Friedrich Hayek was an early 20^th century Austrian-British economist and philosopher who is most recognised for his ideas defending classical liberalism and was a major influence on how capital societies viewed the concept of liberty. Perhaps controversially, he was very critical of command economies as he felt governments are unable to effectively process the information, which is necessary in order to distribute resources efficiently, in addition to supressing the political freedoms in society. Rather, he believed in maintaining competition, markets and prices as the main controlling components in the economy with little to no government intervention, essentially free-market economies.