Libertarianism (fromFrench:libertaire,lit. 'free and egalitarian'; or fromLatin:libertas,lit. 'freedom') is apolitical philosophy that holds freedom, personalsovereignty, andliberty as primary values.[1][2][3][4] Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with theNon-Aggression Principle, according to which each individual has the right to live as they choose, as long as they do not violate the rights of others by initiating force or fraud against them.[5]
Schools of libertarian thought offer a range of views regarding the legitimate functions of state and non-statepower. Different categorizations have been used to distinguish these various forms of libertarianism.[7][8] Scholars have identified distinct libertarian perspectives on the nature ofproperty andcapital, typically delineating them alongleft–right orsocialist–capitalist axes.[9] Libertarianism has been broadly shaped byliberal ideas.[10]
In the mid-20th century, American[25] proponents ofanarcho-capitalism andminarchism began using[14][unreliable source?] the termlibertarian. Minarchists advocate fornight-watchman states which maintain only those functions of government necessary to safeguard natural rights, understood in terms of self-ownership or autonomy,[26] while anarcho-capitalists advocate for the replacement of all state institutions with private alternatives.[27]
The first recorded use of the termlibertarian was in 1789, whenWilliam Belsham wrote aboutlibertarianism in the context of metaphysics.[46] As early as 1796,libertarian came to mean an advocate or defender of liberty, in the sense of a supporter ofrepublicanism, when the London Packet printed on 12 February the following: "Lately marched out of the Prison at Bristol, 450 of the French Libertarians".[47] It was again used in a republican sense in 1802 in a short piece critiquing a poem by "the author of Gebir" and has since been used politically.[48][unreliable source?][49][50]
In the United States, the termlibertarian was popularized by theindividualist anarchistBenjamin Tucker around the late 1870s and early 1880s.[56]Libertarianism as a synonym forliberalism was popularized in May 1955 by writer Dean Russell, a colleague ofLeonard Read and aclassical liberal himself. Russell justified the choice of the term 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."[57][58][59]
Subsequently, many Americans with classical liberal beliefs began to describe themselves aslibertarians. One person who popularized the termlibertarian in this sense wasMurray Rothbard, who began publishing libertarian works in the 1960s.[60] Rothbard described this modern use of the words overtly as a "capture" from his enemies, writing 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".[14][unreliable source?]
Although libertarianism originated as a form ofanarchist orleft-wing politics,[69][70] the development in the mid-20th century of modernlibertarianism in the United States resulted in libertarianism's being commonly associated withright-wing politics, as well as viewed by many as neither left- nor right-wing, but an independent pro-freedom and anti-authoritarian philosophy.[71][unreliable source?] It also resulted in several authors and political scientists using two or more categorizations[7][8][72] to distinguish libertarian views on the nature of property and capital, usually along left–right or socialist–capitalist lines.[9]
Those sometimes called "right-libertarians", usually by leftists or by other libertarians with more left-leaning ideologies, often reject the label due to its association withconservatism and right-wing politics and simply describe themselves aslibertarians. However, some, particularly those who describe themselves aspaleo-libertarians, agree with their placement on the political right. Meanwhile, some proponents offree-market anti-capitalism in the United States consciously label themselves asleft-libertarians and see themselves as part of a broad libertarian left.[69][70]
While the termlibertarian had been substantially synonymous withanarchism and seen by many as part of the left,[15][84] continuing today as part of the libertarian left in opposition to the moderate left such associal democracy orauthoritarian andstatist socialism, its meaning has evolved during the past half century, with broader adoption by ideologically disparate groups,[15] including some viewed as right-wing by older users of the term.[21][23] As a term,libertarian can include both theNew Left Marxists (who do not associate with avanguard party) and extreme liberals (primarily concerned withcivil liberties) orcivil libertarians. Additionally, some libertarians use the termlibertarian socialist to avoid anarchism's negative connotations and emphasize its connections with socialism.[15][85]
The revival of free-market ideologies during the mid-to-late 20th century came with disagreement over what to call the movement. While many believers in economic freedom prefer the termlibertarian, some free-marketconservatives reject the term's association with the 1960s New Left and its connotations oflibertine hedonism.[86] The movement is divided over the use ofconservatism as an alternative.[87] Those who seek both economic and social liberty would be known asliberals, but that term developed associations opposite of thelimited government, low-taxation, minimal state advocated by the movement.[88] Name variants of the free-market revival movement includeclassical liberalism,economic liberalism,free-market liberalism andneoliberalism.[86] As a term,libertarian oreconomic libertarian has the most everyday acceptance to describe a member of the movement, with the latter term being based on both the ideology's importance of economics and its distinction from libertarians of the New Left.[87]
A diagram of the typology of beliefs in libertarianism (both left and right, respectively)
While both historical and contemporary libertarianism share general antipathy towards power by government authority, the latter exempts power wielded throughfree-market capitalism. Historically, libertarians, includingHerbert Spencer andMax Stirner, supported the protection of an individual's freedom from powers of government and private ownership.[89] In contrast, while condemning governmental encroachment on personal liberties, modern American libertarians support freedoms based on their agreement with private property rights.[90] The abolition or privatization of amenities or entitlements controlled by the government is a common theme in modern American libertarian writings.[91]
TheStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines libertarianism as themoral view that agents initially fully own themselves and have certain moral powers to acquire property rights in external things.[72] Libertarian historianGeorge Woodcock defines libertarianism as the philosophy that fundamentally doubts authority and advocates transforming society by reform or revolution.[106] Libertarian philosopher Roderick T. Long defines libertarianism as "any political position that advocates a radical redistribution of power from the coercive state to voluntary associations of free individuals", whether "voluntary association" takes the form of the free market or of communal co-operatives.[107] According to theLibertarian Party, of the United States, libertarianism is the advocacy of either anarchy, or government that is funded voluntarily and limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence.[108]
