Libertarianism

This article is about the various political philosophies, ideologies, and social movements. For other uses, see Libertarianism (disambiguation).

Libertarianism is a term adopted by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which advocate the maximization of individual liberty and the minimization or even abolition of the state. Libertarians embrace viewpoints across that spectrum, ranging from minarchist to openly anarchist.

All schools of libertarianism support strong personal rights to life and liberty, though some disagree on the subject of private property. The most commonly known formulation of libertarianism supports free market capitalism by advocating a right to private property, including property in the means of production, minimal government regulation of that property, minimal taxation, and rejection of the welfare state, all within the context of the rule of law. Some pro-property libertarians are anarchists who call for the elimination of the state. Some call the pro-property view propertarian, and some pro-property libertarians believe a "propertarian philosophy" is a weak basis for libertarian morality. A number of countries worldwide have libertarian parties which run candidates for political office.

Libertarian socialists—the first political activists to adopt the term libertarian in the mid-19th century—are usually anarchists or left communists, opposed to arbitrary structures of authority and hierarchy in personal relations and the larger social order. Most notably they are opposed to state power and forms of private property such as capital, but also oppose patriarchy and racism. These libertarians often believe in the abolition of private property and may be called non-propertarian or anti-propertarian. They do not seek state solutions, instead looking to voluntary and popularly controlled associations.

Origins

The term libertarian in a metaphysical or philosophical sense was first used by late-Enlightenment free-thinkers to refer to those who believed in free will, as opposed to determinism. Libertarianism in this sense is still encountered in metaphysics in discussions of free will. The first recorded use was in 1789 by William Belsham in a discussion of free will and in opposition to "necessitarian" (or determinist) views. Metaphysical and philosophical contrasts between philosophies of necessity and libertarianism continued in the early 19th century.

Usage by anti-property movements

The French anarchist communist Joseph Déjacque was the first to employ the term libertarian in a political sense in May 1857, in an 11-page pamphlet De l'Etre Humain mâle et femelle (Concerning the Human Male and Female), an open letter criticizing Pierre-Joseph Proudhon published while its author was in exile in New Orleans. From 1858 until his return to France in 1861 Déjacque published in New York a journal called Le Libertaire: Journal du Mouvement Social.

According to the anarchist historian Max Nettlau, the first use of the term libertarian communism was in November 1880, when a French anarchist congress employed it to more clearly identify its doctrines. The French anarchist journalist Sébastien Faure, later founder and editor of the four-volume Anarchist Encyclopedia, started the weekly paper Le Libertaire (The Libertarian) in 1895.

Reflecting international use of the term "libertarian" by anarchists, Peter Kropotkin's 1909 The Great French Revolution noted that "the principles of anarchism" had "their origin" in the directly democratic sections of Paris.". According to the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article on anarchism, written by Peter Kropotkin, the economic and especially the mutual-banking ideas of Proudhon were applied by supporters the United States. The article states: "It would be impossible to represent here, in a short sketch, the penetration, on the one hand, of anarchist ideas into modern literature, and the influence, on the other hand, which the libertarian ideas of the best contemporary writers have exercised upon the development of anarchism." Writers he named included John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Jean-Marie Guyau, Alfred Jules Émile Fouillée, Multatuli, Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Lloyd Garrison, Henry David Thoreau and others.

Numerous left libertarians or libertarian socialists around the world have so described themselves over the last 100 years. The key living social movements of non-propertarian Libertarianism are generally those of revolutionary Libertarian socialism, or workers movements with libertarian goals. Key events would be the organisation of the American Industrial Workers of the World; the Makhnovist movement within the Russian revolution of 1917; the role of the CNT and FAI in the Spanish Civil War; and the Italian autonomist movement. The EZLN movement in Mexico has maintained a significance within Mexican politics since the early 1990s.

