Origin, history and development of libertarianism in the United States
This article is about the origin, history and development of libertarianism in the United States. For the broader political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core principle, seeLibertarianism. For the most common type of libertarianism in the United States, seeRight-libertarianism.
The historicalGadsden flag is frequently used to represent libertarianism in the U.S.
Libertarianism includes anarchist and libertarian socialist tendencies, although they are not as widespread as in other countries.Murray Bookchin,[25] a libertarian within this socialist tradition, argued that anarchists, libertarian socialists and the left should reclaimlibertarian as a term, suggesting these other self-declaredlibertarians to rename themselvespropertarians instead.[26][27] Although all libertarians oppose government intervention, there is a division between those anarchist or socialist libertarians as well as anarcho-capitalists such as Rothbard andDavid D. Friedman who adhere to theanti-state position, viewing thestate as an unnecessary evil; minarchists such as Nozick who advocate a minimal state, often referred to as anight-watchman state;[28] and classical liberals who support a minimizedsmall government[29][30][31] and a major reversal of thewelfare state.[32]
Althoughlibertarian continues to be widely used to refer toanti-statesocialists internationally,[25][40][41][42][43][44] its meaning in the United States has deviated from its political origins to the extent that the common meaning oflibertarian in the United States is different from elsewhere.[17][26][27][28][45] The Libertarian Party asserts the following core beliefs of libertarianism: "Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defendcivil liberties".[46][47] Libertarians have worked to implement their ideas through the Libertarian Party, theFree State Project,agorism, and other forms of activism.[48][49][50]
Since the 19th century, the termlibertarian has referred to advocates for freedom of the will, or anyone who generally advocated for liberty, but its long association withanarchism extends at least as far back as 1858, when it was used for the title of New York anarchist journalLe Libertaire.[45][28] In the late 19th century (around the 1880s and 1890s), AnarchistSébastien Faure used the termlibertarian to differentiate between anarchists andauthoritarian socialists.[28] While the termlibertarian has been largely synonymous withanarchism,[28][51] its meaning has more recently diluted with wider adoption from ideologically disparate groups.[28] As a term,libertarian can include both theNew Left andlibertarian Marxists (who do not associate with avanguard party) as well as extremeliberals (primarily concerned withcivil liberties). Additionally, some anarchists use the termlibertarian socialist to avoid anarchism's negative connotations and emphasize its connections withsocialism.[28][52]
The revival offree-market ideologies during the mid-to-late 20th century came with disagreement over what to call the movement. While many of its adherents prefer the termlibertarian, manyconservative libertarians reject the term's association with the 1960s New Left and its connotations oflibertinehedonism.[53] The movement is divided over the use ofconservatism as an alternative.[54] Those who seek both economic and social liberty within a capitalist order would be known asliberals, but that term developed associations opposite of thelimited government, low-taxation, minimal state advocated by the movement.[55] Name variants of the free-market revival movement includeclassical liberalism,economic liberalism,free-market liberalism andneoliberalism.[53] As a term,libertarian oreconomic libertarian has the most colloquial acceptance to describe a member of the movement, with the latter term being based on both the ideology's primacy of economics and its distinction from libertarians of the New Left.[54]
According to Ian Adams: "Ideologically, all US parties are liberal and always have been. Essentially they espouse classical liberalism, that is a form of democratisedWhigconstitutionalism plus thefree market. The point of difference comes with the influence ofsocial liberalism" and the proper role of government.[10] Some modern American libertarians are distinguished from the dominant libertarian tradition by their relation toproperty andcapital. While both historical libertarianism and contemporary economic libertarianism share general antipathy towards power by government authority, the latter exempts power wielded throughfree-market capitalism. Historically, libertarians includingHerbert Spencer andMax Stirner have to some degree supported the protection of an individual's freedom from powers of both government and private property owners.[56] In contrast, while condemning governmental encroachment on personal liberties, some modern American libertarians support freedoms based on private property rights.Anarcho-capitalist theoristMurray Rothbard argued that protesters should rent a street for protest from its owners. The abolition of public amenities is a common theme in some modern American libertarian writings.[57]
John Locke, regarded as the father of classical liberalism
During the 18th century andAge of Enlightenment,classical liberal ideas flourished in Europe and North America.[58][59] For philosopher Roderick T. Long, libertarians "share a common – or at least an overlapping—intellectual ancestry. [Libertarians] [...] claim the seventeenth century English Levellers and the eighteenth century FrenchEncyclopedists among their ideological forebears; and [...] usually share an admiration forThomas Jefferson[60][61][62] andThomas Paine".[63]
TheUnited States Declaration of Independence was inspired by Locke in its statement: "[T]o secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from theconsent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it".[64] According to American historianBernard Bailyn, during and after theAmerican Revolution, "the major themes of eighteenth-century libertarianism were brought to realization" inconstitutions,bills of rights, and limits on legislative and executive powers, including limits on starting wars.[65]
According toMurray Rothbard, the libertarian creed emerged from the classical liberal challenges to an "absolute central State and a king ruling by divine right on top of an older, restrictive web of feudal land monopolies and urban guild controls and restrictions" as well as themercantilism of a bureaucratic warfaring state allied with privileged merchants. The object of classical liberals was individual liberty in the economy, in personal freedoms and civil liberty, separation of state and religion and peace as an alternative to imperial aggrandizement. He cites Locke's contemporaries, the Levellers, who held similar views. Also influential were the EnglishCato's Letters during the early 1700s, reprinted eagerly byAmerican colonists who already were free of European aristocracy and feudal land monopolies.[64]
In January 1776, only two years after coming to America from England, Thomas Paine published his pamphletCommon Sense calling for independence for the colonies.[66] Paine promoted classical liberal ideas in clear and concise language that allowed the general public to understand the debates among the political elites.[67]Common Sense was immensely popular in disseminating these ideas,[68] selling hundreds of thousands of copies.[69] Paine would later write theRights of Man andThe Age of Reason and participate in theFrench Revolution.[66] Paine's theory of property showed a "libertarian concern" with the redistribution of resources.[70]
Moving into the 20th century, theLibertarian League was an anarchist and libertarian socialist organization. The first Libertarian League was founded in Los Angeles between the two World Wars.[87] It was established mainly by Cassius V. Cook, Charles T. Sprading,Clarence Lee Swartz, Henry Cohen, Hans F. Rossner and Thomas Bell.[87] In 1954, a second Libertarian League was founded in New York City as a political organization building on theLibertarian Book Club. Members includedSam Dolgoff,Russell Blackwell,Dave Van Ronk,Enrico Arrigoni andMurray Bookchin. This Libertarian League had a narrower political focus than the first, promoting anarchism and syndicalism. Its central principle, stated in its journalViews and Comments, was "equal freedom for all in a free socialist society".[88] Branches of the Libertarian League opened in a number of other American cities, including Detroit and San Francisco. It was dissolved at the end of the 1960s.[89][90]
The 1960s also saw an alliance between the nascentNew Left and other radical libertarians who came from theOld Right tradition likeMurray Rothbard,[91]Ronald Radosh[92] andKarl Hess[93] in opposition toimperialism andwar, especially in relation to theVietnam War andits opposition. These radicals had long embraced a reading of American history that emphasized the role of elite privilege in shaping legal and political institutions, one that was naturally agreeable to many on the left, increasingly seeking alliances with the left, especially with members of the New Left, in light of the Vietnam War,[94] themilitary draft and the emergence of theBlack Power movement.[95] Rothbard argued that the consensus view of American economic history, according to which a beneficent government has used its power to counter corporate predation, is fundamentally flawed. Rather, he argued that government intervention in the economy has largely benefited established players at the expense of marginalized groups, to the detriment of both liberty and equality. Moreover, therobber baron period, hailed by the right and despised by the left as a heyday oflaissez-faire, was not characterized bylaissez-faire at all, but it was in fact a time of massive state privilege accorded to capital.[96] In tandem with his emphasis on the intimate connection betweenstate andcorporate power, he defended the seizure of corporations dependent on state largesse by workers and others.[97] This tradition would continue through the 20th and 21st centuries, being taken up by the left-libertarian,[98] free-market anti-capitalism[21] of bothSamuel Edward Konkin III'sagorism[99][100][101] andleft-wing market anarchism.[23][24]
H. L. Mencken, one of the first people to privately call himselflibertarian
During the mid-20th century, many withOld Right orclassical liberal beliefs began to describe themselves as libertarians.[11] Important American writers such asRose Wilder Lane,H. L. Mencken,Albert Jay Nock,Isabel Paterson,Leonard Read (the founder of theFoundation for Economic Education) and the European immigrantsLudwig von Mises andAyn Rand carried on the intellectual libertarian tradition. In fiction, one can cite the work of thescience fiction authorRobert A. Heinlein, whose writing carried libertarian underpinnings. Mencken and Nock were the first prominent figures in the United States to privately call themselves libertarians.[102][103][104] They believedFranklin D. Roosevelt had co-opted the wordliberal for hisNew Deal policies which they opposed and usedlibertarian to signify their allegiance toindividualism. In 1923, Mencken wrote: "My literary theory, like my politics, is based chiefly upon one idea, to wit, the idea of freedom. I am, in belief, a libertarian of the most extreme variety".[105]
As of the mid-20th century, no word was used to describe the ideological outlook of this group of thinkers. Most of them would have described themselves asliberals before the New Deal, but by the mid-1930s the wordliberalism had been widely used to meansocial liberalism.[citation needed] The wordliberal had ceased to refer to the support ofindividual rights andlimited government and instead came to denoteleft-leaning ideas that would be seen elsewhere associal-democratic. American advocates of classical liberalism bemoaned the loss of the wordliberal and cast about for others to replace it.
