Right-libertarianism,
[Rothbard, Murray (1 March 1971)]
"The Left and Right Within Libertarianism"
''WIN: Peace and Freedom Through Nonviolent Action''. 7 (4): 6–10. Retrieved 14 January 2020.[Goodway, 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 embraces ''laissez-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".][Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed. ''The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America''. London: Sage Publications]
p. 1006
. also known as libertarian capitalism
or right-wing libertarianism,
[ "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 laissez-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 narrow economic freedom within the constraints of a capitalist market, which, as anarchists show, is no freedom at all.] is a
libertarian political philosophy that supports
capitalist
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private p ...
property rights and defends
market distribution of
natural resources and
private property
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or c ...
. The term ''right-libertarianism'' is used to distinguish this class of views on the nature of
property and
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
from
left-libertarianism, a type of libertarianism that combines
self-ownership
Self-ownership, also known as sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty, is the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller ...
with an
egalitarian approach to natural resources. In contrast to socialist libertarianism,
right-libertarianism supports
free-market capitalism.
Like most forms of libertarianism, it supports
civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
,
especially
natural law
Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacted ...
,
negative rights, the
non-aggression principle,
and a major reversal of the modern
welfare state.
Right-libertarian political thought is characterized by the strict priority given to
liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
, with the need to maximize the realm of individual freedom and minimize the scope of public authority. Right-libertarians typically see the
state as the principal threat to liberty. This
anti-statism
Anti-statism is any approach to social, economic or political philosophy that rejects statism. An anti-statist is one who opposes intervention by the state into personal, social and economic affairs. In anarchism, this is characterized by a comp ...
differs from anarchist doctrines in that it is based upon strong
individualism that places less emphasis on human sociability or cooperation.
Right-libertarian philosophy is also rooted in the ideas of
individual rights and ''
laissez-faire'' economics. The right-libertarian theory of individual rights generally follows the
homestead principle and the
labor theory of property, stressing self-ownership and that people have an absolute right to the property that their labor produces. Economically, right-libertarians make no distinction between capitalism and free markets and view any attempt to dictate the market process as counterproductive, emphasizing the mechanisms and self-regulating nature of the market whilst portraying
government intervention and attempts to
redistribute wealth
Redistribution of income and wealth is the transfer of income and wealth (including physical property) from some individuals to others through a social mechanism such as taxation, welfare, public services, land reform, monetary policies, confis ...
as invariably unnecessary and counter-productive. Although all right-libertarians oppose government intervention, there is a division between
anarcho-capitalists, who view the state as an unnecessary evil and want property rights protected without statutory law through market-generated tort, contract and property law; and minarchists, who support the need for a minimal state, often referred to as a
night-watchman state, to provide its citizens with
courts,
military, and
police.
While influenced by
classical liberal
Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic ...
thought, with some viewing right-libertarianism as an outgrowth or as a variant of it,
[Goodman, John C. (20 December 2005)]
"What Is Classical Liberalism?"
National Center for Policy Analysis. Retrieved 26 June 2019. . there are significant differences. Edwin Van de Haar argues that "confusingly, in the United States the term libertarianism is sometimes also used for or by classical liberals. But this erroneously masks the differences between them". Classical liberalism refuses to give priority to liberty over order and therefore does not exhibit the hostility to the state which is the defining feature of libertarianism. As such, right-libertarians believe classical liberals favor too much state involvement, arguing that they do not have enough respect for individual property rights and lack sufficient trust in the workings of the
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
and its
spontaneous order leading to support of a much larger state. Right-libertarians also disagree with classical liberals as being too supportive of
central bank
A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union,
and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central ba ...
s and
monetarist policies.
Like libertarians of all varieties, right-libertarians refer to themselves simply as ''libertarians''.
Being the most common type of
libertarianism in the United States,
right-libertarianism has become the most common referent of ''libertarianism''
there since the late 20th century while historically and elsewhere
[Bookchin, Murray (January 1986)]
"The Greening of Politics: Toward a New Kind of Political Practice"
''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".[Fernandez, Frank (2001)]
''Cuban Anarchism. The History of a Movement''
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."["The Week Online Interviews Chomsky"](_blank)
Z Magazine. 23 February 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."[Ward, Colin (2004)]
''Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction''
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 journal ''Le Libertaire'' was founded in 1896. However, much more recently the word has been appropriated by various American free-market philosophers." it continues to be widely used to refer to
anti-state
Anti-statism is any approach to social, economic or political philosophy that rejects statism. An anti-statist is one who opposes intervention by the state into personal, social and economic affairs. In anarchism, this is characterized by a comp ...
forms of
socialism such as
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessaril ...
[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 journal ''Le 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".][The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective (11 December 2008)]
"150 years of Libertarian"
''Anarchist Writers''. The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 31 January 2020.[The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective (17 May 2017)]
"160 years of Libertarian"
''Anarchist Writers''. Anarchist FAQ. Retrieved 31 January 2020. and more generally
libertarian communism
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains resp ...
/
libertarian Marxism
Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (2 ...
and
libertarian socialism.
Around the time of
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
, who popularized the term ''libertarian'' in the United States during the 1960s, anarcho-capitalist movements started calling themselves ''libertarian'', leading to the rise of the term ''right-libertarian'' to distinguish them. Rothbard himself acknowledged the co-opting of the term and boasted of its "capture
..from the enemy".
Definition
People described as being ''left-libertarian'' or ''right-libertarian'' generally tend to call themselves simply ''libertarians'' and refer to their philosophy as ''libertarianism''. In light of this, some authors and political scientists classify the forms of
libertarianism
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
into two groups, namely
left-libertarianism and right-libertarianism,
to distinguish libertarian views on the nature of
property and
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
.
The term ''libertarian'' was first used by late Enlightenment freethinkers, referring to those who believed in
free will, as opposed to necessity, a now-disused philosophy that posited a kind of determinism.
The word ''libertarian'' is first recorded in 1789 coined by the British historian
William Belsham
William Belsham (1752–1827) was an English political writer and historian, noted as a supporter of the Whig Party and its principles. He justified the American Revolution in excusing Americans in their resistance to the demands of England, and ...
, in a discussion against free will from the author's deterministic point of view. This debate between
libertarianism in a philosophical-metaphysical sense and
determinism would continue into the early nineteenth century, especially in the field of
Protestant theology
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
.
[Jared Sparks, ]
''Collection of Essays and Tracts in Theology, from Various Authors, with Biographical and Critical Notices''
publicado por Oliver Everett, 13 Cornhill, 1824 (ver, Writings of Dr. Cogan, 205). The
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, in English, attests to this ancient use of the word libertarian by describing its meaning as "an advocate of the doctrine of free will "and, taking a broad definition, also says that he is" a person who holds the principles of individual freedom especially in thought and action ".
Many decades later, ''libertarian'' was a term used by the French
libertarian communist
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains resp ...
Joseph Déjacque
Joseph Déjacque (; 27 December 1821, in Paris – 1864, in Paris) was a French early anarcho-communist poet, philosopher and writer. He coined the term "libertarian" (French: ''libertaire'') for himselfJoseph DéjacqueDe l'être-humain mâle e ...
