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Interesting question. I don't know why the British usage adopts the infinitive, but
linguistically I don't think it is as awkward as Barkley suggests. "Laisser faire" could
also be translated as "to allow to be". And in French or Italian, infinitives also serve
for what would be a gerund in English: "laisser faire" = "allowing to do" or "leaving [to]
be". Grammatically speaking, a gerund is a noun, and it may be that the British usage has
to do with scruples about how the expression is typically used grammatically: if one is
referring to a philosophy of government or an ideological stance, one is referring to a
noun.
 
While we're on the topic, I can never decide whether I should hyphenate the expression or
not.
 
Gary 
 
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