Max Eastman, a former socialist who proposed the termsNew Liberalism andliberal conservative
In August 1953,Max Eastman proposed the termsNew Liberalism andliberal conservative which were not eventually accepted.[106] In May 1955, the termlibertarian was first publicly used in the United States as a synonym for classical liberal when writer Dean Russell (1915–1998), a colleague of Leonard Read and a classical liberal himself, proposed thelibertarian solution and justified the choice of the word as follows:
Many of us call ourselves "liberals." And it is true that the word "liberal" once described persons who respected the individual and feared the use of mass compulsions. But the leftists have now corrupted that once-proud term to identify themselves and their program of more government ownership of property and more controls over persons. As a result, those of us who believe in freedom must explain that when we call ourselves liberals, we mean liberals in the uncorrupted classical sense. At best, this is awkward and subject to misunderstanding. Here is a suggestion: Let those of us who love liberty trade-mark and reserve for our own use the good and honorable word "libertarian".[11]
Murray Rothbard, who popularized the termlibertarian in the 1960s
Subsequently, a growing number of Americans with classical liberal beliefs in the United States began to describe themselves aslibertarian. The person most responsible for popularizing the termlibertarian wasMurray Rothbard, who started publishing libertarian works in the 1960s.[107] Before the 1950s, H.L. Mencken and Albert Jay Nock had been the first prominent figures in the United States to privately call themselves libertarians.[102][103][104] In the 1950s, Russian-American novelistAyn Rand developed a philosophical system calledObjectivism, expressed in her novelsThe Fountainhead andAtlas Shrugged as well as other works which influenced many libertarians.[108] However, she rejected the labellibertarian and harshly denounced the libertarian movement as the "hippies of the right".[109][110] Nonetheless, philosopherJohn Hospers, a one-time member of Rand's inner circle, proposed anon-initiation of force principle to unite both groups—this statement later became a required pledge for candidates of theLibertarian Party and Hospers himself became its first presidential candidate in 1972.[111][112] Along withIsabel Paterson andRose Wilder Lane, Rand is described as one of the three female founding figures of the modern libertarian movement in the United States.[113]
Although influenced by the work of the 19th-century American individualist anarchists, themselves influenced by classical liberalism.[12] Rothbard thought they had a faulty understanding of economics because they accepted thelabor theory of value as influenced by theclassical economists while he was a student ofneoclassical economics and supported thesubjective theory of value. Rothbard sought to meld 19th-century American individualists' advocacy of free markets and private defense with the principles of Austrian economics, arguing that there is a "scientific explanation of the workings of the free market (and of the consequences of government intervention in that market) which individualist anarchists could easily incorporate into their political and social Weltanschauung".[13]
Barry Goldwater, whose libertarian-oriented challenge to authority had a major impact on the libertarian movement
Arizona SenatorBarry Goldwater's libertarian-oriented challenge to authority had a major impact on the libertarian movement[114] through his bookThe Conscience of a Conservative and his1964 presidential campaign.[115] Goldwater's speech writerKarl Hess became a leading libertarian writer and activist.[116] TheVietnam War split the uneasy alliance between growing numbers of self-identified libertarians andtraditionalist conservatives who believed in limiting liberty to uphold moral virtues. Libertarians opposed to the war joined thedraft resistance andpeace movements and organizations such asStudents for a Democratic Society. They began founding their own publications like Rothbard'sThe Libertarian Forum[117][118] and organizations like the Radical Libertarian Alliance.[119] The split was aggravated at the 1969Young Americans for Freedom convention when more than 300 libertarians coordinated to take control of the organization from conservatives. Theburning 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 theSociety for Individual Liberty and efforts to recruit potential libertarians from conservative organizations.[120] The split was finalized in 1971 when conservative leaderWilliam F. Buckley Jr. attempted to divorce libertarianism from the movement, writing in aNew York Times article as follows: "The ideological licentiousness that rages through America today makes anarchy attractive to the simple-minded. Even to the ingeniously simple-minded".[121]
British historians Emily Robinson, Camilla Schofield, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Natalie Thomlinson have argued that by the 1970s Britons were keen about defining and claiming their individual rights, identities and perspectives. They demanded greater personal autonomy andself-determination and less outside control. They angrily complained that the establishment was withholding it. They argue this shift in concerns helped causeThatcherism and was incorporated into Thatcherism's appeal.[126] Since the resurgence ofneoliberalism in the 1970s, this form of libertarianism has spread beyond North America and Europe,[127][128] having been more successful at spreading worldwide than other conservative ideas.[129] It has been noted that "[m]ost parties of the Right [today] are run byeconomically liberalconservatives who, in varying degrees, have marginalizedsocial,cultural, andnational conservatives".[130]
Academics as well as proponents of thecapitalistfree-market perspectives note that libertarianism has spread beyond the United States since the 1970s viathink tanks andpolitical parties[131][132] and that libertarianism is increasingly viewed as a capitalist free-market position.[133] However, libertarian intellectualsNoam Chomsky,[43]Colin Ward[44] and others argue that the termlibertarianism is considered a synonym foranarchism andlibertarian socialism by the international community and that the United States is unique in widely associating it with the capitalist free-market ideology.[26][27][41][42] Modern libertarianism in the United States mainly refers to classical and economic liberalism. It supports capitalist free-market approaches as well as neoliberal policies andeconomic liberalization reforms such asausterity,deregulation,free trade,privatization and reductions ingovernment spending in order to increase the role of theprivate sector in the economy and society.[29][30][31] This is unlike the common meaning[17][43][44] of libertarianism elsewhere,[28][41][42][45] withlibertarianism being used to refer to the largely overlappingright-libertarianism, the most popular conception of libertarianism in the United States,[20][134] where the term itself was first coined and used by Joseph Déjacque to refer to a new political philosophy rejecting all authority and hierarchies, including the market and property.[26][27]
In a 1975 interview withReason, California GovernorRonald Reagan appealed to libertarians when he stated to "believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism".[135]Ron Paul was one of the first elected officials in the nation to support Reagan's presidential campaign[136] and actively campaigned for Reagan in 1976 and 1980.[137] However, Paul quickly became disillusioned with the Reagan administration's policies after Reagan's election in 1980 and later recalled being the only Republican to vote against Reagan budget proposals in 1981,[138][139] aghast that "in 1977,Jimmy Carter proposed a budget with a $38 billion deficit, and every Republican in the House voted against it. In 1981, Reagan proposed a budget with a $45 billion deficit – which turned out to be $113 billion – and Republicans were cheering his great victory. They were living in a storybook land".[136] Paul expressed his disgust with the political culture of both major parties in a speech delivered in 1984 upon resigning from theHouse of Representatives to prepare for a failed run for the Senate and eventually apologized to his libertarian friends for having supported Reagan.[139] By 1987, Paul was ready to sever all ties to the Republican Party as explained in a blistering resignation letter.[137] While affiliated with both Libertarian and Republican parties at different times, Paul said he had always been a libertarian at heart.[138][139] Paul was the Libertarian Party candidate for president in 1988.[140]
In the 1980s, libertarians such as Paul and Rothbard[141][142] criticized President Reagan,Reaganomics and policies of theReagan administration for, among other reasons, having turned the United States' big trade deficit into debt and the United States became a debtor nation for the first time since World War I under theReagan administration.[143][144] Rothbard argued that thepresidency of Reagan has been "a disaster for libertarianism in the United States"[145] and Paul described Reagan himself as "a dramatic failure".[137]