[Déjacque, Joseph (1857)]
"De l'être-humain mâle et femelle – Lettre à P.J. Proudhon"
(in French).[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 entitled ''Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social'', in whose pages he printed as a serial his vision of the anarchist Utopia, entitled L'Humanisphére."] to mean a form of
left-wing politics that has been frequently used to refer to
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessaril ...
and
libertarian socialism since the mid- to late 19th century.
With the modern development of right-libertarian ideologies such as
anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforc ...
and
minarchism co-opting
the term ''libertarian'' in the mid-20th century to instead advocate ''
laissez-faire''
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...
and strong
private property rights
Property rights are constructs in economics for determining how a resource or economic good is used and owned, which have developed over ancient and modern history, from Abrahamic law to Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. R ...
such as in land, infrastructure and natural resources, the terms ''left-libertarianism'' and ''right-libertarianism'' have been used more often as to differentiate between the two.
Socialist libertarianism
Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (201 ...
has been included within a broad left-libertarianism while right-libertarianism mainly refers to ''laissez-faire'' capitalism such as
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
's anarcho-capitalism and
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University, 's minarchism.
Right-libertarianism has been described as combining individual freedom and opposition to the state, with strong support for
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
s and
private property
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or c ...
. Property rights have been the issue that has divided libertarian philosophies. According to Jennifer Carlson, right-libertarianism is the dominant form of
libertarianism in the United States. Right-libertarians "see strong private property rights as the basis for freedom and thus are—to quote the title of
Brian Doherty's text on libertarianism in the United States—"
Radicals for Capitalism".
Herbert Kitschelt and Anthony J. McGann contrast right-libertarianism—"a strategy that combines pro-market positions with opposition to hierarchical authority, support of unconventional political participation, and endorsement of feminism and of environmentalism"—with
right-authoritarianism.
[Kitschelt, Herbert; McGann, Anthony J. (1997) ]995
Year 995 ( CMXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Japan
* 17 May - Fujiwara no Michitaka (imperial regent) dies.
* 3 June: Fujiwara no Michikane gai ...
'' The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis''. University of Michigan Press
p. 27
.[Mudde, Cas (2016)]
''The Populist Radical Right: A Reader''
(1st ed.). Routledge. .
Mark Bevir holds that there are three types of libertarianism, namely left, right and
consequentialist libertarianism
Consequentialist libertarianism, also known as consequentialist liberalism or libertarian consequentialism, is a libertarian political philosophy and position that is supportive of a free market and strong private property rights only on the grou ...
as promoted by
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
.
According to contemporary American libertarian
Walter Block
Walter Edward Block (born August 21, 1941) is an American Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist theorist. He currently holds the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at the School of Business at Loyola Universit ...
, left-libertarians and right-libertarians agree with certain libertarian premises, but "where
heydiffer is in terms of the logical implications of these founding axioms".
[Block, Walter (2010)]
"Libertarianism Is Unique and Belongs Neither to the Right Nor the Left: A Critique of the Views of Long, Holcombe, and Baden on the Left, Hoppe, Feser, and Paul on the Right"
''Journal of Libertarian Studies
Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a libertarian nonprofit think tank headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, United States. It is named after the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).
It wa ...
''. 22. pp. 127–170. Although some libertarians may reject the
political spectrum
A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions politi ...
, especially the
left–right political spectrum,
right-libertarianism and several right-oriented strands of libertarianism in the United States have been described as being right-wing,
New Right
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Uni ...
,
[Robinson, Emily; ''et al.'' (2017)]
"Telling stories about post-war Britain: popular individualism and the 'crisis' of the 1970s"
''Twentieth Century British History''. 28 (2): 268–304. radical right and
reactionary
In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the '' status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abs ...
.
American libertarian activist and politician
David Nolan, the principal founder of the
Libertarian Party, developed what is now known as the
Nolan Chart to replace the traditional left-right political spectrum. The Nolan Chart has been used by several modern American libertarians and right-libertarians who reject the traditional political spectrum for its lack of inclusivity and see themselves as north-of-center. It is used in an effort to quantify typical libertarian views that support both free markets and social liberties and reject what they see as restrictions on economic and personal freedom imposed by the left and the right, respectively, although this latter point has been criticized. Other libertarians reject the separation of personal and economic liberty or argue that the Nolan Chart gives no weight to foreign policy.
Since the resurgence of
neoliberalism in the 1970s, right-libertarianism has spread beyond North America via think tanks and political parties.
[Gregory, Anthony (24 April 2007)]
"Real World Politics and Radical Libertarianism"
LewRockwell.com. . Retrieved 25 January 2020.[Teles, Steven; Kenney, Daniel A. "Spreading the Word: The Diffusion of American Conservatism in Europe and Beyond". In Kopsten, Jeffrey; Steinmo, Sven, eds. (2007)]
''Growing Apart?: America and Europe in the Twenty-First Century''
Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–169. In the United States, libertarianism is increasingly viewed as this capitalist free-market position.
Terminology
As a term, ''right-libertarianism'' is used by some political analysts, academics and media sources, especially in the United States, to describe the libertarian philosophy which is supportive of
free-market capitalism and strong
right to property, in addition to supporting
limited government and
self-ownership
Self-ownership, also known as sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty, is the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller ...
, being contrasted with left-wing views which do not support the former. In most of the world, this particular political position is mostly known as
classical liberalism,
economic liberalism and
neoliberalism. It is mainly associated with
right-wing politics
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authori ...
, support for
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
s and
private ownership
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or co ...
of capital goods. Furthermore, it is usually contrasted with similar ideologies such as
social democracy and
social liberalism which generally favor alternative forms of capitalism such as
mixed economies
A mixed economy is variously defined as an economic system blending elements of a market economy with elements of a planned economy, markets with state interventionism, or private enterprise with public enterprise. Common to all mixed economies ...
,
state capitalism
State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital a ...
and
welfare capitalism.
Peter Vallentyne
Peter Vallentyne (; born March 25, 1952, in New Haven, Connecticut) is Florence G. Kline Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. He holds dual citizenship in the United States and Canada.
Biography
Vallenty ...
writes that libertarianism, defined as being about
self-ownership
Self-ownership, also known as sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty, is the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller ...
, is not a right-wing doctrine in the context of the typical
left–right political spectrum because on social issues it tends to be left-wing, opposing laws restricting consensual sexual relationships between or drug use by adults as well as laws imposing religious views or practices and compulsory military service. He 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".
[ Vallentyne, Peter (20 July 2010)]
"Libertarianism"
'' Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''. Stanford University. Retrieved 26 December 2012. Similarly, Charlotte and Lawrence Becker maintain that right-libertarianism most often refers to the political position that because natural resources are originally unowned, they may be appropriated at will by private parties without the consent of, or owing to, others.
Samuel Edward Konkin III, who characterized
agorism
Agorism is a social philosophy that advocates creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics, engaging with aspects of nonviolent revolution. It was first proposed by American liber ...
as a form of left-libertarianism and strategic branch of
left-wing market anarchism
Free-market anarchism, or market anarchism, also known as free-market anti-capitalism and free-market socialism, is the branch of anarchism that advocates a free-market economic system based on voluntary interactions without the involvement of ...
, defined right-libertarianism as an "activist, organization, publication or tendency which supports
parliamentarianism
Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all ...
exclusively as a strategy for reducing or abolishing the
state, typically opposes
Counter-Economics
Counter-economics is an economic theory and revolutionary method consisting of direct action carried out through the black market or the gray market. As a term, it was originally used by American libertarian activists and theorists Samuel Edward K ...