Many libertarian socialists are involved in the anti-globalisation movement, sometimes in aggressive formations such as the Black blocs or groups like the Tute Bianche. After the 1999 Seattle protests many libertarian socialists worldwide joined other "anti-capitalists" in adopting the policy of “diversity of tactics” at protests. According to George Lakey, diversity of tactics "implies that some protesters may choose to do actions that will be interpreted by the majority of people as ‘violent,’ like property destruction, attacks on police vehicles, fighting back if provoked by the police, and so on...”

Libertarian socialists, including Noam Chomsky and Colin Ward state that the term libertarianism is considered throughout the world as a synonym for anarchism but in the United States it means free market philosophies. Academics and proponents of the latter position, however, note that free market libertarians have been spreading their ideas around the world via think tanks and political parties since the 1970s, so that outside of the United States, libertarianism can be used to refer to the free market pro-property position.

Usage by pro-property movements

See also: History of classical liberalism

Enlightenment ideas of individual liberty, constitutionally limited government, and reliance on the institutions of civil society and a free market to promote social order and economic prosperity were the basis of what became known in the 19th century as liberalism. While it kept that meaning in most of the world, modern liberalism in the United States began to take a more statist approach to economic regulation. Some libertarians have argued it is closer to fascism than state socialism.

Over time, those who held to the earlier liberal views began to call themselves market liberals, classical liberals or libertarians. (Some limited government advocates still use the term "libertarianism" almost interchangeably with the term classical liberalism.) While conservatism in Europe continued to mean conserving hierarchical class structures through state control of society and the economy, some conservatives in the United States began to refer to conserving traditions of liberty. This was especially true of the Old Right, who opposed the New Deal and U.S. military interventions in World War I and World War II.

Later, the Austrian School of economics also had a powerful impact on both economic teaching and classical liberal and libertarian principles. It influenced economists and political philosophers and theorists including Henry Hazlitt, Israel Kirzner, Murray Rothbard, Walter Block and Richard M. Ebeling. The Austrian School was in turn influenced by Frederic Bastiat.

Starting in the 1930s and continuing until today, a group of central European economists led by Austrians Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek identified the collectivist underpinnings to the various new socialist and fascist doctrines of government power as being different brands of totalitarianism.

In the 1940s, Leonard Read began calling himself libertarian. In 1955, Dean Russell wrote an article in the Foundation for Economic Education magazine pondering what to call those, such as himself, who subscribed to the classical liberal philosophy. He suggested: "Let those of us who love liberty trademark and reserve for our own use the good and honorable word "libertarian.""

Ayn Rand's international best sellers The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) and her books about her philosophy of Objectivism influenced modern libertarianism. For a number of years after the publication of her books, people promoting a libertarian philosophy continued to call it individualism. Two other women also published influential pro-freedom books in 1943, Rose Wilder Lane’s The Discovery of Freedom and Isabel Paterson’s The God of the Machine.

According to libertarian publisher Robert W. Poole, Arizona United States Senator Barry Goldwater's message of individual liberty, economic freedom, and anti-communism also had a major impact on the libertarian movement, both with the publication of his book The Conscience of a Conservative and with his run for president in 1964. Goldwater's speech writer, Karl Hess, became a leading libertarian writer and activist.

The Cold War mentality of military interventionism, which had supplanted Old Right non-interventionism, was promoted by conservatives like William F. Buckley and accepted by many libertarians, with Murray Rothbard being a notable dissenter. However, the Vietnam War split the uneasy alliance between growing numbers of self-identified libertarians, anarcho-libertarians, and more traditional conservatives who believed in limiting liberty to uphold moral virtues. Libertarians opposed to the war joined the draft resistance and peace movements and organisations such as Students for a Democratic Society. They began founding their own publications, like Murray Rothbard's The Libertarian Forum and organizations like the Radical Libertarian Alliance.