In the 21st century, libertarian groups have been successful in advocating tax cuts and regulatory reform. While some argue that the American public as a whole shifted away from libertarianism following thefall of the Soviet Union, citing the success of multinational organizations such asNAFTA and the increasingly interdependentglobal financial system,[146] others argue that libertarian ideas have moved so far into the mainstream that many Americans who do not identify as libertarian now hold libertarian views.[147] Circa 2006 polls find that the views and voting habits of between 10 and 20 percent (increasing) of voting age Americans may be classified as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal, or libertarian".[148][149] This is based on pollsters and researchers defining libertarian views asfiscally conservative andsocially liberal (based on the common United States meanings of the terms) and againstgovernment intervention in economic affairs and for expansion ofpersonal freedoms.[148] Through 20 polls on this topic spanning 13 years, Gallup found that voters who are libertarian on the political spectrum ranged from 17 to 23% of the electorate.[33] While libertarians make up a larger portion of the electorate than the much-discussed "soccer moms" and "NASCAR dads", this is not widely recognized as most of these vote forDemocratic andRepublican party candidates, leading some libertarians to believe that dividing people's political leanings into "conservative", "liberal" and "confused" is not valid.[150]
Former United States Rep.Ron Paul of Texas, who set off a surge of libertarian ideology in the US while running for head of state in2008 and2012
In the United States, libertarians may emphasize economic and constitutional rather than religious and personal policies, or personal and international rather than economic policies[151] such as theTea Party movement (founded in 2009) which has become a major outlet for libertarian Republican ideas,[152][153] especially rigorous adherence to the Constitution, lower taxes and an opposition to a growing role for the federal government in health care. However, polls show that many people who identify as Tea Party members do not hold traditional libertarian views on most social issues and tend to poll similarly tosocially conservative Republicans.[154][155][156] During the2016 presidential election, many Tea Party members eventually abandoned more libertarian-leaning views in favor ofDonald Trump and hisright-wing populism.[157] Additionally, the Tea Party was considered to be a key force in Republicans reclaiming control of theHouse of Representatives in 2010.[158]Texas Congressman Ron Paul's1988,2008 and2012 campaigns for the Republican Party presidential nomination were largely libertarian.[16] Along with Goldwater and others, Paul popularizedlaissez-faire economics and libertarian rhetoric in opposition tointerventionism and worked to pass some reforms. Likewise, California Governor and futurePresident of the United StatesRonald Reagan appealed tocultural conservative libertarians due itssocial conservatism and in a 1975 interview withReason stated: "I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism".[159] However, many libertarians are ambivalent about Reagan's legacy as president due its social conservatism and how theReagan administration turned the United States' big trade deficit into debt, making the United States a debtor nation for the first time since World War I.[160][161] Ron Paul was affiliated with the libertarian-leaningRepublican Liberty Caucus[162] and founded theCampaign for Liberty, a libertarian-leaning membership and lobbying organization.[163]Rand Paul is a Senator who continues the tradition of his father Ron Paul, albeit more moderately as he has described himself as aconstitutional conservative[164] and has both embraced[165] and rejected libertarianism.[166]
Former New Mexico Gov.Gary Johnson, nicknamed "Governor Veto", ran for head of state within the Libertarian Party in2012 and2016.
Since 2012, former New Mexico Governor and two-time Libertarian Party presidential nomineeGary Johnson has been one of the public faces of the libertarian movement. The2016 Libertarian National Convention saw Johnson andBill Weld nominated as the 2016 presidential ticket and resulted in the most successful result for a third-party presidential candidacy since 1996 and the best in the Libertarian Party's history by vote number. Johnson received 3% of the popular vote, amounting to more than 4.3 million votes.[167] Johnson expressed a desire to win at least 5% of the vote so that the Libertarian Party candidates could get equalballot access andfederal funding, ending thetwo-party system.[168][169][170] While some political commentators have described Senator Rand Paul and CongressmanThomas Massie of Kentucky asRepublican libertarians or libertarian-leaning,[165][171] they prefer to identify asconstitutional conservatives.[164][166] One federal officeholder openly professing some form of libertarianism is CongressmanJustin Amash, who representsMichigan's 3rd congressional district since January 2011.[172][173][174][175] Initially elected to Congress as a Republican,[176] Amash left the party and became anindependent in July 2019.[177] In April 2020, Amash joined the Libertarian Party and became the first member of the party in the House of Representatives.[178] Following the2022 Libertarian National Convention, theMises Caucus, apaleolibertarian faction, became the dominant faction on the Libertarian National Committee.[179][180]
Only member of the Libertarian Party to hold a seat in the United States Congress, Michigan Rep.Justin Amash
A variant of non-intellectual right-libertarianism that has been described as "growing in prominence", "changing the dynamics" of the conservative movement in the U.S.,[181] and even "largely defin[ing] the Republican coalition"[182] in the 2020s, has been dubbed "Barstool conservatism". First coined in 2021[183] by journalist Rod Matthew Walther,[184] the term describes a movement whose primary base of support is young non-religious males,[185][186][182] and combines total opposition topolitical correctness and "wokism" with the more traditional libertarian opposition to controls on the pursuits of pleasure (sex, gambling, pornography, alcohol).[185][182][186]
Anti-capitalist libertarianism has recently aroused renewed interest in the early 21st century. The Winter 2006 issue of theJournal of Libertarian Studies published by theMises Institute was dedicated to reviews ofKevin Carson'sStudies in Mutualist Political Economy.[187] One variety of this kind of libertarianism has been a resurgent mutualism, incorporating modern economic ideas such asmarginal utility theory into mutualist theory.[188] Carson'sStudies in Mutualist Political Economy helped to stimulate the growth of new-style mutualism, articulating a version of thelabor theory of value incorporating ideas drawn from Austrian economics.[189]
In 2022, the termkremlintarian emerged as a description of an individual claiming libertarian identity while defending the behavior of totalitarian regimes.[190][191]
Left-libertarianism andright-libertarianism is a categorization used by some political analysts, academics and media sources in the United States to contrast related yet distinct approaches to libertarian philosophy.[203][204][205]Peter Vallentyne defines right-libertarianism as holding that 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". He contrasts this with left-libertarianism, where such "unappropriated natural resources belong to everyone in some egalitarian manner".[206] Similarly, Charlotte and Lawrence Becker maintain that left-libertarianism most often refers to the political position that holds natural resources are originallycommon property while right-libertarianism is the political position that considers them to be originally unowned and therefore may be appropriated at-will by private parties without the consent of, or owing to, others.[207]
Followers ofSamuel Edward Konkin III, who characterizedagorism as a form of left-libertarianism[100][101] and strategic branch ofleft-wing market anarchism,[99] use the terminology as outlined by Roderick T. Long, who describes left-libertarianism as "an integration, or I'd argue, a reintegration of libertarianism with concerns that are traditionally thought of as being concerns of the left. That includes concerns for worker empowerment, worry about plutocracy, concerns about feminism and various kinds of social equality".[208] Konkin defined right-libertarianism as an "activist, organization, publication or tendency which supportsparliamentarianism exclusively as a strategy for reducing or abolishing thestate, typically opposesCounter-Economics, either opposes theLibertarian Party or works to drag it right and prefers coalitions with supposedly 'free-market'conservatives".[99]
Thin and thick libertarianism are two kinds of libertarianism. Thin libertarianism deals with legal issues involving thenon-aggression principle only and would permit a person to speak against other groups as long as they did not support theinitiation of force against others.[222]Walter Block is an advocate of thin libertarianism.[223]Jeffrey Tucker describes thin libertarianism as "brutalism" which he compares unfavorably to "humanitarianism".[224]
Thick libertarianism goes further to also cover moral issues. Charles W. Johnson describes four kinds of thickness, namely thickness for application, thickness from grounds, strategic thickness and thickness from consequences.[225] Thick libertarianism is sometimes viewed as more humanitarian than thin libertarianism.[226]Wendy McElroy has stated that she would leave the movement if thick libertarianism prevails.[227]
Stephan Kinsella rejects the dichotomy altogether, writing: "I have never found the thick-thin paradigm to be coherent, consistent, well-defined, necessary, or even useful. It's full of straw men, or seems to try to take credit for quite obvious and uncontroversial assertions".[228]