, either opposes the
Libertarian Party or works to drag it right and prefers coalitions with supposedly '
free-market'
conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
".
Anthony Gregory
Anthony Gregory (born January 3, 1981) is an American historian and author. He has published two books on civil liberties in the United States and in the English legal tradition. Prior to becoming an academic historian, Gregory published hundreds ...
maintains that libertarianism "can refer to any number of varying and at times mutually exclusive political orientations". While holding that the important distinction for libertarians is not left or right, but whether they are "government apologists who use libertarian rhetoric to defend state aggression", he describes right-libertarianism as having and maintaining interest in
economic freedom, preferring a
conservative lifestyle, viewing
private business
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
as a "great victim of the state" and favoring a
non-interventionist foreign policy, sharing the
Old Right's "opposition to empire".
Old Right
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
, whose writings and personal influence helped create some strands of right-libertarianism, wrote about the Old Right in the United States, a loose coalition of individuals formed in the 1930s to oppose the
New Deal at home and
military interventionism
Interventionism refers to a political practice of intervention, particularly to the practice of governments to interfere in political affairs of other countries, staging military or trade interventions. Economic interventionism refers to a diffe ...
abroad, that they "did not describe or think of themselves as conservatives: they wanted to repeal and overthrow, not conserve".
Rothbard, Murray
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian m ...
(2007)
''Betrayal of the American Right''
Auburn, Alabama: Mises Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a libertarian nonprofit think tank headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, United States. It is named after the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).
It wa ...
. p. xi. . Bill Kauffman
Bill Kauffman (born November 15, 1959) is an American political writer generally aligned with the localist movement. He was born in Batavia, New York, and currently resides in Elba, New York, with his wife and daughter.
A devout Roman Catholic ...
has also written about such "old right libertarians".
[ Kauffman, Bill (18 May 2009)]
"Found Cause"
''The American Conservative
''The American Conservative'' (''TAC'') is a magazine published by the American Ideas Institute which was founded in 2002. Originally published twice a month, it was reduced to monthly publication in August 2009, and since February 2013, it has ...
''. Retrieved 15 March 2020. Peter Marshall dates right-libertarianism and
anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforc ...
in particular back to the Old Right and as being popularized again by the
New Right
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Uni ...
.
Individuals who are seen in this Old Right libertarian tradition
include
Frank Chodorov,
John T. Flynn
John Thomas Flynn (October 25, 1882 – April 13, 1964) was an American journalist best known for his opposition to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to American entry into World War II. In September 1940, Flynn helped establish the America F ...
,
Garet Garrett
Garet Garrett (February 19, 1878 – November 6, 1954), born Edward Peter Garrett, was an American journalist and author, known for his opposition to the New Deal and U.S. involvement in World War II.
Overview
Garrett was born February 1 ...
,
Rose Wilder Lane,
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
,
Albert Jay Nock
Albert Jay Nock (October 13, 1870 – August 19, 1945) was an American libertarian author, editor first of ''The Freeman'' and then ''The Nation'', educational theorist, Georgist, and social critic of the early and middle 20th century. He was an ...
and
Isabel Paterson
Isabel Paterson (January 22, 1886 – January 10, 1961) was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary and cultural critic of her day. Historian Jim Powell has called Paterson one of the three f ...
. What those thinkers had in common was opposition to the rise of the managerial state during the
Progressive Era and its expansion in connection with the New Deal and the
Fair Deal
The Fair Deal was a set of proposals put forward by U.S. President Harry S. Truman to Congress in 1945 and in his January 1949 State of the Union address. More generally. the term characterizes the entire domestic agenda of the Truman administr ...
whilst challenging
imperialism and military interventionism. However, ''Old Right'' was a label about which many or most of these figures might have been skeptical as most thought of themselves effectively as classical liberals rather than the
national defense and
social conservatism of thinkers associated with the later
movement conservatism, with Chodorov famously writing: "As for me, I will punch anyone who calls me a conservative in the nose. I am a radical". Their opposition and resistance to the state approached
philosophical anarchism
Philosophical anarchism is an anarchist school of thought which focuses on intellectual criticism of authority, especially political power, and the legitimacy of governments. The American anarchist and socialist Benjamin Tucker coined the term ' ...
with Nock and amounted to
statelessness in Chodorov's case.
On the other hand,
Lew Rockwell
Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr. (born July 1, 1944) is an American author, editor, and political consultant. A libertarian and a self-professed anarcho-capitalist, he founded and is the chairman of the Mises Institute, a non-profit dedicated to ...
and
Jeffrey Tucker
Jeffrey Albert Tucker (; born December 19, 1963) is an American libertarian writer, publisher, entrepreneur and advocate of anarcho-capitalism and Bitcoin.
For many years he worked for Ron Paul, the Mises Institute, and Lew Rockwell. With the ...
identifies the Old Right as being
culturally conservative
Cultural conservatism is described as the protection of the cultural heritage of a nation state, or of a culture not defined by state boundaries. It is usually associated with criticism of multiculturalism, and opposition to immigration. Cultur ...
, arguing that "
gorous social authority—as embodied in the family, church, and other mediating institutions—is a bedrock of the virtuous society" and that "
e egalitarian ethic is morally reprehensible and destructive of private property and social authority".
[ Rockwell, Lew; Tucker, Jeffrey (28 May 1990)]
"Ayn Rand Is Dead"
''National Review''. pp. 35–36. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
While ''libertarian'' was popularized by the libertarian socialist
Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (; April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was an American individualist anarchist and libertarian socialist.Martin, James J. (1953)''Men Against the State: The Expositers of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827–1908'' around the late 1870s and early 1880s, H. L. Mencken and Albert Jay Nock were the first prominent figures in the United States to describe themselves as ''libertarian'' as a synonym for ''
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and ...
''. They believed that
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As th ...
had co-opted the word ''liberal'' for his New Deal policies which they opposed and used ''libertarian'' to signify their allegiance to
classical liberalism,
individualism and
limited government.
In the 1960s, Rothbard started publishing ''
Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought'', believing that the left–right political spectrum had gone "entirely askew" since
conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
were sometimes more
statist
In political science, statism is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy, especially in regard to taxation and the means of production.
While in use since ...
than
liberals and tried to reach out to leftists and go beyond left and right. In 1971, Rothbard wrote about right-libertarianism which he described as supporting
free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold eco ...
,
property rights and
self-ownership
Self-ownership, also known as sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty, is the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller ...
.
Rothbard would later describe it as
anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforc ...
and
paleolibertarianism
Paleolibertarianism (also known as the "Paleo strategy") is a libertarian political activism strategy aimed at uniting libertarians and paleoconservatives. It was developed by American anarcho-capitalist theorists Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockw ...
.
Philosophy
Right-libertarianism developed in the United States in the mid-20th century from the works of European liberal writers such as
John Locke,
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
and
Ludwig von Mises and is the most popular conception of
libertarianism in the United States today.
[Lester, J. C. (22 October 2017)]
"New-Paradigm Libertarianism: a Very Brief Explanation"
PhilPapers. Retrieved 26 June 2019. It is commonly referred to as a continuation or radicalization of
classical liberalism.