According to theInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), "What it means to be a 'libertarian' in a political sense is a contentious issue, especially among libertarians themselves."[109] Nevertheless, all libertarians begin with a conception ofpersonal autonomy from which they argue in favor of civil liberties and a reduction or elimination of the state.[4] People described as being left-libertarian or right-libertarian generally tend to call themselves simply libertarians and refer to their philosophy as libertarianism. As a result, some political scientists and writers classify the forms of libertarianism into two or more groups[7][8] to distinguish libertarian views on the nature ofproperty andcapital.[9][19] In the United States, proponents offree-market anti-capitalism consciously label themselves as left-libertarians and see themselves as being part of a broad libertarian left.[69][70]
While left-libertarians advocate for social freedom, right-libertarians also value socialinstitutions that support capitalist conditions. They reject institutions that oppose this framework, arguing that such interventions unnecessarily coerce individuals and violate their economic freedom.[114]Anarcho-capitalists[22][23] seek the elimination of the state in favor of privately funded security services while minarchists defendnight-watchman states which maintain only those functions of government necessary to safeguard natural rights, understood in terms of self-ownership or autonomy.[26]Libertarian-authoritarianism has been associated with right-libertarianism, due to its broader critique of democracy, its power, and its laws.[115][116]
There are a number of different left-libertarian positions on the state, which can range from advocating for itscomplete abolition to advocating for a moredecentralized andlimited government withsocial ownership of the economy.[117] According to Sheldon Richman of theIndependent Institute, other left-libertarians "prefer that corporate privileges be repealed before the regulatory restrictions on how those privileges may be exercised".[118]
Libertarian paternalism[119] is a position advocated in the international bestsellerNudge by two American scholars, namely the economistRichard Thaler and the juristCass Sunstein.[120] In the bookThinking, Fast and Slow,Daniel Kahneman provides the brief summary: "Thaler and Sunstein advocate a position of libertarian paternalism, in which the state and other institutions are allowed tonudge people to make decisions that serve their own long-term interests. The designation of joining a pension plan as the default option is an example of a nudge. It is difficult to argue that anyone's freedom is diminished by being automatically enrolled in the plan, when they merely have to check a box to opt out."[121]Nudge is considered an important piece of literature inbehavioral economics.[121]
Neo-libertarianism combines "the libertarian's moral commitment tonegative liberty with a procedure that selects principles for restricting liberty on the basis of a unanimous agreement in which everyone's particular interests receive a fair hearing".[122] Neo-libertarianism has its roots at least as far back as 1980 when it was first described by the American philosopher James Sterba of theUniversity of Notre Dame. Sterba observed that libertarianism advocates for a government that does no more than protection against force, fraud, theft, enforcement of contracts and other so-callednegative liberties as contrasted withpositive liberties byIsaiah Berlin.[123] Sterba contrasted this with the older libertarian ideal of a night watchman state or minarchism. Sterba held that it is "obviously impossible for everyone in society to be guaranteed complete liberty as defined by this ideal: after all, people's actual wants as well as their conceivable wants can come into serious conflict. [...] [I]t is also impossible for everyone in society to be completely free from the interference of other persons."[124] In 2013, Sterba wrote, "I shall show that moral commitment to an ideal of 'negative' liberty, which does not lead to a night-watchman state, but instead requires sufficient government to provide each person in society with the relatively high minimum of liberty that persons usingRawls'decision procedure would select. The political program actually justified by an ideal of negative liberty I shall callNeo-Libertarianism."[125]
Libertarian populism combines libertarian and populist politics. According toJesse Walker, writing in the libertarian magazineReason, libertarian populists oppose "big government" while also opposing "other large, centralized institutions" and advocate "tak[ing] an axe to the thicket of corporate subsidies, favors, and bailouts, clearing our way to an economy where businesses that can't make money serving customers don't have the option of wringing profits from the taxpayers instead".[126]
TheNolan Chart, created by American libertarianDavid Nolan, expands the left–right line into a two-dimensional chart classifying the political spectrum by degrees of personal and economic freedom.
In the United States, and increasingly worldwide,libertarian is a typology used to describe a political position that advocatessmall government and isculturally liberal andfiscally conservative in a two-dimensional political spectrum such as the libertarian-inspiredNolan Chart, where the other major typologies areconservative,liberal andpopulist.[65][127][128][129]Libertarians support the legalization of victimless crimes such as the use of marijuana while opposing high levels of taxation and government spending on health, welfare, and education.[65]Libertarians also support a foreign policy ofnon-interventionism.[130][131]Libertarian was adopted in the United States, whereliberal had become associated with a version that supports extensive government spending on social policies.[59]Libertarian may also refer to ananarchist ideology that developed in the 19th century and to a liberal version that developed in the United States that is avowedly pro-capitalist.[73][21][22]
According to polls, approximately one in four Americans self-identify aslibertarian.[132][133][134][135] While most members of this group are not necessarily ideologically driven, the termlibertarian is commonly used to describe the form of libertarianism widely practiced in the United States and is the common meaning of the wordlibertarianism in the U.S.[24] This form is often namedliberalism elsewhere such as in Europe, whereliberalism has a different common meaning than in the United States.[59] In some academic circles, this form is calledright-libertarianism as a complement toleft-libertarianism, with acceptance of capitalism or the private ownership of land as being the distinguishing feature.[73][21][22]
Elements of libertarianism can be traced back to the higher-law concepts of theGreeks and theIsraelites, andChristian theologians who argued for the moral worth of the individual and the division of the world into two realms, one of which is the province of God and thus beyond the power of states to control it.[4][136] Theright-libertarian economistMurray Rothbard suggested that ChineseTaoist philosopherLaozi was the first libertarian,[137][unreliable source?] likening Laozi's ideas on government toFriedrich Hayek's theory ofspontaneous order.[138][unreliable source?] Similarly, theCato Institute'sDavid Boaz includes passages from theTao Te Ching in his 1997 bookThe Libertarian Reader and noted in an article for theEncyclopædia Britannica that Laozi advocated for rulers to "do nothing" because "without law or compulsion, men would dwell in harmony".[139] Libertarianism was influenced by debates withinScholasticism regarding private property andslavery.[4] Scholastic thinkers, includingThomas Aquinas,Francisco de Vitoria, andBartolomé de Las Casas, argued for the concept of "self-mastery" as the foundation of a system supporting individual rights.[4]