TheCato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974 byEd Crane,Murray Rothbard andCharles Koch,[230] chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerateKoch Industries, the second largest privately held company by revenue in the United States.[231] In July 1976, the name was changed to the Cato Institute.[230][232]
The Cato Institute was established to have a focus on public advocacy, media exposure and societal influence.[233] According to the2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report by theThink Tanks and Civil Societies Program of theUniversity of Pennsylvania, the Cato Institute is number 16 in the "Top Think Tanks Worldwide" and number 8 in the "Top Think Tanks in the United States".[234] The Cato Institute also topped the 2014 list of the budget-adjusted ranking of international development think tanks.[235]
TheCenter for Libertarian Studies was a libertarian educational organization founded in 1976 byMurray Rothbard andBurton Blumert which grew out of the Libertarian Scholars Conferences. It published theJournal of Libertarian Studies from 1977 to 2000 (now published by the Mises Institute), a newsletter (In Pursuit of Liberty), several monographs and sponsors conferences, seminars and symposia. Originally headquartered in New York, it later moved to Burlingame, California. Until 2007, it supported LewRockwell.com, web publication of vice presidentLew Rockwell. It also had previously supportedAntiwar.com, a project of theRandolph Bourne Institute.[236]
TheFoundation for Economic Education is a libertarian think tank dedicated to the "economic, ethical and legal principles of a free society". It publishes books and daily articles as well as hosting seminars and lectures.[240]
TheFree State Project is an activist libertarian movement formed in 2001. It is working to bring libertarians to the state of New Hampshire to protect and advance liberty. As of July 2022[update], the project website showed that 19,988 people have pledged to move and 6,232 people identified as Free Staters in New Hampshire.[241]
Free State Project participants interact with the political landscape in New Hampshire in various ways. In 2017, there were 17 Free Staters in the New Hampshire House of Representatives,[242] and in 2021, theNew Hampshire Liberty Alliance, which ranks bills and elected representatives based on their adherence to what they see as libertarian principles, scored 150 representatives as "A−" or above rated representatives.[243] Participants also engage with other like-minded activist groups such as Rebuild New Hampshire,[244]Young Americans for Liberty,[245] andAmericans for Prosperity.[246]
TheLiberty International is a non-profit, libertarian educational organization based in San Francisco. It encourages activism in libertarian and individual rights areas by the freely chosen strategies of its members. Its history dates back to 1969[248] as the Society for Individual Liberty founded by Don Ernsberger and Dave Walter.[249]
The previous name of the Liberty International as the International Society for Individual Liberty[250] was adopted in 1989 after a merger with the Libertarian International was coordinated byVince Miller, who became president of the new organization.[251][252]
TheMises Institute is a tax-exempt, libertarian educative organization located in Auburn, Alabama.[253] Named afterAustrian School economistLudwig von Mises, its website states that it exists to promote "teaching and research in the Austrian school of economics, and individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard".[254] According to the Mises Institute,Nobel Prize winnerFriedrich Hayek served on their founding board.[255]
The Mises Institute was founded in 1982 byLew Rockwell,Burton Blumert andMurray Rothbard following a split between the Cato Institute and Rothbard, who had been one of the founders of the Cato Institute.[256] Additional backing came from Mises's wife Margit von Mises,Henry Hazlitt,Lawrence Fertig and Nobel Economics laureate Friedrich Hayek.[257] Through its publications, the Mises Institute promotes libertarian political theories, Austrian School economics and a form ofheterodox economics known aspraxeology ("the logic of action").[258][259]
The Molinari Institute is a left-libertarian, free-market anarchist organization directed by philosopher Roderick T. Long. It is named afterGustave de Molinari, whom Long terms the "originator of the theory of Market Anarchism".[260]
TheReason Foundation is a libertarian think tank and non-profit and tax-exempt organization that was founded in 1978.[261][262] It publishes the magazineReason and is committed to advancing "the values of individual freedom and choice, limited government, and market-friendly policies". In the2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the University of Pennsylvania, the Reason Foundation was number 41 out of 60 in the "Top Think Tanks in the United States".[263]
Rand Paul – Senator from Kentucky and 2016 presidential candidate
Ron Paul – former Representative from Texas and 1988, 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate
Austin Petersen – 2016 Libertarian Party presidential candidate and 2018Republican Missouri Senate candidate
Stan Jones (Libertarian politician) - 2002 and 2006 ran for U.S. Senate, and in 2000, 2004, and 2008 ran for governor of Montana as libertarian candidate.
Anthony Gregory points out that within the libertarian movement, "just as the general concepts "left" and "right" are riddled with obfuscation and imprecision,left- andright-libertarianism can refer to any number of varying and at times mutually exclusive political orientations".[209] Some libertarians reject association with either the right or the left.Leonard Read wrote an article titled "Neither Left Nor Right: Libertarians Are Above Authoritarian Degradation".[212]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".[211]
Tibor R. Machan titled a book of his collected columnsNeither Left Nor Right.[215]Walter Block's article "Libertarianism Is Unique and Belongs Neither to the Right Nor the Left" critiques libertarians he described as left (C. John Baden, Randy Holcombe and Roderick T. Long) and right (Edward Feser,Hans-Hermann Hoppe andRon Paul). Block wrote that these left and right individuals agreed with certain libertarian premises, but "where we differ is in terms of the logical implications of these founding axioms".[210] On the other hand, libertarians such asKevin Carson,[216]Karl Hess,[217] Roderick T. Long[218] and Sheldon Richman[219] consciously label themselves as left-libertarians.[21][24]
Objectivism is aphilosophical system developed by Russian-American writerAyn Rand. Rand first expressed Objectivism in her fiction, most notablyWe the Living (1936),The Fountainhead (1943) andAtlas Shrugged (1957), but also in later non-fiction essays and books such asThe Virtue of Selfishness (1964) andCapitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966), among others.[271]Leonard Peikoff, a professional philosopher and Rand's designated intellectual heir,[272][273] later gave it a more formal structure. Rand described Objectivism as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute".[274] Peikoff characterizes Objectivism as a "closed system" that is not subject to change.[275]
Objectivism has been and continues to be a major influence on the libertarian movement. Many libertarians justify their political views using aspects of Objectivism.[277][278] However, the views of Rand and her philosophy among prominent libertarians are mixed and many Objectivists are hostile to libertarians in general.[279] Nonetheless, Objectivists such asDavid Kelley and hisAtlas Society have argued that Objectivism is an "open system" and are more open to libertarians.[280][281] Although academic philosophers have mostly ignored or rejected Rand's philosophy, Objectivism has been a significant influence among conservatives and libertarians in the United States.[282][283]
Michael Lind has observed that of the 195 countries in the world today, none have fully actualized a society as advocated by libertarians, arguing: "If libertarianism was a good idea, wouldn't at least one country have tried it? Wouldn't there be at least one country, out of nearly two hundred, with minimal government, free trade, open borders, decriminalized drugs, no welfare state and no public education system?"[291] Lind has criticized libertarianism for being incompatible withdemocracy and apologetic towardsautocracy.[292] In response, libertarianWarren Redlich argues that the United States "was extremely libertarian from the founding until 1860, and still very libertarian until roughly 1930".[293]
Nancy MacLean has criticized libertarianism, arguing that it is aradical right ideology that has stood against democracy. According to MacLean, libertarian-leaningCharles andDavid Koch have used anonymous,dark money campaign contributions, a network of libertarian institutes and lobbying for the appointment of libertarian, pro-business judges to United States federal and state courts to oppose taxes, public education, employee protection laws, environmental protection laws and theNew DealSocial Security program.[294]