[Boaz, David (1998). ''Libertarianism: A Primer''. Free Press. pp. 22–26.] The most important of these early right-libertarian philosophers were modern American libertarians such as
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University, and
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
.
Although often sharing the
left-libertarian advocacy for
social freedom, right-libertarians also value
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...
while rejecting institutions that intervene the
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
on the grounds that such interventions represent unnecessary coercion of individuals and therefore a violation of their
economic freedom.
Anarcho-capitalist
Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enf ...
s seek complete elimination of the state in favor of
private defense agencies while minarchists defend
night-watchman states which maintain only those functions of government necessary to safeguard natural rights, understood in terms of self-ownership or autonomy.
Right-libertarians are
economic liberals
Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism, ...
of either the
Austrian School
The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian school ...
(majority) or the
Chicago school of economics
The Chicago school of economics is a neoclassical school of economic thought associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago, some of whom have constructed and popularized its principles. Milton Friedman and George Stigl ...
(minority) and support ''
laissez-faire'' capitalism which they define as the
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
in opposition to
state capitalism
State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital a ...
and
interventionism. Right-libertarianism and its
individualism have been discussed as part of the
New Right
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Uni ...
in relation to
neoliberalism and
Thatcherism.
In the 20th century, New Right
liberal conservatism influenced by right-libertarianism marginalized other forms of conservatism.
The ''
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' describes right-libertarian philosophy as follows:
Libertarianism is often thought of as 'right-wing' doctrine. This, however, is mistaken for at least two reasons. First, on social—rather than economic—issues, libertarianism tends to be 'left-wing'. It opposes laws that restrict consensual and private sexual relationships between adults (e.g., gay-sex, non-marital sex, and deviant sex), laws that restrict drug use, laws that impose religious views or practices on individuals, and compulsory military service. Second, in addition to the better-known version of libertarianism—right-libertarianism—, there is also a version known as 'left-libertarianism. Both endorse full self-ownership, but they differ with respect to the powers agents have to appropriate unappropriated natural resources (land, air, water, etc.).
Right-libertarians are distinguished from
left-libertarians
Left-libertarianism,Bookchin, Murray; Biehl, Janet (1997). ''The Murray Bookchin Reader''. New York: Cassell. p. 170.Goodway, David (2006). '' Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to ...
by their relation to
property and
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
. While both left-libertarianism and right-libertarianism share general antipathy towards power by a government authority, the latter exempts power wielded through
free-market capitalism. Historically, libertarians such as
Herbert Spencer and
Max Stirner
Johann Kaspar Schmidt (25 October 1806 – 26 June 1856), known professionally as Max Stirner, was a German post-Hegelian philosopher, dealing mainly with the Hegelian notion of social alienation and self-consciousness. Stirner is often seen as ...
supported the protection of an individual's freedom from powers of government and
private ownership
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or co ...
. While condemning governmental encroachment on
personal liberties, right-libertarians support freedoms on the basis of their agreement with private property rights and the abolishment of public amenities is a common theme in right-libertarian writings.
While associated with free-market capitalism, right-libertarianism is not opposed in principle to voluntary
egalitarianism and
socialism. However, right-libertarians believe that their advocated economic system would prove superior and that people would prefer it to socialism. For Nozick, it does not imply support of capitalism, but merely that capitalism is compatible with libertarianism, something which is rejected by
anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economic system, such as ...
libertarians.
According to
Stephen Metcalf, Nozick expressed serious misgivings about capitalism, going so far as to reject much of the foundations of the theory on the grounds that personal freedom can sometimes only be fully actualized via a collectivist politics and that wealth is at times justly redistributed via taxation to protect the freedom of the many from the potential tyranny of an overly selfish and powerful few. Nozick suggested that citizens who are opposed to wealth redistribution which fund programs they object to should be able to opt-out by supporting alternative government-approved charities with an added 5% surcharge. Nonetheless, Nozick did not stop from self-identifying as a libertarian in a broad sense and
Julian Sanchez has argued that his views simply became more nuanced.
Non-aggression principle
The non-aggression principle (NAP) is often described as the foundation of several present-day libertarian philosophies, including right-libertarianism. The NAP is a moral stance which forbids actions that are inconsistent with capitalist
private property
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or c ...
and
property rights. It defines
aggression
Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...
and initiation of
force as violation of these rights. The NAP and property rights are closely linked since what constitutes aggression depends on what it is considered to be one's property. The principle has been used rhetorically to oppose policies such as
military drafts, taxation and
victimless crime laws.
Property rights
While there is debate on whether right-libertarianism and
left-libertarianism or
socialist libertarianism
Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (201 ...
"represent distinct ideologies as opposed to variations on a theme", right-libertarianism is most in favor of capitalist private property and property rights. Right-libertarians maintain that unowned
natural resources "may be appropriated by the first person who discovers them,
mixes his labor with them, or merely claims them—without the consent of others, and with little or no payment to them". This contrasts with left-libertarianism in which "unappropriated natural resources belong to everyone in some egalitarian manner". Right-libertarians believe that natural resources are originally unowned and therefore private parties may appropriate them at will without the consent of, or owing to, others (e.g. a
land value tax
A land value tax (LVT) is a levy on the value of land without regard to buildings, personal property and other improvements. It is also known as a location value tax, a point valuation tax, a site valuation tax, split rate tax, or a site-value ...
).
Right-libertarians are also referred to as
propertarian
Propertarianism, or proprietarianism, is a political philosophy that reduces all questions of ethics to the right to own property. On property rights, it advocates private property based on Lockean sticky property norms, where an owner keeps th ...
s because they hold that societies in which private property rights are enforced are the only ones that are both ethical and lead to the best possible outcomes. They generally support
free-market capitalism and are not opposed to any concentrations of economic power, provided it occurs through non-coercive means.
State
There is a debate amongst right-libertarians as to whether or not the
state is legitimate. While anarcho-capitalists advocate its abolition, minarchists support minimal states, often referred to as night-watchman states. Minarchists maintain that the state is necessary for the protection of individuals from
aggression
Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...
,
breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other par ...
, fraud and theft. They believe the only legitimate governmental institutions are courts, military and police, although some expand this list to include the executive and
legislative branches,
fire department
A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...
s and prisons. These minarchists justify the state on the grounds that it is the
logical consequence of adhering to the non-aggression principle.
[Gregory, Anthony (10 May 2004)]
"The Minarchist's Dilemma"
''Strike The Root
''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
''. Retrieved 26 June 2019. Some minarchists argue that a state is inevitable, believing anarchy to be futile. Others argue that anarchy is immoral because it implies that the non-aggression principle is optional and not sufficient to enforce the non-aggression principle because the enforcement of laws under anarchy is open to competition. Another common justification is that
private defense
A private defense agency (PDA) is a theoretical enterprise which would provide personal protection and military defense services to individuals who would pay for its services. PDAs are advocated in anarcho-capitalism as a way of enforcing the s ...
agencies and court firms would tend to represent the interests of those who pay them enough.
Right-libertarians such as anarcho-capitalists argue that the state violates the non-aggression principle by its nature because governments use force against those who have not stolen or vandalized private property, assaulted anyone, or committed fraud. Others argue that monopolies tend to be corrupt and inefficient and that private defense and court agencies would have to have a good reputation to stay in business.