Early Christian sects such as theWaldensians displayed libertarian attitudes.[140][141] In 17th-century England, libertarian ideas began to take modern form in the writings of theLevellers andJohn Locke. In the middle of that century, opponents of royal power began to be calledWhigs, or sometimes simply Opposition or Country, as opposed to Court writers.[142]
During the 18th century andAge of Enlightenment,liberal ideas flourished in Europe and North America.[143][144] Libertarians of various schools were influenced by liberal ideas.[10] 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 andThomas Paine."[145]
Thomas Paine, whose theory of property showed a libertarian concern with the unequal distribution of resources under statism
John Locke greatly influenced both libertarianism and the modern world in his writings published before and after theEnglish Revolution of 1688, especiallyA Letter Concerning Toleration (1667),Two Treatises of Government (1689) andAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). In the text of 1689, he established the basis of liberal political theory, i.e. that people's rights existed before government; that the purpose of government is to protect personal and property rights; that people may dissolve governments that do not do so; and that representative government is the best form to protect rights.[146]
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."[147] 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.[4]
According toMurray Rothbard, the libertarian creed emerged from the 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 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.[147]
In January 1776, only two years after coming to America from England, Thomas Paine published his pamphletCommon Sense calling for independence for the colonies.[148][unreliable source?] Paine promoted liberal ideas in clear and concise language that allowed the general public to understand the debates among the political elites.[149]Common Sense was immensely popular in disseminating these ideas,[150] selling hundreds of thousands of copies.[151] Paine would later write theRights of Man andThe Age of Reason and participate in theFrench Revolution.[148][unreliable source?] Paine's theory of property showed a "libertarian concern" with the unequal distribution of resources under statism.[152]
In 1793,William Godwin wrote a libertarian philosophical treatise titledEnquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness which criticized ideas of human rights and of society by contract based on vague promises. He took liberalism to its logical anarchic conclusion by rejecting all political institutions, law, government and apparatus of coercion as well as all political protest and insurrection. Instead of institutionalized justice, Godwin proposed that people influence one another to moral goodness through informal reasoned persuasion, including in the associations they joined as this would facilitate happiness.[153]
Anarchist communist philosopherJoseph Déjacque was the first person to describe himself as alibertarian[11] in an 1857 letter.[154] Unlike mutualist anarchist philosopherPierre-Joseph Proudhon, he argued that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature".[155][156] According to anarchist historianMax Nettlau, the first use of the termlibertarian communism was in November 1880, when a French anarchist congress employed it to identify its doctrines more clearly.[157] The French anarchist journalistSébastien Faure started the weekly paperLe Libertaire (The Libertarian) in 1895.[158]
Sébastien Faure, prominent French theorist of libertarian communism as well as atheist and freethought militant
Therevolutionary wave of 1917–1923 saw the active participation of anarchists in Russia and Europe. Russian anarchists participated alongside theBolsheviks in both theFebruary andOctober 1917 revolutions. However, Bolsheviks in central Russia quickly began to imprison or drive underground the libertarian anarchists. Many fled to Ukraine.[159] After the anarchistMakhnovshchina helped stave off theWhite movement during theRussian Civil War, the Bolsheviks turned on the Makkhnovists and contributed to the schism between the anarcho-syndicalists and the Communists.[160]
With the rise offascism in Europe between the 1920s and the 1930s, anarchists began to fight fascists in Italy,[161] in France during theFebruary 1934 riots[162] and in Spain where theCNT (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo) boycott of elections led to a right-wing victory and its later participation in voting in 1936 helped bring the popular front back to power. This led to a ruling class attempted coup and theSpanish Civil War (1936–1939).[163] Gruppo Comunista Anarchico di Firenze held that during the early twentieth century, the terms libertarian communism and anarchist communism became synonymous within the international anarchist movement as a result of the close connection they had in Spain (anarchism in Spain), withlibertarian communism becoming the prevalent term.[164]
Libertarian socialism reached its apex of popularity with theSpanish Revolution of 1936, during which libertarian socialists led "the largest and most successful revolution against capitalism to ever take place in any industrial economy".[165] During the revolution, themeans of production were brought underworkers' control andworker cooperatives formed the basis for the new economy.[166] According toGaston Leval, the CNT established an agrarian federation in the Levante that encompassed 78% of Spain's mostarable land. The regional federation was populated by 1,650,000 people, 40% of whom lived on the region's 900 agrarian collectives, which were self-organised by peasant unions.[167] Although industrial and agricultural production was at its highest in the anarchist-controlled areas of the Spanish Republic, and theanarchist militias displayed the strongest military discipline, liberals and communists alike blamed the "sectarian" libertarian socialists for the defeat of the Republic in theSpanish Civil War. These charges have been disputed by contemporary libertarian socialists, such as Robin Hahnel and Noam Chomsky, who have accused such claims of lacking substantial evidence.[168]
During the autumn of 1931, the "Manifesto of the 30" was published by militants of the anarchist trade union CNT and among those who signed it there was the CNT General Secretary (1922–1923) Joan Peiro,Ángel Pestaña CNT (General Secretary in 1929) and Juan Lopez Sanchez. They were calledtreintismo and they were calling forlibertarian possibilism which advocated achieving libertarian socialist ends with participation inside structures of contemporaryparliamentary democracy.[169] In 1932, they established theSyndicalist Party, which participated in the 1936 Spanish general elections and proceeded to be a part of the leftist coalition of parties known as thePopular Front obtaining two congressmen (Pestaña and Benito Pabon). In 1938, Horacio Prieto, general secretary of the CNT, proposed that theIberian Anarchist Federation transform itself into the Libertarian Socialist Party and that it participate in the national elections.[170]
According toDavid Boaz, in 1943 three women "published books that could be said to have given birth to the modern libertarian movement".[185]Isabel Paterson'sThe God of the Machine,Rose Wilder Lane'sThe Discovery of Freedom andAyn Rand'sThe Fountainhead each promoted individualism and capitalism. None of the three used the term libertarianism to describe their beliefs and Rand specifically rejected the label, criticizing the burgeoning American libertarian movement as the "hippies of the right".[186] Rand accused libertarians of plagiarizing ideas related to her own philosophy of Objectivism and yet viciously attacking other aspects of it.[186]
