Bastiat's influence began to decline towards the end of the 19th century, with the rise of socialism, particularly Marxism, within universities and research institutes, which were increasingly funded by public money.

In the 20th century, the knowledge and popularity of Bastiat disappeared. He was no longer mentioned in economics textbooks. It would not be until the end of World War II that a renewed interest in the ideas of freedom, so evidently forgotten with Roosevelt and the totalitarian regimes in Europe, would emerge. One of the architects of this revival was the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, one of the many European intellectuals who fled Europe through Spain and Portugal to reach America.

Settled in New York in 1943, Mises organized seminars that attracted remarkable minds: George Stigler, Milton Friedman, both future Nobel Prize winners, and Murray Rothbard, then a student at Columbia. It was during these seminars that he first mentioned Bastiat as one of the major references for classical liberalism. He presented to his listeners Bastiat's pamphlets, "The Law" and "The State," which had not yet been translated into English. In 1953, one of the seminar participants, Leonard Read, had "The Law" by Bastiat translated into English and took on the task of distributing the book throughout the country through his foundation, the Foundation for Economic Education.

But the one who would also popularize the theses of Frédéric Bastiat was an economic columnist for the New York Times, Henry Hazlitt, in a small book named "Economics in One Lesson," published in 1946. Explicitly drawing from Bastiat's ideas, he aims to demonstrate that the problem with statist economic solutions is their failure to consider their disastrous long-term consequences.

Hazlitt begins his book by recounting Bastiat's story of the broken window. He summarizes the story in a simple and singular lesson:

Hazlitt then applies this lesson to a wide variety of economic problems, including rent control, minimum wage laws, the presumed benefits of war, public works, the budget deficit, monetary inflation, tariffs, and finally, savings.

Bastiat was one of Ronald Reagan's favorite economists, long before he was elected president. It is less known, but for eight years, Reagan worked for the General Electric company as the host of its television show on CBS, and was responsible for the company's staff training. His training program was built around introductory texts to the market economy. The chosen works were those of two Austrians, Hayek and Mises, two Englishmen, Cobden and Bright, and one Frenchman, Frédéric Bastiat.

The lesson that Reagan taught his employees, following Bastiat, is that there is no greater myth than the notion that public spending stimulates growth and employment.

It was notably John Maynard Keynes who suggested that public spending increased production through a multiplier effect: if the government builds a bridge, the workers on that bridge will be able to buy bread, then the baker can buy shoes, and so on. If private industry is in decline, it can be remedied by major works. If there is unemployment, the State can create public jobs.

However, as Bastiat aptly demonstrated, state intervention has unintended, perverse effects that are often overlooked. Only a good economist is capable of foreseeing them. Let's take an example: It is an illusion to believe that the government can "create jobs" because for every public job created, it destroys a job in the market. Indeed, public jobs are paid for by taxes. Public jobs are not created; they are perceived. Every penny spent by the State must necessarily be obtained through a penny of tax or debt.

If we look at things from this angle, Reagan explained to GE employees, the so-called miracles of state spending appear in a completely different light. Because taxes discourage production, the wealth created by public spending cannot fully compensate for those who were prevented from being born by the taxes levied to pay for these expenses.

In essence, Reagan took from Bastiat several key elements of a liberal vision of society and man: the primacy of civil society over the State, the value of choice and individual responsibility, the importance of the entrepreneur in wealth creation, the importance of a flexible and minimal legal framework, which allows for trust and respect for contracts, the fundamental law that wealth must be created before it can be distributed, the desire to give everyone a chance in competitive markets…