Libertarianism has been criticized by thepolitical left for beingpro-business andanti-labor,[295] for desiring to repeal governmentsubsidies todisabled people and thepoor[296] and being incapable of addressing environmental issues, therefore contributing to the failure to slow globalclimate change.[297] Left-libertarians such asNoam Chomsky have characterized libertarian ideologies as being akin tocorporate fascism because they aim to remove all public controls from the economy, leaving it solely in the hands ofprivatecorporations. Chomsky has also argued that the more radical forms of libertarianism such asanarcho-capitalism are entirely theoretical and could never function in reality due to business' reliance on thestate as well asinfrastructure and publicly fundedsubsidies.[298] Another criticism is based on the libertarian theory that a distinction can be made betweenpositive and negative rights, according to whichnegative liberty (negative rights) should be recognized as legitimate, butpositive liberty (positive rights) should be rejected.[299]Socialists also have a different view and definition ofliberty, with some arguing that thecapitalist mode of production necessarily relies on and reproduces violations of the liberty of members of the working class by the capitalist class such as throughexploitation of labor and throughalienation from the product of one's labor.[300][301][302][303][304]
Anarchist critics such asBrian Morris have expressed skepticism regarding libertarians' sincerity in supporting a limited or minimal state, or even no state at all, arguing that anarcho-capitalism does not abolish the state and that anarcho-capitalists "simply replaced the state with private security firms, and can hardly be described as anarchists as the term is normally understood".[305] Peter Sabatini has noted: "Within Libertarianism, Rothbard represents a minority perspective that actually argues for the total elimination of the state. However Rothbard's claim as an anarchist is quickly voided when it is shown that he only wants an end to the public state. In its place he allows countless private states, with each person supplying their own police force, army, and law, or else purchasing these services from capitalist vendors. [...] Rothbard sees nothing at all wrong with the amassing of wealth, therefore those with more capital will inevitably have greater coercive force at their disposal, just as they do now".[306] ForBob Black, libertarians areconservatives and anarcho-capitalists want to "abolish the state to his own satisfaction by calling it something else". Black argues that anarcho-capitalists do not denounce what the state does and only "object to who's doing it".[307] Similarly, Paul Birch has argued that anarcho-capitalism would dissolve into a society ofcity states.[308]
Other libertarians have criticized what they termpropertarianism,[309] withUrsula K. Le Guin contrasting inThe Dispossessed (1974) a propertarian society with one that does not recognize private property rights[310] in an attempt to show that property objectified human beings.[311][312] Left-libertarians such asMurray Bookchin objected to propertarians calling themselves libertarians.[25] Bookchin described three concepts of possession, namelyproperty itself,possession andusufruct, i.e. appropriation of resources by virtue of use.[313]
From thepolitical right, traditionalist conservative philosopherRussell Kirk criticized libertarianism by quotingT. S. Eliot's expression "chirping sectaries" to describe them. Kirk had questioned thefusionism betweenlibertarian andtraditionalist conservatives that marked much of the post-warconservatism in the United States.[314] Kirk stated that "although conservatives and libertarians share opposition to collectivism, the totalist state and bureaucracy, they have otherwise nothing in common"[315] and called the libertarian movement "an ideological clique forever splitting into sects still smaller and odder, but rarely conjugating". Believing that a line of division exists between believers in "some sort of transcendent moral order" and "utilitarians admitting no transcendent sanctions for conduct", he included the libertarians in the latter category.[316][317] He also berated libertarians for holding up capitalism as an absolute good, arguing that economic self-interest was inadequate to hold an economic system together and that it was even less adequate to preserve order.[315] Kirk believed that by glorifying the individual, the free market and the dog-eat-dog struggle for material success, libertarianism weakened community, promoted materialism and undermined appreciation of tradition, love, learning and aesthetics, all of which in his view were essential components of true community.[315]
Author and professorCarl Bogus states that there were fundamental differences between libertarians and traditionalist conservatives in the United States as libertarians wanted the market to be unregulated as possible while traditionalist conservatives believed that big business, if unconstrained, could impoverish national life and threaten freedom.[318] Libertarians also considered that a strong state would threaten freedom while traditionalist conservatives regarded a strong state, one which is properly constructed to ensure that not too much power accumulated in any one branch, was necessary to ensure freedom.[318]
^Becker, Lawrence C.; Becker, Charlotte B. (2001).Encyclopedia of Ethics: P–W.3. Taylor & Francis.p. 1562Archived March 11, 2023, at theWayback Machine.
^Paul, Ellen F. (2007).Liberalism: Old and New. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.p. 187Archived March 11, 2023, at theWayback Machine.
^Christiano, Thomas; John P. Christman (2009).Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy. "Individualism and Libertarian Rights". Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.p. 121Archived June 12, 2020, at theWayback Machine.
^Vallentyne, Peter (March 3, 2009)."Libertarianism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 ed.). Stanford, California:Stanford University.Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. RetrievedMarch 5, 2010.
^Bevir, Mark (2010).Encyclopedia of Political Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; Cato Institute.p. 811.
^Boaz, David; Kirby, David (October 18, 2006).The Libertarian Vote. Cato Institute.
^abcRussell, Dean (May 1955)."Who Is A Libertarian?".The Freeman.5 (5). Foundation for Economic Education. Archived fromthe original on June 26, 2010. RetrievedMarch 6, 2010.
^abDeLeon, David (1978).The American as Anarchist: Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 127.ISBN978-0-8018-2126-4.Archived from the original on September 19, 2024. RetrievedNovember 26, 2023.[O]nly a few individuals like Murray Rothbard, inPower and Market, and some article writers were influenced by [past anarchists like Spooner and Tucker]. Most had not evolved consciously from this tradition; they had been a rather automatic product of the American environment
^Van der Vossen, Bas (January 28, 2019)."Libertarianism"Archived September 11, 2020, at theWayback Machine.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
^abcGoodway, David (2006).Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 4. "'Libertarian' and 'libertarianism' are frequently employed by anarchists as synonyms for 'anarchist' and 'anarchism', largely as an attempt to distance themselves from the negative connotations of 'anarchy' and its derivatives. The situation has been vastly complicated in recent decades with the rise of anarcho-capitalism, 'minimal statism' and an extreme right-wing laissez-faire philosophy advocated by such theorists as Rothbard and Nozick and their adoption of the words 'libertarian' and 'libertarianism'. It has therefore now become necessary to distinguish between their right libertarianism and the left libertarianism of the anarchist tradition".
^Marshall, Peter (2008).Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. London: Harper Perennial. p. 565. "The problem with the term 'libertarian' is that it is now also used by the Right. [...] In its moderate form, right libertarianism embraceslaissez-faire liberals like Robert Nozick who call for a minimal State, and in its extreme form, anarcho-capitalists like Murray Rothbard and David Friedman who entirely repudiate the role of the State and look to the market as a means of ensuring social order".
^abCarlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed.The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. London: Sage Publications.p. 1006Archived February 7, 2024, at theWayback Machine.ISBN1412988764.
^abcLong, Riderick T. "Anarchism". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred, eds. (2012).The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy. p. 227.
^Kymlicka, Will (2005). "libertarianism, left-". InHonderich, Ted.The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 516.ISBN978-0199264797. "'Left-libertarianism' is a new term for an old conception of justice, dating back to Grotius. It combines the libertarian assumption that each person possesses a natural right of self-ownership over his person with the egalitarian premise that natural resources should be shared equally. Right-wing libertarians argue that the right of self-ownership entails the right to appropriate unequal parts of the external world, such as unequal amounts of land. According to left-libertarians, however, the world's natural resources were initially unowned, or belonged equally to all, and it is illegitimate for anyone to claim exclusive private ownership of these resources to the detriment of others. Such private appropriation is legitimate only if everyone can appropriate an equal amount, or if those who appropriate more are taxed to compensate those who are thereby excluded from what was once common property. Historic proponents of this view include Thomas Paine, Herbert Spencer, and Henry George. Recent exponents include Philippe Van Parijs and Hillel Steiner."
^abChartier, Gary; Johnson, Charles W. (2011).Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty. Brooklyn: Minor Compositions/Autonomedia. pp. 1–16.