In 1946,Leonard E. Read founded theFoundation for Economic Education (FEE), an American nonprofit educational organization which promotes the principles oflaissez-faire economics, private property and limited government.[187] According toGary North, the FEE is the "granddaddy of all libertarian organizations".[188]
TheVietnam War split the uneasy alliance between the growing numbers of American libertarians, on the one hand, and conservatives who believed in limiting liberty to uphold moral virtues on the other. Libertarians opposed to the war joined thedraft resistance andpeace movements as well as organizations such asStudents for a Democratic Society (SDS). In 1969 and 1970, Hess joined with others, including Murray Rothbard,Robert LeFevre,Dana Rohrabacher,Samuel Edward Konkin III and former SDS leaderCarl Oglesby to speak at two conferences which brought together activists from both the New Left and the Old Right in what was emerging as a nascent libertarian movement. Rothbard ultimately broke with the left, allying himself with the burgeoningpaleoconservative movement.[190][191] He criticized the tendency of these libertarians to appeal to"'free spirits,' to people who don't want to push other people around, and who don't want to be pushed around themselves" in contrast to "the bulk of Americans" who "might well be tight-assed conformists, who want to stamp out drugs in their vicinity, kick out people with strange dress habits, etc.". Rothbard emphasized that this was relevant as a matter of strategy as the failure to pitch the libertarian message to Middle America might result in the loss of "the tight-assed majority".[192][193] Thisleft-libertarian tradition has been carried to the present day by Konkin'sagorists,[194] contemporary mutualists such asKevin Carson,[195] Roderick T. Long[196] and others such asGary Chartier[197] Charles W. Johnson[198][199] Sheldon Richman,[200]Chris Matthew Sciabarra[201] and Brad Spangler.[202]
Former congressmanRon Paul, a self-described libertarian, whose presidential campaigns in2008 and2012 garnered significant support from youth andlibertarian Republicans
In 1971, a small group led byDavid Nolan formed theLibertarian Party,[203] which has run a presidential candidate every election year since 1972. Other libertarian organizations, such as theCenter for Libertarian Studies and theCato Institute, were also formed in the 1970s.[204] PhilosopherJohn Hospers, a one-time member of Rand's inner circle, proposed a non-initiation of force principle to unite the movement. This statement later became a required "pledge" for members of the Libertarian Party. Hospers became the LP's first presidential candidate in 1972.[205]
Modern libertarianism gained significant recognition in academia with the publication of Harvard University professorRobert Nozick'sAnarchy, State, and Utopia in 1974, for which he received a National Book Award in 1975.[206] In response toJohn Rawls'A Theory of Justice, Nozick's book supported aminimal state (also called a nightwatchman state by Nozick) on the grounds that the ultraminimal state arises without violating individual rights[207] and the transition from an ultraminimal state to a minimal state is morally obligated to occur.
In the early 1970s, Rothbard wrote: "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."[208][unreliable source?] The project of spreading libertarian ideals in the United States has been so successful that some Americans who do not identify as libertarian seem to hold libertarian views.[209] Since the resurgence of neoliberalism in the 1970s, this modern American libertarianism has spread beyond North America via think tanks and political parties.[210][211]
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".[212]Libertarian RepublicanRon Paul supportedReagan's 1980 presidential campaign, being one of the first elected officials in the nation to support his campaign[213] and actively campaigned for Reagan in 1976 and 1980.[214] 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.[215][216] In the 1980s, libertarians such as Paul and Rothbard[217][unreliable source?][218][unreliable source?] 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.[219][220] Rothbard argued that thepresidency of Reagan has been "a disaster for libertarianism in the United States"[221] and Paul described Reagan himself as "a dramatic failure".[214]
A surge of popular interest in libertarian socialism occurred in Western nations during the 1960s and 1970s.[222] Anarchism was influential in thecounterculture of the 1960s[223][224][225] and anarchists actively participated in theprotests of 1968 which included students and workers' revolts.[226] In 1968, the International of Anarchist Federations was founded in Carrara, Italy during an international anarchist conference held there in 1968 by the three existing European federations ofFrance, theItalian and theIberian Anarchist Federation as well as the Bulgarian Anarchist Federation in French exile.[173][227]
Around the turn of the 21st century, libertarian socialism grew in popularity and influence as part of the anti-war, anti-capitalist andanti-globalisation movements.[39] Anarchists became known for their involvement in protests against the meetings of theWorld Trade Organization (WTO),Group of Eight and theWorld Economic Forum. Some anarchist factions at these protests engaged in rioting, property destruction and violent confrontations with police. These actions were precipitated by ad hoc, leaderless, anonymous cadres known asblack blocs and other organizational tactics pioneered in this time includesecurity culture,affinity groups and the use of decentralized technologies such as the Internet.[39] A significant event of this period was the confrontations atWTO conference in Seattle in 1999.[39] For English anarchist scholarSimon Critchley, "contemporary anarchism can be seen as a powerful critique of the pseudo-libertarianism of contemporaryneo-liberalism. One might say that contemporary anarchism is about responsibility, whether sexual, ecological or socio-economic; it flows from an experience of conscience about the manifold ways in which the West ravages the rest; it is an ethical outrage at the yawning inequality, impoverishment and disenfranchisment that is so palpable locally and globally".[228] This might also have been motivated by "the collapse of 'really existing socialism' and the capitulation toneo-liberalism of Westernsocial democracy".[229]
In the United States, polls (circa 2006) found that the views and voting habits of between 10% and 20%, or more, of voting age Americans might be classified as "fiscally conservative andsocially liberal, orlibertarian".[65][127] This was based on pollsters' and researchers' defining libertarian views as fiscally conservative and socially liberal (based on the common United States meanings of the terms) and against government intervention in economic affairs and for expansion of personal freedoms.[65] In a 2015 Gallup poll, this figure had risen to 27%.[135] A 2015 Reuters poll found that 23% of American voters self-identified as libertarians, including 32% in the 18–29 age group.[134] Through twenty polls on this topic spanning thirteen years, Gallup found that voters who are libertarian on the political spectrum ranged from 17% to 23% of the United States electorate.[132] However, a 2014 Pew Poll found that 23% of Americans who identify as libertarians have no idea what the word means. In this poll, 11% of respondents both identified as libertarians and understood what the term meant.[133]