The split was aggravated at the 1969 Young Americans for Freedom convention, when more than 300 libertarians organized to take control of the organization from conservatives. The burning of a draft card in protest to a conservative proposal against draft resistance sparked physical confrontations among convention attendees, a walkout by a large number of libertarians, the creation of libertarian organizations like the Society for Individual Liberty, and efforts to recruit potential libertarians from conservative organizations. The split was finalized in 1971 when conservative leader William F. Buckley, in a 1971 New York Times article, attempted to divorce libertarianism from the freedom movement. He wrote: "The ideological licentiousness that rages through America today makes anarchy attractive to the simple-minded. Even to the ingeniously simple-minded."

In 1971, David Nolan and a few friends formed the Libertarian Party. Attracting former Democrats, Republicans and independents, it has run a presidential candidate every election year since 1972, including John Hospers (1972), Ed Clark (1980), Ron Paul (1988), Harry Browne (1996 and 2000), Michael Badnarik (2004), and Bob Barr (2008). By 2006, polls showed that 15 percent of American voters identified themselves as libertarian. Over the years, dozens of libertarian political parties have been formed worldwide. Educational organizations like the Center for Libertarian Studies and the Cato Institute were formed in the 1970s, and others have been created since then.

Philosophical libertarianism gained a significant measure of recognition in academia with the publication of Harvard University professor Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia in 1974. The book won a National Book Award in 1975. According to libertarian essayist Roy Childs, "Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia single-handedly established the legitimacy of libertarianism as a political theory in the world of academia."

Libertarian principles

According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

Libertarians are committed to the belief that individuals, and not states or groups of any other kind, are both ontologically and normatively primary; that individuals have rights against certain kinds of forcible interference on the part of others; that liberty, understood as non-interference, is the only thing that can be legitimately demanded of others as a matter of legal or political right; that robust property rights and the economic liberty that follows from their consistent recognition are of central importance in respecting individual liberty; that social order is not at odds with but develops out of individual liberty; that the only proper use of coercion is defensive or to rectify an error; that governments are bound by essentially the same moral principles as individuals; and that most existing and historical governments have acted improperly insofar as they have utilized coercion for plunder, aggression, redistribution, and other purposes beyond the protection of individual liberty.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states "libertarianism holds that agents initially fully own themselves and have moral powers to acquire property rights in external things under certain conditions." It notes that libertarianism is not a “right-wing” doctrine because of its opposition to laws restricting adult consensual sexual relationships and drug use, and its opposition to imposing religious views or practices and compulsory military service. However, it notes that there is a version known as “left-libertarianism” which also endorses full self-ownership, but "differs on unappropriated natural resources (land, air, water, etc.)." "Right-libertarianism" holds that such resources may be appropriated by individuals. "Left-libertarianism" holds that they belong to everyone and must be distributed in some egalitarian manner.

While the traditional political “left-right” spectrum is a line, the Nolan chart, created by David Nolan, is a plane, situating libertarianism in a wider gamut of political thought.

Like many libertarians, Leonard Read rejected the concepts of "left" and "right" libertarianism, calling them "authoritarian." Libertarian author and politician Harry Browne wrote: "We should never define Libertarian positions in terms coined by liberals or conservatives– nor as some variant of their positions. We are not fiscally conservative and socially liberal. We are Libertarians, who believe in individual liberty and personal responsibility on all issues at all times. You can depend on us to treat government as the problem, not the solution."

Isaiah Berlin's 1958 essay "Two Concepts of Liberty" described a difference between negative liberty which limits the power of the state to interfere and positive liberty in which a paternalistic state helps individuals achieve self-realization and self-determination. He believed these were rival and incompatible interpretations of liberty and held that demands for positive liberty lead to authoritarianism. This view has been adopted by many libertarians including Robert Nozick and Murray Rothbard.

Libertarians contrast two ethical views: consequentialist libertarianism, which is the support for liberty because it leads to favorable consequences, such as prosperity or efficiency and deontological libertarianism (also known as "rights-theorist libertarianism," "natural rights libertarianism," or "libertarian moralism") which consider moral tenets to be the basis of libertarian philosophy. Others combine a hybrid of consequentialist and deontologist thinking.