^abcBookchin, Murray (January 1986)."The Greening of Politics: Toward a New Kind of Political Practice"Archived October 1, 2019, at theWayback Machine.Green Perspectives: Newsletter of the Green Program Project (1). "We have permitted cynical political reactionaries and the spokesmen of large corporations to pre-empt these basic libertarian American ideals. We have permitted them not only to become the specious voice of these ideals such that individualism has been used to justify egotism; the pursuit of happiness to justify greed, and even our emphasis on local and regional autonomy has been used to justify parochialism, insularism, and exclusivity – often against ethnic minorities and so-called deviant individuals. We have even permitted these reactionaries to stake out a claim to the word libertarian, a word, in fact, that was literally devised in the 1890s in France by Elisée Reclus as a substitute for the word anarchist, which the government had rendered an illegal expression for identifying one's views. The propertarians, in effect – acolytes of Ayn Rand, the earth mother of greed, egotism, and the virtues of property – have appropriated expressions and traditions that should have been expressed by radicals but were willfully neglected because of the lure of European and Asian traditions of socialism, socialisms that are now entering into decline in the very countries in which they originated".
^abcdefghiMarshall, Peter (2009).Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. p. 641. "The word 'libertarian' has long been associated with anarchism, and has been used repeatedly throughout this work. The term originally denoted a person who upheld the doctrine of the freedom of the will; in this sense, Godwin was not a 'libertarian', but a 'necessitarian'. It came however to be applied to anyone who approved of liberty in general. In anarchist circles, it was first used by Joseph Déjacque as the title of his anarchist journalLe Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social published in New York in 1858. At the end of the last century, the anarchist Sébastien Faure took up the word, to stress the difference between anarchists and authoritarian socialists".
^abBoaz, David (1998).Libertarianism: A Primer. Free Press. pp. 22–26.
^abConway, David (2008). "Freedom of Speech". InHamowy, Ronald (ed.).Liberalism, Classical.The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 295–298 [296].doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n112.ISBN978-1-4129-6580-4.LCCN2008009151.OCLC750831024.Archived from the original on January 9, 2023. RetrievedMarch 23, 2019.Depending on the context, libertarianism can be seen as either the contemporary name for classical liberalism, adopted to avoid confusion in those countries where liberalism is widely understood to denote advocacy of expansive government powers, or as a more radical version of classical liberalism.
^abBaradat, Leon P. (2015).Political Ideologies. Routledge. p. 31.ISBN978-1317345558.
^abGallup Poll news release, September 7–10, 2006.
^Rothbard, Murray (2009) [1970s].The Betrayal of the American Right(PDF). Mises Institute.ISBN978-1610165013. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on July 3, 2015. RetrievedApril 17, 2016.One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, 'our side,' had captured a crucial word from the enemy. 'Libertarians' had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over.
^abcFernandez, Frank (2001).Cuban Anarchism. The History of a MovementArchived September 19, 2024, at theWayback Machine. Sharp Press. p. 9. "Thus, in the United States, the once exceedingly useful term 'libertarian' has been hijacked by egotists who are in fact enemies of liberty in the full sense of the word."
^abc"The Week Online Interviews Chomsky".Z Magazine. February 23, 2002. "The term libertarian as used in the US means something quite different from what it meant historically and still means in the rest of the world. Historically, the libertarian movement has been the anti-statist wing of the socialist movement. In the US, which is a society much more dominated by business, the term has a different meaning. It means eliminating or reducing state controls, mainly controls over private tyrannies. Libertarians in the US don't say let's get rid of corporations. It is a sort of ultra-rightism."
^abcWard, Colin (2004).Anarchism: A Very Short IntroductionArchived February 7, 2024, at theWayback Machine. Oxford University Press. p. 62. "For a century, anarchists have used the word 'libertarian' as a synonym for 'anarchist', both as a noun and an adjective. The anarchist journalLe Libertaire was founded in 1896. However, much more recently the word has been appropriated by various American free-market philosophers."
^abcdRobert Graham, ed. (2005).Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas. Vol. One: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE–1939). Montreal: Black Rose Books. §17.
^Cohn, Jesse (April 20, 2009). "Anarchism". In Ness, Immanuel (ed.).The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. p. 6.doi:10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0039.ISBN978-1-4051-9807-3.'[L]ibertarianism' [...] a term that, until the mid-twentieth century, was synonymous with "anarchism" per se.
^Guérin, Daniel (1970).Anarchism: From Theory to Practice. New York City: Monthly Review Press. p. 12. "[A]narchism is really a synonym for socialism. The anarchist is primarily a socialist whose aim is to abolish the exploitation of man by man. Anarchism is only one of the streams of socialist thought, that stream whose main components are concern for liberty and haste to abolish the State."ISBN978-0853451754.
^Garbooshian, Adrina Michelle (2006).The Concept of Human Dignity in the French and American Enlightenments: Religion, Virtue, Liberty. ProQuest.p. 472[dead link].ISBN978-0542851605. "Influenced by Locke and Smith, certain segments of society affirmed classical liberalism, with a libertarian bent."
^Cantor, Paul A. (2012).The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture: Liberty Vs. Authority in American Film and TV.University Press of Kentucky.p. xiii.ISBN978-0813140827. "[T]he roots of libertarianism lie in [...] the classical liberal tradition".
^Rocker, Rudolf (1949).Pioneers of American Freedom: Origin of Liberal and Radical Thought in America. New York: J.J. Little & Ives Co., p. 13. "It was the great service of liberal thinkers like Jefferson and Paine that they recognized the natural limitations of every form of government. That is why they did not want to see the state become a terrestrial Providence which in its infallibility would make on its own every decision, thereby not only blocking the road to higher forms of social development, but also crippling the natural sense of responsibility of the people which is the essential condition for every prosperous society".
^Tucker, Benjamin (1926) [1976].Individual Liberty. New York: Vanguard Press. p. 13. "The Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats. They believe that 'the best government is that which governs least,' and that that which governs least is no government at all".
^Scott, James C. (2012).Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play. Princeton University Press. pp. 79–80. "At one end of an institutional continuum one can place the total institutions that routinely destroy the autonomy and initiative of their subjects. At the other end of this continuum lies, perhaps, some ideal version of Jeffersonian democracy composed of independent, self-reliant, self-respecting, landowning farmers, managers of their own small enterprises, answerable to themselves, free of debt, and more generally with no institutional reason for servility or deference. Such free-standing farmers, Jefferson thought, were the basis of a vigorous and independent public sphere where citizens could speak their mind without fear or favor. Somewhere in between these two poles lies the contemporary situation of most citizens of Western democracies: a relatively open public sphere but a quotidian institutional experience that is largely at cross purposes with the implicit assumptions behind this public sphere and encouraging and often rewarding caution, deference, servility, and conformity".
^Hoffman, David C. (Fall 2006). "Paine and Prejudice: Rhetorical Leadership through Perceptual Framing in Common Sense".Rhetoric and Public Affairs.9 (3): 373–410.
^Maier, Pauline (1997).American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Knopf. pp. 90–91.
^Hitchens, Christopher (2006).Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. Grove Press. p. 37.ISBN0802143830.
^Rocker, Rudolf (1949).Pioneers of American Freedom. New York: J.J. Little and Ives Co.
^Woodcock, George (1962).Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements. Melbourne: Penguin.
^Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson; Johnson, Alvin Saunders, eds. (1937).Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences. p. 12.
^Gross, David, ed. (2007).The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals. p. 8. "The Thoreau of these journals distrusted doctrine, and, though it is accurate I think to call him an anarchist, he was by no means doctrinaire in this either".ISBN978-1-4348-0552-2.
^Thoreau, Henry David (1849)."Resistance to Civil Government"Archived June 5, 2011, at theWayback Machine. InCivil Disobedience. "I heartily accept the motto, – "That government is best which governs least;" and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, – "That government is best which governs not at all;" and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have". Retrieved November 15, 2019.
^Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1844). "Politics". InEssays: Second Series.
^Woodcock, George (1962).Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements. Meridian Books. p. 280. "He called himself a 'social poet,' and published two volumes of heavily didactic verse—Lazaréennes and Les Pyrénées Nivelées. In New York, from 1858 to 1861, he edited an anarchist paper entitledLe Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social, in whose pages he printed as a serial his vision of the anarchist Utopia, entitled L'Humanisphére."
