Libertarianism

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

Libertarianism is a political theory that advocates the maximization of individual liberty in thought and action and the minimization or even abolition of the state. Libertarians' viewpoints on' the "appropriate" social perspective are difficult to quantify. Seeing that libertarians are so devoted to personal willpower, it is difficult to make a political conclusion about the intentions of libertarianism as a whole. In terms of theoretical structure or description, libertarianism is more of an attitude than a discrete theory which advocates minimal, though not totally nonexistent (see anarchism), levels of social control. Opposite to libertarianism in attitude would be something like statism or perhaps socialism.

Libertarians have a variety of views on natural resources and property rights to which the terms "left" and "right" often are applied. Some libertarians reject being described as "left" or "right."

Libertarianism is not a complete moral or aesthetic theory; it is only a political theory, that is, the subset of moral theory that deals with the proper role of violence in social life.

History

Etymology

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. The first recorded use was in 1789 by William Belsham in a discussion of free will and in opposition to "necessitarian" (or determinist) views.

The use of the word 'libertarian' to describe a set of political positions can be tracked to the French cognate, "Libertaire", which was coined in 1857 by French anarchist communist Joseph Déjacque who used the term to distinguish his libertarian communist approach from the mutualism advocated by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Hence the term "libertaire" has been used as a synonym for left wing anarchism or libertarian socialism since the 1890s,. Contemporary libertarian socialists such as Noam Chomsky and Colin Ward have stated that the term libertarianism is considered throughout the world a synonym for anarchism.

In the 1950s in the United States many with classical liberal beliefs began to describe themselves as "libertarian." Academics as well as proponents of the free market perspectives note that free market libertarianism has been successfully propagated beyond the US since the 1970s via think tanks and political parties and that libertarianism is increasingly viewed worldwide as a free market position.

Philosophical Origins and History

Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism in the sixth century BC, once stated, "The more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are impoverished.... The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be." Murray Rothbard called him "the first libertarian intellectual," saying that Lao Tzu focused on the individual over society in general.

Enlightenment ideas of individual liberty, limited government, peace and a free market were part of 19th century liberalism. While liberalism kept that meaning in most of the world, modern liberalism in the United States began to take a more statist approach to economic regulation. 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.

Those who held to the earlier liberal views began to call themselves market liberals, classic liberals or libertarians to distinguish themselves. (Some limited government advocates still use the term "libertarianism" almost interchangeably with the term classical liberalism.)

The Austrian School of economics, influenced by Frédéric Bastiat and later by Ludwig von Mises, also had a powerful impact on both economic teaching and libertarian principles. It influenced economists, political philosophers, and theorists including Henry Hazlitt, Israel Kirzner, Murray Rothbard, Walter Block and Richard Ebeling.

Ayn Rand's international bestsellers The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) and her books about her philosophy of Objectivism influenced modern libertarianism. 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.

Arizona United States Senator Barry Goldwater's libertarian-oriented challenge to authority had a major impact on the libertarian movement, through his book The Conscience of a Conservative and his run for president in 1964. Goldwater's speech writer, Karl Hess, became a leading libertarian writer and activist.

The Vietnam War split the uneasy alliance between growing numbers of self-identified libertarians, anarchist 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, Jr., 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. 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.

The Nolan chart, used by some pro-property libertarians, expands upon the traditional "right-left" spectrum.

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.

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.

Libertarians 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.

Forms of libertarianism

Libertarian views vary in respect to how much state will survive in a libertarian society and how much private property should be held by individuals and groups. The following are the major forms of 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 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 principle, 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 underground economy strategies called counter-economics until the security functions of the state can be replaced by free market competitors. Some anarchists consider anarcho-capitalism a contradictio in terminis.

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.

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 and Michael Otsuka. The term is also sometimes used as a synonym for libertarian socialism.

Some members of the U.S. libertarian movement, including the late Samuel Edward Konkin, and such members of the Alliance of the Libertarian Left as Roderick Long, and Gary Chartier support property rights and identify themselves with the political left for a variety of reasons. They tend to oppose intellectual property, war, and state policies which they believe cause poverty.

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 the late Murray Rothbard. Rockwell no longer favours the use of the term "paleolibertarian". 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.

Libertarian socialism

Main article: Libertarian socialism

Libertarian socialists believe that equality and freedom would be achieved through the abolition of authoritarian institutions that monopolize the means of production.

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.

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 on technology or biological fetishism.

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 War on Drugs, 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.

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"

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."

Bibliography

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See also

• Social contract theories
• Bellum omnium contra omnes
• List of libertarian organizations
• List of basic libertarianism topics
• Subsidiarity

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