In 2001, an Americanpolitical migration movement, called theFree State Project, was founded to recruit at least 20,000 libertarians to move to a single low-population state (New Hampshire, was selected in 2003) in order to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideas.[231][232] As of May 2022, approximately 6,232 participants have moved to New Hampshire for the Free State Project.[233]
2009 saw the rise of theTea Party, an American political movement known for advocating reductions in the United States national debt and federal budget deficits by reducing government spending, as well as cutting taxes. This movement had a significant libertarian component[234] despite having contrasts with libertarian values and views in some areas such asfree trade,immigration,nationalism andsocial issues.[235] A 2011Reason-Rupe poll found that among those who self-identified as Tea Party supporters, 41 percent leaned libertarian and 59 percentsocially conservative.[236] Named after theBoston Tea Party, it also containedpopulist elements.[237][238] By 2016,Politico noted that the Tea Party movement was essentially completely dead; however, the article noted that the movement seemed to die in part because some of its ideas had been absorbed by the mainstream Republican Party.[239]
In 2012, anti-war and pro-drug liberalization presidential candidates such as Libertarian RepublicanRon Paul and Libertarian Party candidateGary Johnson raised millions of dollars and garnered millions of votes despite opposition to their obtaining ballot access by both Democrats and Republicans.[240] The2012 Libertarian National Convention saw Johnson andJim Gray being nominated as the 2012 presidential ticket for the Libertarian Party, resulting in the most successful result for a third-party presidential candidacy since 2000 and the best in the Libertarian Party's history by vote number. Johnson received 1% of the popular vote, amounting to more than 1.2 million votes.[241][242] Johnson has expressed a desire to win at least 5 percent of the vote so that the Libertarian Party candidates could get equalballot access andfederal funding, thus subsequently ending thetwo-party system.[243][244][245] 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.[246] Following the2022 Libertarian National Convention, theMises Caucus, apaleolibertarian faction, became the dominant faction on the Libertarian National Committee.[247][248] Right-wing libertarian ideals are also prominent in far-rightAmerican militia movement associated with extremist anti-government ideas.[249]
Contemporary libertarianism inArgentina has gained significant prominence, particularly with the rise ofJavier Milei and hisLa Libertad Avanza coalition. TheLibertarian Party, founded in 2018, initially attracted young intellectuals and has since evolved into a major political force. Milei, a self-described "liberal libertarian," became the face of this movement, transforming it from an academic discourse into a powerful political phenomenon that culminated in his victory in the2023 Argentine general election.[251]
Milei's libertarian platform represents a radical departure from traditional Argentine politics. His economic proposals included substantial government spending reduction, elimination of numerous federal agencies, and promoting currency competition throughfree market mechanisms. The intellectual foundations of Milei's libertarianism draw from classical liberal thinkers likeMilton Friedman andMurray Rothbard, emphasizing individual economic freedom and minimal state intervention.[251]
Active libertarian student organizations includeStudents For Liberty andYoung Americans for Liberty. Students for Liberty was founded in the United States in 2007, but as of 2014 had over 1000 chapters across North America and worldwide, including in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.
A number of countries havelibertarian parties that run candidates for political office. The firstLibertarian Party was formed in the United States in 1971 and has grown to become the third largest[253][254] and leading alternative American political party. As of (date?) it had a reported 511,277 voters (0.46% of total electorate) registered as Libertarian in the 31 states that report Libertarian registration statistics andWashington, D.C.[255]
Criticism of libertarianism includes ethical, economic, environmental, pragmatic and philosophical concerns. These concerns are most commonly voiced by critics on the left and directed against the more right-leaning schools of libertarian thought.[256] One such argument is the view that it has no explicit theory of liberty.[61] It has also been argued thatlaissez-fairecapitalism does not necessarily produce the best or most efficient outcome,[257][258] nor does its philosophy ofindividualism and policies ofderegulation prevent theabuse of natural resources.[259]
Critics have accused libertarianism of promoting "atomistic" individualism that ignores the role of groups and communities in shaping an individual's identity.[4] Libertarians have responded by denying that they promote this form of individualism, arguing that recognition and protection of individualism does not mean the rejection of community living.[4] Libertarians also argue that they are simply against individuals' being forced to have ties with communities and that individuals should be allowed to sever ties with communities they dislike and form new communities instead.[4]
Critics such asCorey Robin describe this type of libertarianism as fundamentally areactionaryconservative ideology united with moretraditionalist conservative thought and goals by a desire to enforce hierarchical power and social relations.[97] Similarly,Nancy MacLean has argued that libertarianism 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.[260]
Conservative philosopherRussell Kirk argued that libertarians "bear no authority, temporal or spiritual" and do not "venerate ancient beliefs and customs, or the natural world, or [their] country, or the immortal spark in [their] fellow men".[4] Libertarians have responded by saying that they do venerate these ancient traditions, but are against the law's being used to force individuals to follow them.[4]
^abcdefghijklmBoaz, David (30 January 2009)."Libertarianism".Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on 4 May 2015. Retrieved21 February 2017.[L]ibertarianism, political philosophy that takes individual liberty to be the primary political value.
^"Non-Aggression Principle".Archived from the original on 14 December 2024. Retrieved23 November 2024.There are a small group of libertarians who do not accept the non- aggression axiom.
^Woodcock, George (2004) [1962].Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements. Peterborough: Broadview Press. p. 16.ISBN978-1551116297.[F]or the very nature of the libertarian attitude—its rejection of dogma, its deliberate avoidance of rigidly systematic theory, and, above all, its stress on extreme freedom of choice and on the primacy of the individual judgement [sic].
^abcLong, Joseph. W (1996). "Toward a Libertarian Theory of Class".Social Philosophy and Policy.15 (2): 310. "When I speak of 'libertarianism' [...] I mean all three of these very different movements. It might be protested that LibCap [libertarian capitalism], LibSoc [libertarian socialism] and LibPop [libertarian populism] are too different from one another to be treated as aspects of a single point of view. But they do share a common—or at least an overlapping—intellectual ancestry."
^abcCarlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed.The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. London: SAGE Publications.p. 1006Archived 30 September 2020 at theWayback Machine.ISBN1412988764. "There exist three major camps in libertarian thought: right-libertarianism, socialist libertarianism, and left-libertarianism; the extent to which these represent distinct ideologies as opposed to variations on a theme is contested by scholars."
^Long, Roderick T. (2012). "The Rise of Social Anarchism". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred, eds.The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy.p. 223Archived 30 September 2020 at theWayback Machine. "In the meantime, anarchist theories of a more communist or collectivist character had been developing as well. One important pioneer is French anarcho-communist Joseph Déjacque (1821–1864), who [...] appears to have been the first thinker to adopt the term 'libertarian' for this position; hence 'libertarianism' initially denoted a communist rather than a free-market ideology."
^Long, Roderick T. (2012). "Anarchism". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred, eds.The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy.p. 227Archived 30 September 2020 at theWayback Machine. "In its oldest sense, it is a synonym either for anarchism in general or social anarchism in particular."
^abcRothbard, Murray (2009) [2007].The Betrayal of the American Right(PDF). Mises Institute. p. 83.ISBN978-1610165013.Archived(PDF) from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved10 November 2019.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.
^abcdMarshall, Peter (2009).Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism.p. 641Archived 30 September 2020 at theWayback Machine. "For a long time, libertarian was interchangeable in France with anarchism but in recent years, its meaning has become more ambivalent. Some anarchists like Daniel Guérin will call themselves 'libertarian socialists', partly to avoid the negative overtones still associated with anarchism, and partly to stress the place of anarchism within the socialist tradition. Even Marxists of the New Left like E. P. Thompson call themselves 'libertarian' to distinguish themselves from those authoritarian socialists and communists who believe in revolutionary dictatorship and vanguard parties."
^abcKropotkin, Peter (1927).Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings. Courier Dover Publications. p. 150.ISBN978-0486119861.It attacks not only capital, but also the main sources of the power of capitalism: law, authority, and the State.
^abcOtero, Carlos Peregrin (2003). "Introduction to Chomsky's Social Theory". In Otero, Carlos Peregrin (ed.).Radical Priorities. Chomsky, Noam Chomsky (3rd ed.). Oakland, California:AK Press. p. 26.ISBN1902593693.
^abcChomsky, Noam (2003). Carlos Peregrin Otero (ed.).Radical Priorities (3rd ed.). Oakland, California:AK Press. pp. 227–228.ISBN1902593693.
^abcCarlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilbur R.The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications.p. 1006Archived 21 December 2019 at theWayback Machine. "[S]ocialist libertarians view any concentration of power into the hands of a few (whether politically or economically) as antithetical to freedom and thus advocate for the simultaneous abolition of both government and capitalism".
^abcdefgGoodway, David (2006).Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.p. 4Archived 8 March 2021 at theWayback Machine.ISBN978-1846310256. "'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-winglaissez-faire philosophy advocated by such theorists as Murray Rothbard and Robert 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".
^abcdefgNewman, Saul (2010).The Politics of Postanarchism, Edinburgh University Press.p. 43Archived 30 September 2020 at theWayback Machine.ISBN978-0748634958. "It is important to distinguish between anarchism and certain strands of right-wing libertarianism which at times go by the same name (for example, Murray Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism). There is a complex debate within this tradition between those like Robert Nozick, who advocate a 'minimal state', and those like Rothbard who want to do away with the state altogether and allow all transactions to be governed by the market alone. From an anarchist perspective, however, both positions—the minimal state (minarchist) and the no-state ('anarchist') positions—neglect the problem of economic domination; in other words, they neglect the hierarchies, oppressions, and forms of exploitation that would inevitably arise in alaissez-faire 'free' market. [...] Anarchism, therefore, has no truck with this right-wing libertarianism, not only because it neglects economic inequality and domination, but also because in practice (and theory) it is highly inconsistent and contradictory. The individual freedom invoked by right-wing libertarians is only a narrow economic freedom within the constraints of a capitalist market, which, as anarchists show, is no freedom at all".
^abcdMarshall, 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".
^abcdefghCarlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed.The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. London: SAGE Publications.p. 1006Archived 21 December 2019 at theWayback Machine.ISBN1412988764.
^Hussain, Syed B. (2004).Encyclopedia of Capitalism, Volume 2. New York: Facts on File Inc. p. 492.ISBN0816052247.Archived from the original on 30 September 2020. Retrieved31 October 2015.In the modern world, political ideologies are largely defined by their attitude towards capitalism. Marxists want to overthrow it, liberals to curtail it extensively, conservatives to curtail it moderately. Those who maintain that capitalism is an excellent economic system, unfairly maligned, with little or no need for corrective government policy, are generally known as libertarians.
^Russell, Dean (1955)."Who is a libertarian?".Foundation for Economic Education.Archived from the original on 28 November 2019. Retrieved28 November 2019.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'.
^Harkov, Lahav (17 March 2019)."The Feiglin phenomenon".The Jerusalem Post.Archived from the original on 30 April 2021. Retrieved17 March 2019.The leader of the rising Zehut Party is attracting more than just young potheads to his libertarian platform.
^"Zehut".Israel Democracy Institute.Archived from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved21 February 2019.[...] and personal liberty. Its platform includes libertarian economic positions [...].
^William Belsham (1789).Essays. C. Dilly. p. 11.Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved26 October 2020Original from the University of Michigan, digitized 21 May 2007{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^The British Critic. p. 432. "The author's Latin verses, which are rather more intelligible than his English, mark him for a furious Libertarian (if we may coin such a term) and a zealous admirer of France, and her liberty, under Bonaparte; such liberty!"
^Seeley, John Robert (1878).Life and Times of Stein: Or Germany and Prussia in the Napoleonic Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3: 355.
^Marshall, 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 Sebastien Faure took up the word, to stress the difference between anarchists and authoritarian socialists".
^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."
^Ward, Colin (2004).Anarchism: A Very Short IntroductionArchived 13 January 2016 at theWayback Machine. Oxford: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 celebrated anarchist journalLe Libertaire was founded in 1896. However, much more recently the word has been appropriated by various American free-market philosophers [...]."