^Comegna, Anthony; Gomez, Camillo (October 3, 2018)."Libertarianism, Then and Now"Archived August 3, 2020, at theWayback Machine.Libertarianism. Cato Institute. "[...] Benjamin Tucker was the first American to really start using the term 'libertarian' as a self-identifier somewhere in the late 1870s or early 1880s." Retrieved March 19, 2020.
^Avrich, Paul (1995) [2006].Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Edinburgh, Scotland; Oakland, West Virginia:AK Press. p. 6.ISBN978-1904859277.
^abAvrich, Paul (2005).Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. AK Press. p. 486.
^Raimond, Justin (2001).An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard. Amherst: Prometheus.
^Rothbard; Murray; Radosh, Ronald, eds. (1972).A New History of Leviathan: Essays on the Rise of the American Corporate State. New York: Dutton.
^Hess, Karl (1975).Dear America. New York: Morrow.
^Raimond, Justin (2001).An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard. Amherst: Prometheus. pp. 151–209.
^Doherty, Brian (2007).Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. New York: Public Affairs. p. 338.
^On partnerships between the state and big business and the role of big business in promoting regulation, see Kolko, Gabriel (1977).The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900–1916. New York: Free; Shaffer, Butler (2008).In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918–1938. Auburn: Mises Institute.
^Rothbard, Murray (June 15, 1969). "Confiscation and the Homestead Principle".Libertarian Forum.1 (6): 3–4.
^abMencken, H. L. (1961).Letters of H. L. Mencken. Knofp, pp. xiii and 189.
^abNock, Albert Jay (1949).Letters from Albert Jay Nock, 1924–1945: to Edmund C. Evans, Mrs. Edmund C. Evans and Ellen Winsor. Caxton Printers. p. 40.
^Mencken, H. L. (1923). "Autobiographical Notes, 1941". Letter to George Müller as quoted by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers inMencken: The American Iconoclast (2005). Oxford University Press. p. 105.
^Rand, Ayn (September 1971). "Brief Summary".The Objectivist.10. "More specifically, I disapprove of, disagree with and have no connection with, the latest aberration of some conservatives, the so-called "hippies of the right", who attempt to snare the younger or more careless ones of my readers by claiming simultaneously to be followers of my philosophy and advocates of anarchism".
^Rand, Ayn (1981). "The Age of Mediocrity".FHF 81Archived March 11, 2023, at theWayback Machine. In Mayhew, Robert (2005).Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q & AArchived March 11, 2023, at theWayback Machine. "[L]ibertarians are a monstrous, disgusting bunch of people: they plagiarize my ideas when that fits their purpose, and denounce me in a more vicious manner than any communist publication when that fits their purpose".
^Walker, Jesse (June 13, 2011)."John Hospers, RIP".Reason.Archived from the original on January 17, 2019. RetrievedJuly 13, 2013.
^O'Grady, Jane (July 13, 2011)."John Hospers obituary".The Guardian.Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. RetrievedJuly 13, 2019.
^Doherty, Brian (2009). "The Three Furies of Libertarianism".Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. London: Hachette, UK.ISBN978-0786731886.
^Henry J. Silverman,American radical thought: the libertarian tradition, p. 279, 1970, Heath publishing.
^Ronald Lora, William Henry Longton,Conservative press in 20th-century America,pp. 367–374Archived September 19, 2024, at theWayback Machine, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999
^Marc Jason Gilbert,The Vietnam War on campus: other voices, more distant drums,p. 35, 2001, Greenwood Publishing Group,ISBN0-275-96909-6.
^Heppell, Timothy (June 2002). "The ideological composition of the Parliamentary Conservative Party 1992–97".British Journal of Politics and International Relations.4 (2):299–324.doi:10.1111/1467-856X.t01-1-00006.S2CID144304577.
^Walsh, Jason (April 7, 2006)."Libertarianism limited".The Guardian. London.Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 26, 2008.
^abcKutzmann, David M. (May 24, 1988). "Small Party Battles Big Government Libertarian Candidate Opposes Intrusion into Private Lives".San Jose Mercury News: 12A.
^Rothbard, Murray (1984)."The Reagan Phenomenon"Archived January 18, 2023, at theWayback Machine.Free Life: The Journal of the Libertarian Alliance. Libertarian Alliance.4 (1): 1–7. Retrieved September 20, 2020 – via the Mises Institute.
^Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew (2015).Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0226285436.
^The ANES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior, 1948–2004 American National Election Studies (Newer editionArchived April 23, 2016, at theWayback Machine).
^Beyond Liberal and Conservative William S. Maddox & Stuart A. Lilie, 1984. (Preview on Google Books).
^abStewart, Martina (May 4, 2010)."'I'm very serious about running', Ron Paul's son says". CNN. Archived fromthe original on November 28, 2021. RetrievedNovember 15, 2010.Like his father, the son also favors notions of limited government. 'Libertarian would be a good description,' Rand Paul told CNN, 'because libertarians believe in freedom in all aspects of your life – your economic life as well as your social life as well as your personal life'.
^abNewton-Small, Jay (March 17, 2010)."Is Rand Paul Good or Bad for Republicans?".Time.Archived from the original on August 23, 2014. RetrievedMarch 30, 2014.They thought all along that they could call me a libertarian and hang that label around my neck like an albatross, but I'm not a libertarian.
^Andrews, Wilson; Bloch, Matthew; Park, Haeyoun (March 24, 2017)."Who Stopped the Republican Health Bill?".The New York Times.Archived from the original on July 5, 2019. RetrievedJuly 5, 2019.15 were hard-line conservatives who wanted a complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act. They are all members of the House Freedom Caucus, who are among the most conservative members of the House [...] Justin Amash, MI-3 [...].
^Phillips, Amber Phillips (May 20, 2019)."Why Justin Amash's impeachment comments probably won't change Nancy Pelosi's mind".The Washington Post.Archived from the original on May 20, 2019. RetrievedMay 20, 2019.Amash is one of the most conservative lawmakers in Congress, which gives him street cred when he calls for impeaching a Republican president. But Amash is also a different strain of conservative; he leans libertarian.
^Sabad, Rebecca (May 20, 2019)."Amash's impeachment call comes with a political price. How high?". NBC News.Archived from the original on September 19, 2024. RetrievedMay 20, 2019.Amash, 39, who identifies as a libertarian Republican, is considered among the most conservative members of the House. [...] Conservative groups like the Club for Growth, Heritage Action for America and Americans for Prosperity have awarded him lifetime ratings of more than 85 percent.
^Carson, Kevin (Winter 2006)."Carson's Rejoinders"Archived January 13, 2020, at theWayback Machine.Journal of Libertarian Studies. Mises Institute.20 (1): 97–136. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
^Carson, Kevin."Preface". Mutualist.Org: Free Market Anti-Capitalism.Archived April 15, 2011, at theWayback Machine. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
^Carson, Kevin (2007).Studies in Mutualist Political Economy. Charleston, South Carolina: BookSurge.
^Liggio, Leonard P. (Winter 1982). "Hayek's Constitution of Liberty: Ethical Basis of the Juridical Framework of Individual Liberty".Literature of Liberty.5 (4).
^Ebenstein, Alan O. (2001).Friedrich Hayek: A Biography. University of Chicago Press. p. 383.ISBN978-0226181509.
^Vallentyne, Peter (February 12, 2007). "Libertarianism and the State". In Frankel Paul, Ellen; Miller, Fred Jr.; Paul, Jeffrey (eds.).Liberalism: Old and New. Vol. 24. Cambridge University Press. pp. 187–205.ISBN978-0-521-70305-5.The best known form of libertarianism—right-libertarianism—is a version of classical liberalism, but there is also a form of libertarianism—left-libertarianism—that combines classical liberalism's concern for individual liberty with contemporary liberalism's robust concern for material equality.
^Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed.The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. London: Sage Publications. p. 1006.ISBN978-1412988766. "There exist three major camps in libertarian thought: right-libertarianism, socialist libertariaism, and left-lbertarianism; the extent to which these represent distinct ideologies as opposed to variations on a theme is contrasted by scholars. Regardless, these factions differ most pronouncedly with respect to private property."
