Settler-Neoliberalism: Tom Flanagan and Friedrich Hayek on the Prairies.

This article examines the intellectual development of Canadian political scientist Tom Flanagan, highlighting his role as a prominent Hayekian thinker who systematically applied neoliberal ideas to defend Canadian settler colonialism. Drawing on Friedrich Hayek’s concept of spontaneous order, Flanagan developed a "settler-neoliberalism" that justified settler colonial policies by framing social and economic orders as naturally emergent and resistant to state intervention, particularly regarding Indigenous land rights and governance. The article situates Flanagan’s work within broader transnational neoliberal currents and critiques the coherence of his defense of settler colonialism, noting contradictions between the purported spontaneity of market orders and the historically intentional, state-driven processes of settler colonialism in Canada. Ultimately, it argues that neoliberalism has functioned as a collaborative ideological companion to the Canadian settler-colonial project.