Linda and Morris Tannehill argue that no coercive monopoly of force can arise on a truly free market and that a government's citizenry can desert them in favor of a competent protection and defense agency.
Philosopher Moshe Kroy argues that the disagreement between anarcho-capitalists who adhere to
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
's view of
human consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scient ...
and the nature of
values
In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of something or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics in ethics), or to describe the significance of dif ...
and minarchists who adhere to
Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
's view of human consciousness and the nature of values over whether or not the state is moral is not due to a disagreement over the correct interpretation of a mutually held ethical stance. He argues that the disagreement between these two groups is instead the result of their disagreement over the nature of human consciousness and that each group is making the correct interpretation of their differing premises. According to Kroy, these two groups are not making any errors with respect to deducing the correct interpretation of any ethical stance because they do not hold the same ethical stance.
Taxation as theft
The idea of taxation as theft is a viewpoint found in a number of political philosophies. Under this view, government transgresses
property rights by enforcing compulsory tax collection. Right-libertarians see taxation as a violation of the
non-aggression principle.
Schools of thought
Anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism advocates the elimination of
centralized state
A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create (or abolish) administrative divisions (sub-national units). Such units exercise only th ...
s in favor of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...
, contracts,
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
s,
individual sovereignty
Self-ownership, also known as sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty, is the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller ...
,
private property
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or c ...
, the right-libertarian interpretation of
self-ownership
Self-ownership, also known as sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty, is the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller ...
and
voluntaryism. In the absence of
statute, anarcho-capitalists hold that society tends to contractually self-regulate and civilize through participation in the free market which they describe as a
voluntary society. In an anarcho-capitalist society, courts,
law enforcement and all other security services would be provided by privately funded competitors rather than through taxation and money would be privately and competitively provided in an
open market. Under anarcho-capitalism, personal and economic activities would be regulated by
private law rather than through politics.
["Review of Kosanke's Instead of Politics – Don Stacy"](_blank)
(2011). ''Libertarian Papers''. 3 (3). Anarcho-capitalists support
wage labour and believe that neither protection of person and property nor victim compensation requires a state.
[Marshall, Peter (2008). ''Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism'']
"The New Right and Anarcho-Capitalism"
London: Harper Perennial. . Autarchism
Autarchism is a political philosophy that promotes the principles of individualism, the moral ideology of individual liberty and Self-sustainability, self-reliance. It rejects compulsory government and supports the elimination of government in f ...
promotes the principles of
individualism, the moral ideology of individual liberty and self-reliance whilst rejecting compulsory government and supporting the elimination of government in favor of ruling oneself to the exclusion of rule by others.
The most well-known version of anarcho-capitalism was formulated in the mid-20th century by Austrian School economist and
paleolibertarian
Paleolibertarianism (also known as the "Paleo strategy") is a libertarian political activism strategy aimed at uniting libertarians and paleoconservatives. It was developed by American anarcho-capitalist theorists Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockw ...
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
. Widely regarded as its founder, Rothbard combined the free-market approach from the Austrian School with the human rights views and a rejection of the state from 19th-century
American individualist anarchists and
mutualists
Mutualism describes the ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit. Mutualism is a common type of ecological interaction. Prominent examples include most vascular plants engaged in mutualistic intera ...
such as
Lysander Spooner and
Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (; April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was an American individualist anarchist and libertarian socialist.Martin, James J. (1953)''Men Against the State: The Expositers of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827–1908'' , although rejecting their
anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economic system, such as so ...
and
socialist economics, along with the
labor theory of value and the normative implications they derived from it. In Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism, exemplified in ''
For a New Liberty
''For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto'' (1973; second edition 1978; third edition 1985) is a book by American economist and historian Murray Rothbard, in which the author promotes anarcho-capitalism. The work has been credited as an infl ...
'', there would first be the implementation of a mutually agreed-upon libertarian "legal code which would be generally accepted and which the courts would pledge themselves to follow". This legal code would recognize contracts, individual sovereignty, private property, self-ownership, and tort law as part of the
principle of non-aggression In the tradition following
David D. Friedman
David Director Friedman (born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and anarcho-capitalist theorist. Although he studied chemistry and physics and not law or economics, he is known for his textbook writings on m ...
, exemplified in ''
The Machinery of Freedom
''The Machinery of Freedom'' is a nonfiction book by David D. Friedman that advocates an anarcho-capitalist society from a consequentialist perspective.
The book was published in 1973, with a second edition in 1989 and a third edition in 2014.
...
'', anarcho-capitalists do not rely upon the idea of
natural law
Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacted ...
or
natural rights
Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights.
* Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', ''fundamental'' and ...
(
deontological libertarianism) and follow
consequentialist libertarianism
Consequentialist libertarianism, also known as consequentialist liberalism or libertarian consequentialism, is a libertarian political philosophy and position that is supportive of a free market and strong private property rights only on the grou ...
, presenting economic justifications for a
free-market capitalist society.
While some authors consider anarcho-capitalism a form of
individualist anarchism, many others disagree with this as individualist anarchism is largely socialistic.
Rothbard argued that individualist anarchism is different from anarcho-capitalism and other capitalist theories due to the individualist anarchists retaining the labor theory of value and socialist economics.
[Rothbard, Murray (1950s)]
"Are Libertarians 'Anarchists'?"
Lew Rockwell.com. Retrieved 1 April 2020. Many anarchist activists and scholars deny that anarcho-capitalism is a form of anarchism, or that capitalism is compatible with anarchism,
[Davis, Laurence (2019). "Individual and Community". In Levy, Carl; Adams, Matthew S. (eds.). ''The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism''. Cham: Springer. pp. 47–70. . .] regarding it instead as right-libertarian.
Anarcho-capitalists are distinguished from anarchists and
minarchists. The latter advocate a night-watchman state limited to protecting individuals from aggression and enforcing private property. On the other hand, anarchists support
personal property
property is property that is movable. In common law systems, personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In civil law systems, personal property is often called movable property or movables—any property that can be moved fr ...
(defined in terms of possession and use, i.e. mutualist
usufruct) and oppose
capital concentration, interest, monopoly, private ownership of productive property such as the
means of production
The means of production is a term which describes land, labor and capital that can be used to produce products (such as goods or services); however, the term can also refer to anything that is used to produce products. It can also be used as an ...
(
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
,
land
Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various islan ...
and the
means of labor
The means of labor (also called instruments of labor) is a concept in Marxist political economy that refers to "all those things with the aid of which man acts upon the subject of his labor, and transforms it." (Institute of Economics of the Ac ...
),
profit,
rent,
usury
Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is ch ...
and
wage slavery which are viewed as inherent to capitalism. Anarchism's emphasis on anti-capitalism,
egalitarianism and for the extension of community and individuality sets it apart from anarcho-capitalism and other types of right-libertarianism.
