Right-libertarianism: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Libertarianism sidebar}} |
{{Libertarianism sidebar}} |
||
{{Capitalism}} |
{{Capitalism}} |
||
'''Right-libertarianism''' is a term used by some to describe various [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] political philosophies which support [[capitalism]] and [[private property]] rights. |
'''Right-libertarianism''' is a term used by some to describe various [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] political philosophies which support [[capitalism]] and [[private property]] rights. The term is used to differentiate capitalism-supporting forms of libertarianism from philosophies described as [[left-libertarian]], which generally support [[social justice|socio-economic equality]] as well as individual freedom. |
||
It is strongly associated with [[Austrian economics]] and varieties of [[deontological ethics]]. |
|||
==Ideology== |
==Ideology== |
||
Revision as of 19:10, 26 January 2013
| Part of a series on |
| Libertarianism |
|---|
Right-libertarianism is a term used by some to describe various libertarian political philosophies which support capitalism and private property rights. The term is used to differentiate capitalism-supporting forms of libertarianism from philosophies described as left-libertarian, which generally support socio-economic equality as well as individual freedom.
It is strongly associated with Austrian economics and varieties of deontological ethics.
Ideology
Right-libertarian philosophies define liberty as non-aggression, or the situation in which no person or group aggresses against any other person or group, where aggression is defined as the violation of private property. This philosophy, implicitly, recognizes private property rights as the sole source of legitimate authority. Right-libertarians hold that an order of private property is the only one that is both ethical and leads to the best possible outcomes. They generally support a free market, and are not opposed to any concentration of power (monopolies or oligopolies) provided it is comes about through non-coercive means.
They accept equality under the law and equal rights, but reject equality of outcome, believing that inequality of outcome is inevitable.[1] On the issue of the libertarian position on equality, Ludwig von Mises said:
The chimera of equality has been a mainstay of socialist visionaries. Libertarians have understood that people have different talents and interests. [...] We cannot have a complex economy, in which people can develop their unique talents, without finding that people will achieve unequal results.
— Ludwig von Mises.[2]
The doctrine of natural law that inspired the eighteenth century declarations of the rights of man did not imply the obviously fallacious proposition that all men are born biologically equal. It proclaimed that all men are born with equal rights and that this equality cannot be abrogated by any man-made law, that it is unalienable or, more precisely, imprescriptible. Only the deadly foes of individual liberty and self-determination, the champions of totalitarianism, interpreted the principle of equality before the law as derived from an alleged psychical and physiological equality of all men.
— Ludwig von Mises.[3]
While right-libertarians and left-libertarians are united on issues such as opposition to the state and respect for individual liberty, the ideologies are polarized with regard to economics, with left-libertarians opposing capitalist institutions such as wage-labor, corporations, and usury, which right-libertarians see as both natural and desirable.
Terminology
Peter Vallentyne writes that libertarianism is not a "right-wing" doctrine in the context of the typical left-right political spectrum because on social issues it tends to be “left-wing”, opposing laws restricting consensual sexual relationships between or drug use by adults, as well as laws imposing religious views or practices or compulsory military service. He writes that in "right-libertarianism" unowned natural resources "may be appropriated by the first person who discovers them, mixes her labor with them, or merely claims them—without the consent of others, and with little or no payment to them.” In contrast, left-libertarians believe such "unappropriated natural resources belong to everyone in some egalitarian manner."[4]
Anthony Gregory maintains that right-libertarianism can refer to "any number of varying and at times mutually exclusive political orientations." He suggests the following might lead to the "right libertarian" description: an exclusive interest in "economic freedoms," preference for a "conservative lifestyle," endorsement of the view that big business should be seen as "a great victim of the state," favoring a "strong national defense," and sharing the Old Right's "opposition to empire."[5]
Samuel Edward Konkin III defined the term "right-libertarianism" as an "activist, organization, publication or tendency which supports parliamentarianism exclusively as a strategy for reducing or abolishing the state, typically opposes counter-economics, either opposes the Libertarian Party or works to drag it right and prefers coalitions with supposedly 'free-market' conservatives."[6] Anarcho-capitalist views have also been described as a "right wing" form of libertarianism by several authors.[7] Lawrence and Charlotte Becker maintain it most often refers to the political position that because natural resources are originally unowned, they therefore may be appropriated at-will by private parties without the consent of, or owing to, others.[8]
The term "Old Right" in the United States described a loose coalition of individuals who opposed the 1930s "New Deal" at home and military interventionism abroad. It was inspired by writers like H.L. Mencken, Albert Jay Nock, Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, John T. Flynn, Garet Garrett and Felix Morley.[9][10]
According to Murray N. Rothbard, the "Old Right" "did not describe or think of themselves as conservatives: they wanted to repeal and overthrow, not conserve."[9] Chodorov famously wrote: "As for me, I will punch anyone who calls me a conservative in the nose. I am a radical."[11] The thinkers associated with the Old Right were not identified with the social conservatism of thinkers associated with later movements often identified as part of the right.[12]
Some market-oriented libertarians like Leonard Read, Harry Browne and Walter Block reject any association with either the political right or left.[13] Others like Sheldon Richman, Karl Hess, Roderick Long and Kevin Carson have written about libertarianism's opposition to authoritarian rule being in concert with the original meaning of "left wing."[14][15]
See also
- Classical liberalism
- Economic freedom
- Economic liberalism
- Libertarian conservatism
- Libertarian Republican
- Market liberalism
- Minarchism
- Neoliberalism
- Open economy
- Propertarianism
- Republican Liberty Caucus
References
- ^ David Boaz. The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman. Simon and Schuster, 1998. Pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-684-84767-1.