^Chomsky, Noam (23 February 2002)."The Week Online Interviews Chomsky".Z Magazine.Z Communications. Archived fromthe original on 13 January 2013. Retrieved21 November 2011.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. Socialist anarchism was libertarian socialism.
^Comegna, Anthony; Gomez, Camillo (3 October 2018)."Libertarianism, Then and Now"Archived 3 August 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 3 August 2020.
^Russell, Dean (May 1955)."Who Is A Libertarian?".The Freeman.5 (5). Foundation for Economic Education. Archived fromthe original on 26 June 2010. Retrieved6 March 2010.
^abcPeter Vallentyne."Libertarianism".Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, CSLI, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved20 November 2011.
^abcdefKymlicka, Will (2005). "libertarianism, left-". InHonderich, Ted.The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. New York City: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 premiss 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."
^abMarshall, Peter (2008).Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. London: Harper Perennial.p. 641Archived 7 March 2021 at theWayback Machine. "Left libertarianism can therefore range from the decentralist who wishes to limit and devolve State power, to the syndicalist who wants to abolish it altogether. It can even encompass the Fabians and the social democrats who wish to socialize the economy but who still see a limited role for the State".
^abc"Anarchism". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred, eds. (2012).The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy. p. 227. "The term 'left-libertarianism' has at least three meanings. In its oldest sense, it is a synonym either for anarchism in general or social anarchism in particular. Later it became a term for the left or Konkinite wing of the free-market libertarian movement, and has since come to cover a range of pro-market but anti-capitalist positions, mostly individualist anarchist, including agorism and mutualism, often with an implication of sympathies (such as for radical feminism or the labor movement) not usually shared by anarcho-capitalists. In a third sense it has recently come to be applied to a position combining individual self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources; most proponents of this position are not anarchists."
^abcVallentyne, Peter (March 2009)."Libertarianism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.).Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 ed.). Stanford, California:Stanford University.Archived from the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved5 March 2010.Libertarianism is committed to full self-ownership. A distinction can be made, however, between right-libertarianism and left-libertarianism, depending on the stance taken on how natural resources can be owned.
^Goodwin, Barbara (2016).Using Political Ideas. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. p. 151.ISBN978-1118708385.However, enough has been said to show that most anarchists have nothing in common with those libertarians of the far-right, the anarcho-capitalists [...]
^Paul, Ellen F.; Miller, Fred D.; Paul, Jeffrey, eds. (2007).Liberalism: Old and New. Vol. 24. Cambridge University Press. p. 199.ISBN978-0521703055.
^Estlund, David, ed. (2012).The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy. Oxford University Press. p. 162.ISBN978-0195376692.
^Hammer, Espen (2013). "Libertarianism, Political". In Kaldis, Byron (ed.).Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences. Vol. 1. SAGE Publications. pp. 558–560.ISBN978-1506332611.
^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.
^Harmel, Robert; Gibson, Rachel K. (June 1995). "Right-Libertarian Parties and the "New Values": A Re-examination".Scandinavian Political Studies.18 (July 1993):97–118.doi:10.1111/j.1467-9477.1995.tb00157.x.ISSN0080-6757.
^Baradat, Leon P. (2015).Political Ideologies. Routledge. p. 31.ISBN978-1317345558.
^Hess, Karl (18 February 2015)."Anarchism Without Hyphens & The Left/Right Spectrum"Archived 17 March 2020 at theWayback Machine. Center for a Stateless Society. Tulsa Alliance of the Libertarian Left. Retrieved 17 March 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."
^Rothbard, Murray (Spring 1965). "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty".Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought.1 (1): 4–22.
^George Woodcock.Anarchism: A History of Llibertarian Ideas and Movements. Petersborough, Ontario: Broadview Press. pp. 11–31, especially p. 18.ISBN1551116294.
^Duncan Watts (2002).Understanding American Government and Politics: A Guide for A2 Politics Students. Manchester, England. Manchester University Press. p. 246.
^Boaz, David (1998).Libertarianism: A Primer. Free Press. pp. 22–26.
^Conway, David (2008). "Freedom of Speech". InHamowy, Ronald (ed.).Liberalism, Classical.The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, California:SAGE;Cato Institute. pp. 295–298.doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n112.ISBN978-1412965804.LCCN2008009151.OCLC750831024.Archived from the original on 30 September 2020. Retrieved31 October 2015.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.
^"About the Libertarian Party"Archived 8 May 2018 at theWayback Machine. Libertarian Party. "Libertarians strongly oppose any government interference into their personal, family, and business decisions. Essentially, we believe all Americans should be free to live their lives and pursue their interests as they see fit as long as they do no harm to another". Retrieved 2 May 2020.
^Marshall, Peter (2009) [1991].Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism (POLS ed.). Oakland, California: PM Press. p. 641. "Left libertarianism can therefore range from the decentralist who wishes to limit and devolve State power, to the syndicalist who wants to abolish it altogether. It can even encompass the Fabians and the social democrats who wish to socialize the economy but who still see a limited role for the State."ISBN978-1604860641.
^Richman, Sheldon (3 February 2011)."Libertarian Left".The American Conservative.Archived from the original on 1 January 2023. Retrieved1 January 2023.
^Sterba, James (2013).The Pursuit of Justice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 66.ISBN978-1442221796.
^Carter, Ian (2 August 2016)."Positive and Negative Liberty".Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Archived from the original on 16 November 2019. Retrieved21 September 2020.
^Sterba, James (1980).Justice: Alternative Political Perspectives. Boston: Wadsworth Publishing Company. p. 175.ISBN978-0534007621.
^Sterba, James (2013).The Pursuit of Justice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 52.ISBN978-1442221796.
^abKiley, Jocelyn (25 August 2014)."In Search of Libertarians"Archived 7 April 2021 at theWayback Machine. Pew Research Center. "14% say the term libertarian describes them well; 77% of those know the definition (11% of total), while 23% do not (3% of total)."
^Rothbard, Murray (2005). Excerpt from "Concepts of the Role of Intellectuals in Social Change Toward Laissez Faire",The Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. IX, No. 2 (Fall 1990) atmises.orgArchived 8 November 2014 at theWayback Machine
^Rothbard, Murray (2005). "The Ancient Chinese Libertarian Tradition",Mises Daily (5 December 2005) (original source unknown) atmises.orgArchived 8 November 2014 at theWayback Machine
^Boaz, David (30 January 2009)."Libertarianism".Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on 4 May 2015. Retrieved21 February 2017.An appreciation for spontaneous order can be found in the writings of the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu (6th century bce), who urged rulers to "do nothing" because "without law or compulsion, men would dwell in harmony."