[Jennings, Jeremy (1993). "Anarchism". In Eatwell, Roger; Wright, Anthony (eds.). ''Contemporary Political Ideologies''. London: Pinter. pp. 127–146. . " ..anarchism does not stand for the untrammelled freedom of the individual (as the 'anarcho-capitalists' appear to believe) but, as we have already seen, for the extension of individuality ''and'' community" (p. 143).][Gay, Kathlyn; Gay, Martin (1999). ''Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy''. ABC-CLIO. p. 15. . "For many anarchists (of whatever persuasion), anarcho-capitalism is a contradictory term, since 'traditional' anarchists oppose capitalism".][Morriss, Andrew (2008). "Anarcho-capitalism". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). ''The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism''. Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 13–14. . . . "Social anarchists, those anarchists with communitarian leanings, are critical of anarcho-capitalism because it permits individuals to accumulate substantial power through markets and private property."][Franks, Benjamin (August 2013). Freeden, Michael; Stears, Marc (eds.). "Anarchism". ''The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies''. Oxford University Press: 385–404. . "Individualisms that defend or reinforce hierarchical forms such as the economic-power relations of anarcho-capitalism ..are incompatible with practices of social anarchism. ..Increasingly, academic analysis has followed activist currents in rejecting the view that anarcho-capitalism has anything to do with social anarchism" (pp. 393–394).]
Ruth Kinna
Ruth Ellen Kinna (born March 1961) is a professor of political philosophy at Loughborough University, working in the Department of Politics, History and International Relations. Since 2007 she has been the editor of the journal '' Anarchist Stu ...
writes that ''anarcho-capitalism'' is a term coined by Rothbard to describe "a commitment to unregulated private property and laissez-faire economics, prioritizing the liberty-rights of individuals, unfettered by government regulation, to accumulate, consume and determine the patterns of their lives as they see fit". According to Kinna, anarcho-capitalists "will sometimes label themselves market anarchists because they recognize the negative connotations of 'capitalism'. But the literatures of anarcho-capitalism draw on classical liberal theory, particularly the Austrian School—
Friedrich von Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
and
Ludwig von Mises—rather than recognizable
anarchist traditions.
Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
's laissez-faire, anti-government, corporate philosophy—
Objectivism
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement ...
—is sometimes associated with anarcho-capitalism".
[Kinna, Ruth, ed. (2012). ''The Bloomsbury Companion to Anarchism''. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 330–331. .] Other scholars similarly associate anarcho-capitalism with anti-state liberal schools such as
neo-classical liberalism, radical
neoliberalism and right-libertarianism.
Anarcho-capitalism is usually seen as part of the
New Right
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Uni ...
.
Conservative libertarianism
Conservative libertarianism combines ''
laissez-faire'' economics and conservative values. It advocates the greatest possible
economic liberty
Economic freedom, or economic liberty, is the ability of people of a society to take economic actions. This is a term used in economic and policy debates as well as in the philosophy of economics. One approach to economic freedom comes from the li ...
and the least possible
government regulation of social life whilst harnessing this to
traditionalist conservatism, emphasizing authority and duty.
Conservative libertarianism prioritizes liberty as its main emphasis, promoting
free expression
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
,
freedom of choice
Freedom of choice describes an individual's opportunity and autonomy to perform an action selected from at least two available options, unconstrained by external parties.
In politics
In the abortion debate, for example, the term "freedom of ch ...
and ''laissez-faire'' capitalism to achieve
cultural and
social conservative ends whilst rejecting
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and ...
social engineering.
[Piper, J. Richard (1997). ''Ideologies and Institutions: American Conservative and Liberal Governance Prescriptions Since 1933''. Rowman & Littlefield]
pp. 110–111
. This can also be understood as promoting
civil society
Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.[conservatism
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...]
and
libertarianism
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
, representing the conservative wing of libertarianism and vice versa. Fusionism combines
traditionalist and
social conservatism with ''laissez-faire'' economics. This is most closely associated with
Frank Meyer.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Hans-Hermann Hoppe (; ; born 2 September 1949) is a German-American economist of the Austrian School, philosopher and political theorist. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Senior Fellow of t ...
is a cultural conservative right-libertarian, whose belief in the rights of property owners to establish private covenant communities, from which homosexuals and political dissidents may be "physically removed", has proven particularly divisive.
Hoppe also garnered controversy due to his support for restrictive limits on immigration which critics argue is at odds with libertarianism.
Minarchism
Within right-libertarian philosophy, minarchism is supportive of a
night-watchman state, a model of a state whose only functions are to provide its citizens with courts, military and police, protecting them from aggression, breach of contract, fraud and theft whilst enforcing
property law
Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land) and personal property. Property refers to legally protected claims to resources, such as land and personal property, including intellectual prop ...
s.
19th-century Britain has been described by historian
Charles Townshend
Charles Townshend (28 August 1725 – 4 September 1767) was a British politician who held various titles in the Parliament of Great Britain. His establishment of the controversial Townshend Acts is considered one of the key causes of the Amer ...
as standard-bearer of this form of government among European countries.
As a term, ''night-watchman state'' (german: link=no, Nachtwächterstaat) was coined by German
socialist Ferdinand Lassalle, an advocate of
social-democratic
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...
state socialism
State socialism is a political and economic ideology within the socialist movement that advocates state ownership of the means of production. This is intended either as a temporary measure, or as a characteristic of socialism in the transition fr ...
, to criticize the
bourgeois state
The capitalist state is the state, its functions and the form of organization it takes within capitalist socioeconomic systems.Jessop, Bob (January 1977). "Recent Theories of the Capitalist State". ''Soviet Studies''. 1: 4. pp. 353–373. This ...
. Austrian School economist
Ludwig von Mises, a classical liberal who greatly influenced right-libertarianism, later opined that Lassalle tried to make limited government look ridiculous, but that it was no more ridiculous than governments that concerned themselves with "the preparation of sauerkraut, with the manufacture of trouser buttons, or with the publication of newspapers".
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University, , a right-libertarian advocate of minarchism, received a
National Book Award in
category Philosophy and Religion for his book ''
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
''Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' is a 1974 book by the American political philosopher Robert Nozick. It won the 1975 US National Book Award in category Philosophy and Religion, has been translated into 11 languages, and was named one of the "100 m ...
'' (1974),
["National Book Awards – 1975"](_blank)
(1975). National Book Foundation. Retrieved 8 March 2012. . where he argued that only a minimal state limited to the narrow functions of protection against "force, fraud, theft, and administering courts of law" could be justified without violating people's rights.
Neo-classical liberalism
Traditionally, liberalism's primary emphasis was placed on securing the freedom of the individual by limiting the power of the government and maximizing the power of free market forces. As a political philosophy, it advocated
civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
under the
rule of law, with an emphasis on
economic freedom. Closely related to
economic liberalism, it developed in the early 19th century, emerging as a response to urbanization and to the
Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States.
It advocated a
limited government and held a belief in ''laissez-faire'' economic policy.
Built on ideas that had already arisen by the end of the 18th century such as selected ideas of
John Locke,
[Steven M. Dworetz (1994). ''The Unvarnished Doctrine: Locke, Liberalism, and the American Revolution''.] Adam Smith
Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——� ...
,
Thomas Robert Malthus,
Jean-Baptiste Say and
David Ricardo
David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and James Mill. Ricardo was also a politician, and a m ...
, it drew on
classical economics and economic ideas as espoused by Smith in ''
The Wealth of Nations'' and stressed the belief in
progress
Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension w ...
,
natural law
Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacted ...
and
utilitarianism. These liberals were more suspicious than conservatives of all but the most minimal government and adopted
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influent ...
's theory of government, believing government had been created by individuals to protect themselves from one another.