- ^ David Boaz. The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman. Simon and Schuster, 1998. Pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-684-84767-1.
- ^ David Boaz. The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman. Simon and Schuster, 1998. Pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-684-84767-1.
- ^ Peter Vallentyne, "Libertarianism," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Stanford University, July 20, 2010], accessed December 26, 2012.
- ^ Anthony Gregory, Left, Right, Moderate and Radical," LewRockwell.com (n.p., Dec. 21, 2006)
- ^ Samuel Edward Konkin III, New Libertarian Manifesto, 1983.
- ^
- Marcellus Andrews, The Political Economy of Hope and Fear: Capitalism and the Black Condition in America, NYU Press, 2001, ISBN 0814706800, 9780814706800 On page 61: "anarcho-capitalist-a right wing libertarian whose faith in private property and unregulated markets is absolute"
- David Goodway, Anarchist seeds beneath the snow: left-libertarian thought and British writers from William Morris to Colin Ward, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool University Press, 2006 ISBN 1846310253, 9781846310256 On page 4: describes confusion in definition of libertarianism because of "Anarcho-capitalism, 'minimal statism' and an extreme right-wing laissez-faire philosophy"
- Saul Newman, The Politics of Postanarchism, Edinburgh University Press, 2010 ISBN 0748634959, 9780748634958 On page 43 : "It is important to distinguish between anarchism and certain strands of right-wing libertarianism which at times go by the same name (for example, Murray Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism)."
- ^ Lawrence C. Becker, Charlotte B. Becker. Encyclopedia of ethics, Volume 3, Taylor & Francis US, 2001, p. 1562.
- ^ a b Murray N. Rothbard, Betrayal of the American Right, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007, in Introduction by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., p. xi.
- ^ See also:
- Albert Jay Nock, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (New York: Harper 1943); Our Enemy, the State (New York: Morrow 1935); "Isaiah's Job," Atlantic Monthly 157 (June 1936): 641-9
- Frank Chodorov, Out of Step: The Autobiography of an Individualist (New York: Devin-Adair 1962); Fugitive Essays: Selected Writings of Frank Chodorov, ed. Charles H. Hamilton (Indianapolis: Liberty 1980).
- Carl Ryant, Profit's Prophet: Garet Garrett (1878-1954) (Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna UP 1989); Bruce Ramsey, Unsanctioned Voice: Garet Garrett, Journalist of the Old Right (Caldwell, ID: Caxton 2008).
- Stephen Cox, The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction 2004); Isabel Paterson, The God of the Machine (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction 1993).
- Rose Wilder Lane, Give Me Liberty (1936; Whitefish, MT: Kessinger 2006); The Discovery of Freedom: Man's Struggle against Authority (1943: Auburn, AL: Mises 2007)
- John T. Flynn, As We Go Marching: A Biting Indictment of the Coming of Domestic Fascism in America (1944; New York: Free Life 1973); John Moser, Right Turn: John T. Flynn and the Transformation of American Liberalism (New York: New York UP 2005).
- See also: Ronald Radosh, Prophets on the Right: Profiles of Conservative Critics of American Globalism (New York: Simon 1975); Justin Raimondo, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, 2d ed. (Wilmington, DE: ISI 2008)
- ^ Frank Chodorov, letter to the editor, National Review 2.20 (Oct. 6, 1956): 23, qtd. Charles H. Hamilton, "Introduction," Fugitive Essays 29, qtd. Rothbard, Betrayal 165.
- ^ Bill Kauffman, "Found Cause: Don't Call Me a Conservative," American Conservative, May 18, 2009.
- ^ See:
- Leonard E. Read, "Neither Left Nor Right", The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty 48.2 (Feb. 1998): 71-3;
- Harry Browne, "The Libertarian Stand on Abortion" (HarryBrowne.Org, Dec. 21, 1998);
- Walter Block, "Libertarianism Is Unique and Belongs Neither to the Right Nor the Left: A Critique of the Views of Long, Holcombe, and Baden on the Left, Hoppe, Feser, and Paul on the Right," Journal of Libertarian Studies 22 (2010): 127-70. However, Block does identify Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Edward Feser, and Ron Paul as taking libertarian positions on the "right".
- ^ Sheldon Richman, "Libertarianism: Left or Right?," Freedom Daily (Future of Freedom Foundation, Sep. 12, 2007). Richman notes that since the origins of the term "right wing" were from the French Legislative Assembly where supporters of the dethroned monarchy and aristocracy sat, libertarians should be on the "left wing" where their opponents sat.
- ^ Some forebears of contemporary libertarians, like Benjamin Tucker, have been participants in the acknowledged history of the Left: Tucker embraced the First International. See, e.g., James J. Martin, Men against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America (Colorado Springs, CO: Myles 1970). Tucker identified his economic philosophy as a form of socialism. See Benjamin R. Tucker, "State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree and Wherein They Differ," Instead of a Book: By a Man Too Busy to Write One (New York: Tucker 1897). Sheldon Richman writes that Tucker's brand was to be achieved through free market, not state means. See Libertarianism: Left or Right?," Future of Freedom Foundation, Sep. 12, 2007.