Another view, contractarian libertarianism, holds that any legitimate authority of government derives not from the consent of the governed, but from contract or mutual agreement. Robert Nozick held a variation on this view, as does Jan Narveson as outlined in his 1988 work The Libertarian Idea and his 2002 work Respecting Persons in Theory and Practice. Other advocates of contractarian libertarianism include the Nobel Laureate and founder of the public choice school of economics James M. Buchanan, Canadian philosopher David Gauthier and Hungarian-French philosopher Anthony de Jasay.

Constitutionalism is commonly regarded as a form of contractarian libertarianism, especially in the United States, where many believe the Constitution expresses libertarian principles, and constitutionalist legal scholars may be identified as "libertarian".

Generally, pro-market libertarians focus on the rights of the individual to act in accordance with the individual's own subjective values, and argue that the coercive actions of the state are often (or even always) an impediment to the efficient realization of individual desires and values. Libertarians also maintain that what is immoral for the individual must necessarily be immoral for all state agents and that the state should not be above the law.

The Irish Workers Solidarity Movement strongly emphasises the principle of solidarity, or the union of associated interest, counter-posing it to sectarianism, or division over doctrinal belief.

Libertarianism and anarchism

Main article: Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing many theories and traditions, all opposed to coercion of individuals, especially by government. Anarchism is usually considered a radical left-wing ideology, and much of anarchist economics and anarchist legal philosophy reflects anti-statist views such as anarcho-communism, collectivist anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism and participatory economics.

However, anarchism has always included an economic and legal individualist strain, with that strain supporting an anarchist free-market economy and private property (like classical mutualism or anarcho-capitalism and agorism). Anarcho-capitalist Murray Rothbard has stated that "Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."

Non-propertarian libertarianism

Libertarian socialism

Main article: Libertarian socialism

Libertarian socialism aims to create a society in which all violent or coercive institutions would be dissolved, and in their place every person would have free, equal access to tools of information and production, or a society in which such coercive institutions and hierarchies were drastically reduced in scope.

This equality and freedom would be achieved through the abolition of authoritarian institutions such as an individual's right to own private property, in order that direct control of the means of production and resources will be gained by the working class and society as a whole.

Political philosophies commonly described as libertarian socialist include: most varieties of anarchism (especially anarchist communism, anarchist collectivism, anarcho-syndicalism), social ecology, libertarian municipalism, and council communism.

Left-libertarianism

Main article: Left-libertarianism

Left-libertarianism is usually regarded as doctrine that has an egalitarian view concerning natural resources, believing that it is not legitimate for someone to claim private ownership of such resources to the detriment of others. Most left libertarians support some form of income redistribution on the grounds of a claim by each individual to be entitled to an equal share of natural resources. Left libertarianism is defended by contemporary theorists such as Peter Vallentyne, Hillel Steiner, Michael Otsuka, and Noam Chomsky. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for libertarian socialism.

Geolibertarianism

Main article: Geolibertarianism

Geolibertarianism is a political movement that strives to reconcile libertarianism and Georgism (or "geoism"). The term was coined by Fred Foldvary. Geolibertarians are advocates of geoism, which is the position that all land is a common asset to which all individuals have an equal right to access, and therefore if individuals claim the land as their property they must pay rent to the community for doing so. Rent need not be paid for the mere use of land, but only for the right to exclude others from that land, and for the protection of one's title by government. They simultaneously agree with the libertarian position that each individual has an exclusive right to the fruits of his or her labor as their private property, as opposed to this product being owned collectively by society or the community, and that "one's labor, wages, and the products of labor" should not be taxed. In agreement with traditional libertarians they advocate "full civil liberties, with no crimes unless there are victims who have been invaded." In the voluntary geolibertarianism described by Foldvary, rent would be collected by private associations with the opportunity to secede from a geocommunity if desired.

