or not they are useful in reality for individuals’ purposes of coexistence. I continue with the explanation of how group consent originates and how it sustains norms and authorities with the help of ideologies and public opinion.
Ideologies and Ideological Entrepreneurs
In the first place, the consent of the governed refers to individual consent to ideas, more specifically to systems of ideas that Mises calls “ideologies.” From Misesian theory, the act of consenting to norms and authorities is influenced by an ideology that guides action. Ideologies are standardized sets of

Mises saw essentialist values as fallacies because they were unverifiable and saw metaphysical ideas as a key component of authoritarianism. His solution was utilitarianism.

Original Article: "Libertarian Law by Democratic Means: Utilitarianism and the Demythologization of Authority"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

I have previously explained how for Ludwig von Mises, democracy is necessary for the libertarian society because of its usefulness in achieving and maintaining social peace, insofar as social peace is a prerequisite for economic and civil liberty.
This time I want to explain an idea that is implicit in Mises’s subjectivist philosophy and that leads him to defend democracy, understood as the consent of the governed, but which may go unnoticed because it is dispersed throughout his work: a “philosophy of consent.” Mises’s philosophy of consent is not a “value judgment,” but a “factual judgment”—a description of the functions—of human action in the realm of norms, authorities, and government.
Demythologization of Social Conventions
Mises explains that free-market liberalism, or