[Quinton, A. (1995). "Conservativism". In Goodin, R. E.; Pettit, P. eds. ''A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. p. 246.] The term ''classical liberalism'' was applied in retrospect to distinguish earlier 19th-century liberalism from the newer ''
social liberalism''.
Neoliberalism emerged in the era following
World War II during which social liberalism was the mainstream form of liberalism while
Keynesianism and
social democracy were the dominant ideologies in the Western world. It was led by
neoclassical economists such as
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
and
Milton Friedman, who advocated the reduction of the state and a return to classical liberalism, hence the term ''neo-classical liberalism'', not to be confused with the more left-leaning
neoclassical liberalism,
an American
bleeding-heart libertarian school originating in Arizona.
However, it did accept some aspects of social liberalism such as some degree of welfare provision by the state, but on a greatly reduced scale. Hayek and Friedman used the term ''classical liberalism'' to refer to their ideas, but others use the term to refer to all liberalism before the 20th century, not to designate any particular set of political views and therefore see all modern developments as being by definition not classical.
In the late 19th century, classical liberalism developed into neo-classical liberalism which argued for government to be as small as possible to allow the exercise of
individual freedom. In its most extreme form, neo-classical liberalism advocated
social Darwinism.
[Mayne, Alan James (1999). ''From Politics Past to Politics Future: An Integrated Analysis of Current and Emergent Paradigmss''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 124. .] Right-libertarianism has been influenced by these schools of liberalism. It has been commonly referred to as a continuation or radicalization of classical liberalism
and referred to as neo-classical liberalism.
Neolibertarianism
The concept of neolibertarianism gained a small following in the mid-2000s
among right-leaning commentators who distinguished themselves from
neoconservatives by their support for
individual liberties and from libertarians by their support for
foreign interventionism.
Paleolibertarianism
Paleolibertarianism was developed by American libertarian theorists
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
and
Lew Rockwell
Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr. (born July 1, 1944) is an American author, editor, and political consultant. A libertarian and a self-professed anarcho-capitalist, he founded and is the chairman of the Mises Institute, a non-profit dedicated to ...
. Combining conservative cultural values and social philosophy with a libertarian opposition to government intervention, it overlaps with
paleoconservatism
Paleoconservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism in the United States stressing American nationalism, Christian ethics, regionalism, and traditionalist conservatism. Paleoconservatism's concerns overlap with those of the ...
.
[.]
In the United States, paleolibertarianism is a controversial current due its connections to the
alt-right
The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-20 ...
and the
Tea Party movement. Besides their anti-
gun control stance in regard to
gun laws
Gun laws and policies, collectively referred to as firearms regulation or gun control, regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, and use of small arms by civilians. Laws of some countries may afford civilians a right to ...
and
politics in support of the
right to keep and bear arms, these movements, especially the
Old Right and paleoconservatism, are united by an anti-leftist stance.
In the essay "Right-Wing Populism: A Strategy for the Paleo Movement", Rothbard reflected on the ability of paleolibertarians to engage in an "outreach to
redneck
''Redneck'' is a derogatory term chiefly, but not exclusively, applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the Southern United States.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, '' ...
s" founded on libertarianism and social conservatism. He cited former
Louisiana State Representative David Duke and former United States Senator
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
as models for the new movement.
In Europe, paleolibertarianism has some significant overlap with
right-wing populism
Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establi ...
. Former European Union-parliamentarian
Janusz Korwin-Mikke
Janusz Ryszard Korwin-Mikke (; born 27 October 1942), also known by his initials JKM or simply as Korwin, is a Polish far-right politician, paleolibertarian and author. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2014 until 2018. He was the ...
from
KORWiN
The New Hope (, NN), previously known as Confederation for the Renewal of the Republic Liberty and Hope (, KORWiN/Liberty), is a right-wing populist political party in Poland. It is currently led by Sławomir Mentzen.
It was founded in 2015 by ...
supports both ''laissez-faire'' economics and
anti-immigration
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...
and
anti-feminist positions.
Propertarianism
Propertarianism advocates the replacement of states with contractual relationships. Propertarian ideals are most commonly cited to advocate for a state or other governance body whose main or only job is to enforce contracts and
private property
Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or c ...
.
Propertarianism is generally considered right-libertarian
because it "reduce
all human rights to rights of property, beginning with the natural right of self-ownership".
As a term, ''propertarian'' appears to have been coined in 1963 by Edward Cain, who wrote:
Since their use of the word "liberty" refers almost exclusively to property, it would be helpful if we had some other word, such as "propertarian," to describe them. ..Novelist Ayn Rand is not a conservative at all but claims to be very relevant. She is a radical capitalist, and is the closest to what I mean by a propertarian.
By country
Since the 1970s, right-libertarianism has spread beyond the United States.
With the foundation of the
Libertarian Party in 1971, many countries followed the example and led to the creation of
libertarian parties
Active parties by country
Defunct parties by country
Organizations associated with Libertarian parties
See also
* Liberal parties by country
* List of libertarian organizations
* Lists of political parties
* Outline of libertarianis ...
advocating this type of libertarianism, along with
classical liberalism,
economic liberalism and
neoliberalism, around the world, including the United Kingdom, Israel and South Africa. Internationally, the majority of those libertarian parties are grouped within the
International Alliance of Libertarian Parties
The International Alliance of Libertarian Parties (IALP) is an alliance of libertarian political parties around the world. Its mission is to promote such libertarian politics internationally.
At the 2014 Libertarian National Convention in th ...
. There also exists the
European Party for Individual Liberty at the European level.
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
was the founder and co-founder of a number of right-libertarian and right-libertarian-leaning journals and organizations. Rothbard was the founder of the
Center for Libertarian Studies
The Center for Libertarian Studies (CLS) was a libertarian and anarcho-capitalist oriented educational organization founded in 1976 by Murray Rothbard and Burton Blumert, which grew out of the Libertarian Scholars Conferences. That year, the conf ...
in 1976, the ''
Journal of Libertarian Studies
Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a libertarian nonprofit think tank headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, United States. It is named after the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).
It wa ...
'' and co-founder of the
Mises Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a libertarian nonprofit think tank headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, United States. It is named after the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).
It wa ...
in 1982, including the founding in 1987 of the Mises Institute's ''Review of Austrian Economics'', a
heterodox economics
Heterodox economics is any economic thought or theory that contrasts with orthodox schools of economic thought, or that may be beyond neoclassical economics.Frederic S. Lee, 2008. "heterodox economics," ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics' ...
journal later renamed the ''
Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics''.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, right-libertarianism emerged and became more prominent in British politics after the 1980s
neoliberalism and the
economic liberalism of the
premiership of
Margaret Thatcher, albeit not as prominent as in the United States during the 1970s and the
presidency of
Republican Ronald Reagan during the 1980s.
Prominent British right-libertarians include former director of the
Libertarian Alliance
The Libertarian Alliance (LA) refers to two libertarian think tanks in the UK. Originally one organisation, it split in 1982. One Libertarian Alliance was renamed "Mises UK" in 2017; the remaining Libertarian Alliance holds regular meetings in ...
Sean Gabb and philosopher
Stephen R. L. Clark
Stephen Richard Lyster Clark (born 30 October 1945) is an English philosopher and professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Liverpool. Clark specialises in the philosophy of religion and animal rights, writing from a philosophical po ...