Mutualism

Main article: Mutualism (economic theory)

Mutualism, as a libertarian socialist free-market anarchist school of thought, can be traced to the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon that envisioned a society where each person might possess a means of production either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor. Integral to the scheme was the establishment of a mutual credit bank which would lend to producers at a minimal interest rate only high enough to cover the costs of administration. Mutualism is based on a labor theory of value which holds that when labor or its product is sold, it ought to receive in exchange, goods or services embodying "the amount of labor necessary to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility" (receiving anything less is considered exploitation, theft of labor, or "usury").

Some mutualists believe that if the state did not intervene, economic law would ensure that individuals receive no more income than that in proportion to the amount of labor they exert. Mutualists oppose the idea of individuals receiving an income through loans, investments, and rent, as they believe these individuals are not laboring. Some of them hold that if state intervention ceased, these types of incomes would disappear. Though Proudhon opposed this type of income, he expressed: "... I never meant to ... forbid or suppress, by sovereign decree, ground rent and interest on capital. I believe that all these forms of human activity should remain free and optional for all."

Propertarian libertarianism

Anarcho-capitalism

Main article: Anarcho-capitalism

Anarcho-capitalism is an individualist anarchist political philosophy that advocates the elimination of the state and the elevation of the sovereign individual in a free market. In an anarcho-capitalist society, law enforcement, courts, and all other security services are provided by voluntarily-funded competitors such as private defense agencies rather than through compulsory taxation. Because personal and economic activities are regulated by the natural laws of the market through private law rather than through politics, victimless crimes and crimes against the state would be rendered moot.

Anarcho-capitalists argue for a society based in voluntary trade of private property (including money, consumer goods, land, and capital goods) and services in order to maximize individual liberty and prosperity, but also recognize charity and communal arrangements as part of the same voluntary ethic. Though anarcho-capitalists are known for asserting a right to private (individualized or joint non-public) property, some propose that non-state public/community property can also exist in an anarcho-capitalist society. For them, what is important is that it is acquired and transferred without help or hindrance from the compulsory state. Market anarchists believe that the only just, and/or most economically-beneficial, way to acquire property is through voluntary trade, gift, or labor-based original appropriation, rather than through aggression or fraud.

Beyond their agreeing that security should be privately provided by market-based entities, proponents of free-market anarchism differ in other details and aspects of their philosophies, particularly justification, tactics and property rights.

Murray Rothbard and other natural rights theorists hold strongly to the central non-aggression axiom, while other free-market anarchists such as David D. Friedman utilize consequentialist theories such as utilitarianism. Agorists, anarcho-capitalists of the Rothbardian tradition, and voluntaryists are propertarian market anarchists who consider property rights to be natural rights deriving from the primary right of self-ownership.

Anarcho-capitalists have varying views on how to go about eliminating the state. Rothbard advocates the use of any non-immoral tactic available to bring about liberty. Agorists– followers of the philosophy of Samuel Edward Konkin III– propose to eliminate the state by practising tax resistance and by the use of illegal black market strategies called counter-economics until the security functions of the state can be replaced by free market competitors.

Left-libertarianism

Main article: Left-libertarianism

Some members of the U.S. libertarian movement, including the late Samuel Edward Konkin III, and such members of the Alliance of the Libertarian Left as Kevin Carson, Roderick T. Long, Charles Johnson, Shawn Wilbur, and Gary Chartier support property rights. They identify themselves with the political Left for a variety of reasons. They tend to oppose intellectual property, war, and state policies that make and keep people poor, and to support labor unions and non-violent challenges to exclusion, subordination, impoverishment, and workplace oppression. Some wish to revive voluntary cooperative ideas such as mutualism.

Minarchism

Main article: Minarchism

Minarchism refers to the belief in a state limited to police forces, courts, and a military. In minarchism, the state neither regulates nor intervenes in personal choices and business practices, except to protect against aggression, breach of contract, and fraud. Both market anarchists and minarchists oppose victimless crimes, the Drug War, compulsory education, and conscription at all levels of government.

