Following their overwhelming defeat in the July 2024 general election, Britain’s Conservative Party recently elected Kemi Badenoch as its newest leader, meaning that she would become Prime Minister if the Conservatives win the next general election. It would be an exaggeration to describe Badenoch as a completely unknown political figure, but as a relatively early-career politician—she is 44 years old, was first elected to Parliament in 2017, and has never held any of the Great Offices of State—thus, she will be unfamiliar to most people who don’t follow British politics closely.However, advocates of sound economics may have been hopeful to hear that she once described herself as an adherent of the “Austrian school” of economics, and lists Thomas Sowell amongst her personal heroes.

Anyone who advocates the ideas of the Austrian school of economics, whether broadly and publicly or even in the context of private discussions with friends and acquaintances, will almost immediately find themselves grappling with the tricky question of how to distill the core essence of what Austrian economics actually is, and how to convey those truly definitive characteristics as briefly and simply as possible.