^Mullett, M.A. (2014).Martin Luther. Routledge Historical Biographies. Taylor & Francis. p. 9.ISBN978-1-317-64861-1. Retrieved12 March 2023.
^Garbooshian, Adrina Michelle (2006).The Concept of Human Dignity in the French and American Enlightenments: Religion, Virtue, Liberty. ProQuest. p. 472.ISBN978-0542851605. "Influenced by Locke and Smith, certain segments of society affirmed classical liberalism, with a libertarian bent."
^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 City: Knopf. pp. 90–91.
^Boaz, David (1997).The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Readings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman. New York: Free Press. p. 31.
^ab"What was Ayn Rand's view of the libertarian movement?". Ayn Rand Institute. Archived fromthe original on 15 January 2014. Retrieved5 March 2014.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. [...] libertarians 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.
^Galles, Gary (2013).Apostle of Peace: The Radical Mind of Leonard Read. Laissez Faire Books.ISBN978-1621290513.
^Halle, Roland; Ladue, Peter (1980).Karl Hess: Toward Liberty. Direct Cinema, Ltd. [M16 2824 K].
^Raimondo, Justin (2001).An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard. Amherst: Prometheus. pp. 277–278.
^Doherty, Brian (2007).Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. New York: Public Affairs. pp. 562–565.
^Rothbard, Murray (5 June 1986). "Letter to David Bergland". Rothbard emphasized that this was relevant as a matter of strategy, writing that the failure to pitch the libertarian message to Middle America might result in the loss of "the tight-assed majority".
^Raimondo, Justin (2001).An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard. Amherst: Prometheus. pp. 263–264.
^Chartier, 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.
^Rothbard, Murray. (2009).The Betrayal of the American Right. Ludwig von Mises Institute.ISBN1610165012.
^Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew (14 October 2015).Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture. Chicago.ISBN978-0226285573.OCLC922640625.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Kutzmann, David M. (24 May 1988). "Small Party Battles Big Government Libertarian Candidate Opposes Intrusion into Private Lives".San Jose Mercury News. p. 12A.
^Rothbard, Murray (1984)."The Reagan Phenomenon"Archived 18 January 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.
^"Farrell provides a detailed history of the Catholic Workers and their founders Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. He explains that their pacifism, anarchism, and commitment to the downtrodden were one of the important models and inspirations for the 60s. As Farrell puts it, "Catholic Workers identified the issues of the sixties before the Sixties began, and they offered models of protest long before the protest decade.""The Spirit of the Sixties: The Making of Postwar Radicalism" by James J. FarrellArchived 6 April 2013 at theWayback Machine.
^"While not always formally recognized, much of the protest of the sixties was anarchist. Within the nascent women's movement, anarchist principles became so widespread that a political science professor denounced what she saw as "The Tyranny of Structurelessness." Several groups have called themselves "Amazon Anarchists." After theStonewall Rebellion, the New YorkGay Liberation Front based their organization in part on a reading ofMurray Bookchin's anarchist writings.""Anarchism" by Charley Shively inEncyclopedia of HomosexualityArchived 19 April 2012 at theWayback Machine. p. 52.
^"Within the movements of the sixties there was much more receptivity to anarchism-in-fact than had existed in the movements of the thirties ... But the movements of the sixties were driven by concerns that were more compatible with an expressive style of politics, with hostility to authority in general and state power in particular ... By the late sixties, political protest was intertwined with cultural radicalism based on a critique of all authority and all hierarchies of power. Anarchism circulated within the movement along with other radical ideologies. The influence of anarchism was strongest among radical feminists, in the commune movement, and probably in the Weather Underground and elsewhere in the violent fringe of the anti-war movement.""Anarchism and the Anti-Globalization Movement" by Barbara EpsteinArchived 17 March 2011 at theWayback Machine.
^Brennan, Jason (2012).Libertarianism What Everyone Needs to Know.Oxford University Press. p. 142.Is the Tea Party libertarian? Overall, the Tea Party movement is not libertarian, though it has many libertarian elements, and many libertarians are Tea Partiers. [...] They share the libertarian view that DC tends to be corrupt, and that Washington often promotes special interests at the expense of the common good. However, Tea Party members are predominantly populist, nationalist, social conservatives rather than libertarians. Polls indicate that most Tea Partiers believe government should have an active role in promoting traditional "family values" or conservative Judeo-Christian values. Many of them oppose free trade and open immigration. They tend to favor less government intervention in the domestic economy but more government intervention in international trade.
^della Porta, Donatella; Diani, Mario, eds. (2015).The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements. Oxford University Press. p. 527.ISBN978-0191667824.[...] these militia organizations often revived long-since discarded state militia insignia and organization names while simultaneously aligning them with contemporary far-right libertarian politics (Crothers 2004).
^"Friedman and Freedom". Queen's Journal. Archived fromthe original on 11 August 2006. Retrieved20 February 2008., Interview with Peter Jaworski.The Journal, Queen's University, March 15, 2002 – Issue 37, Volume 129
^Gairdner, William D. (2007) [1990].The Trouble with Canada: A Citizen Speaks Out. Toronto: BPS Books. pp. 101–102.ISBN978-0978440220.The first, we would call "libertarianism" today. Libertarians wanted to getall government out of people's lives. This movement is still very much alive today. In fact, in the United States, it is the third largest political party, and ran 125 candidates during the U.S. election of 1988.
^Fried, Barbara (2009).The Progressive Assault on Laissez Faire: Robert Hale and the First Law and Economics Movement. Harvard University Press. p. 50.ISBN978-0674037304.
Attas, Daniel (2010). "Libertarianism". In Bevir, Mark.Encyclopedia of Political Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA:SAGE Publications. pp. 810–818.ISBN978-1412958653.
Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed.The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. London: SAGE Publications.ISBN978-1412988766.
Doherty, Brian (2007).Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. PublicAffairs.
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