However, minarchists often disagree on the level of government centralization. This ranges from the centralist minarchists who support the enforcement of laws at the global or national governments, to the middle-ground minarchists who advocate states' rights or increased autonomy at the state level, and to the decentralist minarchists who think that every city or town should have its own government. Such proponents of extreme decentralization include Albert Jay Nock and Jeffersonian republicans.

Libertarian conservatism

Main article: Libertarian conservatism

Libertarian conservatism, also known as conservative libertarianism (and sometimes called right-libertarianism), describes certain political ideologies which attempt to meld libertarian and conservative ideas, often called "fusionism". Anthony Gregory writes that right, or conservative, "libertarianism can refer to any number of varying and at times mutually exclusive political orientations" such as being "interested mainly in 'economic freedoms'"; following the "conservative lifestyle of right-libertarians"; seeking "others to embrace their own conservative lifestyle"; considering big business "as a great victim of the state"; favoring a "strong national defense"; and having "an Old Right opposition to empire."

Conservatives hold that shared values, morals, standards, and traditions are necessary for social order while libertarians consider individual liberty as the highest value. Laurence M. Vance writes: "Some libertarians consider libertarianism to be a lifestyle rather than a political philosophy... They apparently don’t know the difference between libertarianism and libertinism." However, Edward Feser emphasizes that libertarianism does not require individuals to reject traditional conservative values.

"Paleolibertarianism" is a school of thought devised by Lew Rockwell and late Murray Rothbard, though Rockwell no longer identifies as one. Closely associated with the Austrian School of economics, most paleolibertarians identify as anarcho-capitalist. Though they advocate the elimination of the state, paleolibertarians disagree with other libertarians on reforming the state, such as illegal immigration and the legitimacy of state property.

According to Jonathan Henke "neolibertarianism" is the philosophy of being a "pragmatic libertarian; Hawk or strong on defense; Hobbesian (or Lockean according to some) libertarian; Big-Tent libertarian". Domestically, neolibertarians embrace incrementalism to achieve libertarian small government goals. On foreign policy, neolibertarians usually have combined a generally neoconservative outlook with a more pragmatic method. Anthony Gregory criticizes neolibertarianism as "libertine conservatism" and "pro-war" libertarianism, noting neolibertarians "believe that the government, which supposedly can’t do anything right, can still wage war correctly."

Some "libertarian constitutionalists" like U.S. Representative Ron Paul believe liberty can be obtained through proper interpretation of the United States Constitution, something which would not allow federal incursions on the economy and civil liberties. Other libertarians critique constitutionalism for failure of its proponents to check the growth of government power.

Objectivism

Main article: Libertarianism and Objectivism

Objectivism, the philosophy of novelist Ayn Rand has influenced libertarianism. However, some Objectivists, including Rand herself, have condemned libertarianism as a threat to freedom and capitalism. In particular, it has been claimed that libertarians use Objectivist ideas "with the teeth pulled out of them". Similarly some libertarians distance themselves from Objectivism. Reason editor Nick Gillespie, while noting Rand's importance to the movement, confesses that he is embarrassed by his magazine's association with her ideas. Cathy Young says libertarianism "is less an offspring than a rebel stepchild."

Libertarian transhumanism

Main article: Libertarian Transhumanism

Libertarian transhumanism asserts that the principle of self-ownership is fundamental to both libertarianism and transhumanism. The philosophy advocates free market individualism as the best vehicle for technological progress and the "right to human enhancement." Some criticize it as utopian, overly reliant as technology or biological fetishism.

Current libertarian movements

See also the categories Libertarianism by country, Libertarians by nationality, Libertarian think tanks, Libertarian publications, and Libertarian parties

Europe

In France, Liberté chérie ("Cherished Liberty") is a pro-liberty think tank and activist association formed in 2003. Liberté chérie gained significant publicity when it managed to draw 30,000 Parisians into the streets to demonstrate against government employees who were striking. In Germany, a "Libertäre Plattform in der FDP" ("Liberty Caucus within the Free Democratic Party") was founded in 2005. In Norway, The Progress Party (Norway) In Italy there is the Nonviolent Radical Party. In the Netherlands there is the Libertarische Partij, and a fast growing number of libertarians.