^Graham, Paul; Hoffman, John (2003).An Introduction to Political Theory. Routledge. p. 93.ISBN978-1-3178-6342-7.A distinction is made between right libertarianism and left libertarianism. Self-ownership is the starting point for all libertarians, but right and left libertarians divide over the implications for the ownership of external things from the self-ownership premise.
^abHess, Karl (February 18, 2015)."Anarchism Without Hyphens & The Left/Right Spectrum"Archived March 17, 2020, at theWayback Machine. Center for a Stateless Society. Tulsa Alliance of the Libertarian Left. Retrieved March 17, 2020. "The far left, as far as you can get away from the right, would logically represent the opposite tendency and, in fact, has done just that throughout history. The left has been the side of politics and economics that opposes the concentration of power and wealth and, instead, advocates and works toward the distribution of power into the maximum number of hands."
^abRichman, Sheldon (June 1, 2007)."Libertarianism: Left or Right?"Archived September 19, 2024, at theWayback Machine. The Future of Freedom Foundation. Retrieved March 15, 2020. "In fact, libertarianism is planted squarely on the Left, as I will try to demonstrate here."
^Comegna, Anthony; Gomez, Camillo (October 3, 2018)."Libertarianism, Then and Now"Archived August 3, 2020, at theWayback Machine.Libertarianism. Cato Institute. "I think you're right that the right-wing associations with libertarianism—that is mainly a product of the 20th century and really the second half of the 20th century, and before that it was overtly left-wing, and radically left-wing, for the most part, in almost all iterations." Retrieved March 19, 2020.
^Rothbard, Murray (Spring 1965). "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty".Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought.1 (1): 4–22.
^Berg, Chris (2016).The Libertarian Alternative. Melbourne University Press.ISBN978-0522868456.
^"Alliance of the Libertarian Left"Archived January 31, 2024, at theWayback Machine. Alliance of the Libertarian Left. "The Alliance of the Libertarian Left is a multi-tendency coalition of mutualists, agorists, voluntaryists, geolibertarians, left-Rothbardians, green libertarians, dialectical anarchists, radical minarchists, and others on the libertarian left, united by an opposition to statism and militarism, to cultural intolerance (including sexism, racism, and homophobia), and to the prevailing corporatist capitalism falsely called a free market; as well as by an emphasis on education, direct action, and building alternative institutions, rather than on electoral politics, as our chief strategy for achieving liberation". Retrieved November 17, 2019.
^Cobane, Craig T. (2005)."Think Tanks".Americans at War. Gale. Archived fromthe original on March 29, 2015. RetrievedAugust 18, 2013.
^James G. McGann (February 4, 2015)."2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report".Archived from the original on May 7, 2021. RetrievedFebruary 14, 2015. Other "Top Think Tank" rankings include number 13 (out of 85) in Defense and National Security, number 5 (out of 80) in Domestic Economic Policy, number 4 (out of 55) in Education Policy, number 17 (out of 85) in Foreign Policy and International Affairs, number 8 (out of 30) in Domestic Health Policy, number 14 (out of 25) in Global Health Policy, number 18 (out of 80) in International Development, number 14 (out of 50) in International Economic Policy, number 8 (out of 50) in Social Policy, number 8 (out of 75) for Best Advocacy Campaign, number 17 (out of 60) for Best Think Tank Network, number 3 (out of 60) for best Use of Social Networks, number 9 (out of 50) for Best External Relations/Public Engagement Program, number 2 (out of 40) for Best Use of the Internet, number 12 (out of 40) for Best Use of Media, number 5 (out of 30) for Most Innovative Policy Ideas/Proposals, number 11 (out of 70) for the Most Significant Impact on Public Policy and number 9 (out of 60) for Outstanding Policy-Oriented Public Programs.
^Sam Tanenhaus and Jim Rutenberg (January 25, 2014)."Rand Paul's Mixed Inheritance".The New York Times.Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2014.
^"Molinari Institute"Archived May 6, 2021, at theWayback Machine. Molinari Institute. "The Institute takes its name from Gustave de Molinari (1819–1912), originator of the theory of Market Anarchism".
^Rothbard, Murray (August 17, 2007)."Floyd Arthur 'Baldy' Harper, RIP".Mises Daily. Mises Institute.Archived from the original on December 13, 2011. RetrievedMarch 15, 2020.
^Casey, Gerard; Meadowcroft, John, ed. (2010).Murray Rothbard: Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers.15. London: The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc.p. ixArchived March 11, 2023, at theWayback Machine.
^Sanchez, Julian; Weigel, David (January 16, 2008)."Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?".Reason. Reason Foundation.Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. RetrievedMarch 15, 2020.
^Peikoff, Leonard (May 18, 1989)."Fact and Value".The Intellectual Activist.5 (1).Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. RetrievedNovember 10, 2019.
^Rand, Ayn (1961).For the New Intellectual. Random House.
^Peikoff, Leonard (1991).Objectivisim: the Philosophy of Ayn Rand. Dutton.
^Schwartz, Peter (May 18, 1989)."On Moral Sanctions".The Intellectual Activist.5 (1). Ayn Rand Institute. Archived fromthe original on August 6, 2013. RetrievedJuly 29, 2019.
^Kelley, David (2000).The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand: Truth and Toleration in Objectivism. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers.ISBN0-7658-0060-8.
^Gladstein, Mimi Reisel (2009).Ayn Rand. Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers series. New York: Continuum. pp. 107–108, 124.ISBN978-0-8264-4513-1.OCLC319595162.
^Friedman, Jeffrey (1993). "What's Wrong with Libertarianism".Critical Review. 11 (3). p. 427.
^Sterba, James P. (October 1994). "From Liberty to Welfare".Ethics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell.105 (1): 237–241.
^Matthew, Schneider-Mayerson (2015).Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0226285573.OCLC922640625.
^Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew (2015).Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0226285436.
^Sterba, James P. (October 1994). "From Liberty to Welfare".Ethics. Cambridge: Blackwell). 105 (1): 237–241.
^Wood, John Cunningham (1996).Karl Marx's Economics: Critical Assessments I. Routledge. pp. 248–249.ISBN978-0-415-08714-8.Affluence and increased provision of free goods would reduce alienation in the work process and, in combination with (1), the alienation of man's 'species-life'. Greater leisure would create opportunities for creative and artistic activity outside of work.
^Goodwin, Barbara (2007).Using Political Ideas. Wiley. pp. 107–109.ISBN978-0-470-02552-9.Socialists consider the pleasures of creation equal, if not superior, to those of acquisition and consumption, hence the importance of work in socialist society. Whereas the capitalist/Calvinist work ethic applauds the moral virtue of hard work, idealistic socialists emphasize the joy. This vision of 'creative man', Homo Faber, has consequences for their view of freedom. [...] Socialist freedom is the freedom to unfold and develop one's potential, especially through unalienated work.
^Acharya, Ashok; Bhargava, Rajeev (2008).Political Theory: An Introduction. Pearson Education India. p. 255.Genuine freedom as Marx described it, would become possible only when life activity was no longer constrained by the requirements of production or by the limitations of material scarcity [...]. Thus, in the socialist view, freedom is not an abstract ideal but a concrete situation that ensues only when certain conditions of interaction between man and nature (material conditions), and man and other men (social relations) are fulfilled.
^Peffer, Rodney G. (2014).Marxism, Morality, and Social Justice. Princeton University Press. p. 73.ISBN978-0-691-60888-4.Marx believed the reduction of necessary labor time to be, evaluatively speaking, an absolute necessity. He claims that real wealth is the developed productive force of all individuals. It is no longer the labor time but the disposable time that is the measure of wealth.
^Woods, Allen (2014).The Free Development of Each: Studies on Freedom, Right, and Ethics in Classical German Philosophy."Marx on Equality". pp. 253–266.
^Morris, Brian. "Global Anti-Capitalism".Anarchist Studies.14 (2): pp. 170–176.
^Kirk, Russell (Fall 1981)."Libertarians: the Chirping Sectaries"(PDF).Modern Age. Wilmington, Delaware: Intercollegiate Studies Institute. pp. 345–351.Archived(PDF) from the original on September 2, 2009.
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