The Russian Libertarian Movement (Rossiyskoye Libertarianskoye Dvizhenie, RLD; 2003-2006) was a short-lived political party in the Russian Federation, formed by members of the Institute of Natiology (Moscow), a libertarian think tank. After electoral failure and government failure, it disbanded. In Greece, the Liberal Alliance Party was founded in 2007. In Malta, Imperium Europa, founded in 2005, is affiliated with the London New Right, and is on the verge of merging with two other minor libertarian parties in the local sphere.

The Irish Workers Solidarity Movement is notable for its stability, the relatively large circulation of its free newspaper, and for its involvement in large scale tax strikes.

Iceland

The Libertarian Society of Iceland (Frjálshyggjufélagið) is the only active propertarian libertarian organization in Iceland.

Canada

See also: Category:Libertarianism in Canada

New Zealand

See also: Category:Libertarianism in New Zealand

United Kingdom

See also: Category:Libertarianism in the United Kingdom

Main article: Libertarianism in the United Kingdom

The Libertarian Alliance was an early libertarian educational group still active today. The United Kingdom Libertarian Party was founded on January 1, 2008.

Jason Walsh, in an opinion piece, held that while the 1980s economic liberalism of Margaret Thatcher was "libertarianism-lite," compared to minimal state views of more modern libertarians, which were becoming more popular after ten years of New Labour's "increasingly authoritarian policies." The Austrian and British libertarian and classical liberal philosopher, Friedrich von Hayek, is considered by some to be one of the most important economists and political philosophers of the twentieth century..

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is the oldest free-market think tank in the United Kingdom, and a progenitor of a large network of libertarian think tanks around the world, as well as greatly shaping the Thatcher government's economic policies. The Centre for Policy Studies was set up by Thatcher and Keith Joseph for the purpose of advancing classical liberalism. The Libertarian Alliance was an early libertarian educational group. It was followed by British think tanks such as the Society for Individual Freedom and Adam Smith Institute.

The Conservative Party libertarian advocacy group, the Conservative Way Forward, is lead by Alan Duncan. The Liberal Democrats, the third largest political party in the United Kingdom, promote social liberalism, seeking to minimise state intervention in personal affairs, opposing what they call the 'nanny state'. The party actively opposes the more authoritarian policy of both the Labour and Conservative party.

The conservative and Eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) have defined themselves as a libertarian party, construed as an attempt to outflank the Conservatives on economic issues. Under the leadership of Nigel Farage, Farage's stated intention was to broaden the public perception of UKIP beyond merely being a party seeking to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union, to one of being a free market party broadly standing for traditional conservative and libertarian values.

Australia

See also: Category:Libertarianism in Australia

The Liberal Democratic Party is the main libertarian political party in Australia. It was founded in 2001, running in the 2001 and 2004 ACT elections, before registering as a federal political party and contesting the 2007 federal election. Australia also has a small Libertarian Party, but it is not registered with the Australian Electoral Commission. The Australian Libertarian Society runs a blog focused on Libertarianism in the Australian context. Australian think tanks such as the Centre for Independent Studies and the Institute of Public Affairs are sometimes regarded as having something of a libertarian leaning.

United States

See also the categories Libertarianism in the United States and American libertarians

Libertarian socialists, including Noam Chomsky and Colin Ward, argue that the term "libertarianism" is globally considered a synonym for anarchism and that the United States is unique in widely associating it with free market ideology.

Well-known libertarian organizations include the Center for Libertarian Studies, the Cato Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL) and the Ludwig von Mises Institute. The Libertarian Party of the United States is the world's first such party.

The activist Free State Project, formed in 2001, works to bring 20,000 libertarians to the state of New Hampshire to influence state policy. In March 2009, the project website showed that more than 650 were resident there and more than 9,150 had pledged to move there. Less successful similar projects include the Free West Alliance and Free State Wyoming. (There is also a European Free State Project.)

Texas congressman Ron Paul's campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination was largely oriented towards libertarianism. Paul is affiliated with the libertarian-leaning Republican Liberty Caucus and founded the Campaign for Liberty, a libertarian-leaning membership and lobbying organization.

Latin America

Brazil's MST (Landless Workers' Movement) is a social movement that includes significant libertarian socialist (social anarchist) elements which struggles for communal control of land seized in opposition to large-scale ranching oligarchies. Brazil's Partido Libertários is a nascent libertarian party.

Costa Rica's Movimiento Libertario (Libertarian Movement) is a libertarian party that holds 9% of the seats in Costa Rica's national assembly.

Mexico's EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) is a social movement of indigenous peoples that includes significant libertarian socialist (social anarchist) elements which struggles for communal control of land seized in opposition to large-scale ranching oligarchies.

There are the beginnings of a Libertarian movement in Mexico in a group called "Alianza Liberal" , for a few years they've had an online presence, though there's not as yet a formal Libertarian Party.

See also

• Social contract theories
• Bellum omnium contra omnes

Bibliography

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• Fallon, Shannon (1996). The Bill of Rights: What It Is, What It Means, and How It's Been Misused. Irvine, Calif.: Dickens Press. ISBN 1-880741-25-3.
• Friedman, Jeffrey (1997). "What's Wrong With Libertarianism" (PDF). Critical Review. 11 (3). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Friedman, Milton (1992). "The Drug War as a Socialist Enterprise". In Arnold S. Trebach and Kevin B. Zeese (eds.) (ed.). Friedman & Szasz on Liberty and Drugs. Washington, D.C.: The Drug Policy Foundation. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• Gillespie, Nick (2005). "Rand Redux". Reason. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Goldberg, Jonah (December 12 2001). "Freedom Kills". National Review Online. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Hamowy, Ronald (2008). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Cato Institute, SAGE. ISBN 9781412965804.
• Harwood, Sterling (ed.) (ed.). Business as Ethical and Business as Usual. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
• Hayek, F.A. (1960). Why I am not a Conservative. University of Chicago Press.
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• Huben, Michael (March 15 2005). "The World's Smallest Political Quiz. (Nolan Test)". A Non-Libertarian FAQ. Retrieved 2006-07-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Kangas, Steve. "Chile: The Laboratory Test". Liberalism Resurgent. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
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• Lester, J.C. (2000). Escape from Leviathan: Liberty, Welfare and Anarchy Reconciled. Basingstoke, UK/New York, USA: Macmillan/St Martin's Press.
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• Machan, Tibor R. "Revisiting Anarchism and Government". Retrieved 2006-07-10.
• Madison, James (November 22 1787). "The Federalist No. 10: The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (continued)". Daily Advertiser. Retrieved 2006-07-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Mill, John Stuart (1869). "Introduction". On Liberty. London, UK: Longman, Roberts & Green.
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• Nettlau, Max (2000). A Short History of Anarchism. p. 75.
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• Rand, Ayn. "Ayn Rand’s Q&A on Libertarians", from a 1971 interview.
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• Sanchez, Julian (August 12 2003). "The Other Guevara". Reason. Retrieved 2006-07-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Yglesias, Matthew (April 15 2005). "Health is Forever". Retrieved 2006-07-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Young, Cathy (March 2005). "Ayn Rand at 100". Reason. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
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• "The World's Smallest Political Quiz". Advocates for Self Government. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
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External links

• Foundation for Economic Education is one of the oldest libertarian organizations in the United States.
• Ludwig von Mises Institute is a research and educational center for libertarian political philosophy; including the Austrian School of economics and anarcho-capitalism.
• LewRockwell.com is a site hosting libertarian articles, run by Lew Rockwell with the slogan "anti-state, anti-war, pro-market."
• Reason Magazine
• Cato Institute
• Institute of Economic Affairs
• Libertarian wiki
• Libertarian Romantic Ideal tries to hold the line on liberty to preserve both free mar­kets & peace.