, who are seen as rightists. Gabb has called himself "a man of the right" and Clark self-identifies as an "anarcho-conservative." Gabb has also articulated a libertarian defense of the British Empire. At the same time, Gabb has given a generally appreciative commentary of left-libertarian
Kevin Carson's work on organization theory and Clark has supported
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sam ...
, gender inclusiveness and non-judgmental attitude toward some unconventional sexual arrangements.
Apart from the
Libertarian Party, there is also a right-libertarian faction of the mainstream
Conservative Party that espouses
Thatcherism.
United States
Right-libertarianism is the dominant form and better known version of libertarianism in the United States,
especially when compared with
left-libertarianism.
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University, and
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
have been described as the most noted advocate of this type of libertarianism.
Unlike Rothbard, who argued for the abolition of the
state, Nozick argued for a
night-watchman state.
To this day, there remains a division between
anarcho-capitalists that advocate its abolition and minarchists who support a night-watchman state.
According to Nozick, only such a minimal state could be justified without violating people's rights. Nozick argued that a night-watchman state provides a framework that allows for any political system that respects fundamental individual rights and therefore morally justifies the existence of a state.
Already a radical
classical liberal
Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic ...
and
anti-interventionist
Non-interventionism or non-intervention is a political philosophy or national foreign policy doctrine that opposes interference in the domestic politics and affairs of other countries but, in contrast to isolationism, is not necessarily opposed t ...
strongly influenced by the
Old Right, especially its opposition to the managerial state whilst being more unequivocally
anti-war
An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...
and
anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...
, Rothbard had become the doyen of right-libertarianism. Before his departure from the
New Left, with which he helped build for a few years a relationship with other libertarians, Rothbard considered liberalism and
libertarianism
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
to be left-wing,
radical and
revolutionary whereas conservatism to be right-wing,
reactionary
In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the '' status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abs ...
and
counter-revolutionary
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...
. As for
socialism, especially
state socialism
State socialism is a political and economic ideology within the socialist movement that advocates state ownership of the means of production. This is intended either as a temporary measure, or as a characteristic of socialism in the transition fr ...
, Rothbard argued that it was not the opposite of libertarianism, but rather that it pursued liberal ends through conservative means, putting it in the
political center
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...
. By the time of his death in 1995, Rothbard had involved the segment of the libertarian movement loyal to him in an alliance with the growing
paleoconservative
Paleoconservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism in the United States stressing American nationalism, Christian ethics, regionalism, and traditionalist conservatism. Paleoconservatism's concerns overlap with those of the ...
movement, seen by many observers, libertarian and otherwise, as flirting with racism and social reaction.
Suggesting that libertarians needed a new cultural profile that would make them more acceptable to social and cultural conservatives, Rothbard criticized the tendency of proponents of libertarianism 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." While emphasizing that it was relevant as a matter of strategy, Rothbard argued that the failure to pitch the libertarian message to Middle America might result in the loss of "the tight-assed majority."
At least partly reflective of some of the social and cultural concerns that lay beneath Rothbard's outreach to paleoconservatives is
paleolibertarianism
Paleolibertarianism (also known as the "Paleo strategy") is a libertarian political activism strategy aimed at uniting libertarians and paleoconservatives. It was developed by American anarcho-capitalist theorists Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockw ...
. In an early statement of this position,
Lew Rockwell
Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr. (born July 1, 1944) is an American author, editor, and political consultant. A libertarian and a self-professed anarcho-capitalist, he founded and is the chairman of the Mises Institute, a non-profit dedicated to ...
and
Jeffrey Tucker
Jeffrey Albert Tucker (; born December 19, 1963) is an American libertarian writer, publisher, entrepreneur and advocate of anarcho-capitalism and Bitcoin.
For many years he worked for Ron Paul, the Mises Institute, and Lew Rockwell. With the ...
arguing for a specifically
Christian libertarianism
Christian libertarianism is the synthesis of Christian beliefs with libertarian political philosophy, with a focus on beliefs about free will, human nature, and God-given inalienable rights.
As with some other forms of libertarianism, Christian ...
.
Later, Rockwell would no longer consider himself a "paleolibertarian" and was "happy with the term libertarian." While distancing himself from the paleolibertarian alliance strategy, Rockwell affirmed paleoconservatives for their "work on the immigration issue" and maintained that "porous borders in Texas and California" could be seen as "reducing liberty, not increasing it, through a form of publicly subsidized right to trespass."
Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Hans-Hermann Hoppe (; ; born 2 September 1949) is a German-American economist of the Austrian School, philosopher and political theorist. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Senior Fellow of t ...
argued that "libertarians must be conservatives." Hoppe acknowledged what he described as "the importance, under clearly stated circumstances, of discriminating against communists, democrats, and habitual advocates of alternative, non-family centered lifestyles, including homosexuals." He disagreed with
Walter Block
Walter Edward Block (born August 21, 1941) is an American Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist theorist. He currently holds the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at the School of Business at Loyola Universit ...
and argued that libertarianism need not be seen as requiring
open borders. Hoppe attributed "open border enthusiasm" to "egalitarianism." While defending market anarchy in preference to both, Hoppe argued for the superiority of monarchy to democracy by maintaining that monarchs are likely to be better stewards of the territory they claim to own than are democratic politicians, whose time horizons may be shorter.
Defending the
fusion
Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole.
Fusion may also refer to:
Science and technology Physics
*Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...
of
traditionalist conservatism with
libertarianism
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
and rejecting the view that libertarianism means support for a
liberal culture,
Edward Feser implies that a central issue for those who share his viewpoint is "the preservation of traditional morality—particularly traditional sexual morality, with its idealization of marriage and its insistence that sexual activity be confined within the bounds of that institution, but also a general emphasis on dignity and temperance over self-indulgence and dissolute living."
California Governor
Ronald Reagan appealed to right-libertarians in a 1975 interview with ''
Reason'' by stating to "believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism." However, President Reagan,
Reaganomics and policies of the
Reagan administration have been criticized by libertarians, including right-libertarians such as Rothbard, who argued that the
Reagan presidency has been "a disaster for libertarianism in the United States" and Reagan himself was "a dramatic failure."
Among other reasons, this was because Reagan 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 Reagan.
Ron Paul was one of the first elected officials in the nation to support Reagan's presidential campaign
and actively campaigned for Reagan in 1976 and 1980.
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 the Reagan budget proposals in 1981,
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."
Paul expressed his disgust with the political culture of both major parties in a speech delivered in 1984 upon resigning from the
House of Representatives to prepare for a failed run for the Senate and eventually apologized to his libertarian friends for having supported Reagan.
By 1987, Paul was ready to sever all ties to the Republican Party as explained in a blistering resignation letter.
While affiliated with both
Libertarian and Republican parties at different times, Paul stated to have always been a libertarian at heart.
Walter Block identifies Feser, Hoppe, and Paul as "right-libertarians."
Rothbard's outreach to conservatives was partly triggered by his perception of negative reactions within the Libertarian Party to
Ron Paul 1988 presidential campaign
The Ron Paul presidential campaign of 1988 began in early 1987 when former Congressman Ron Paul of Texas announced his candidacy for the 1988 presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party. He joined the third party after leaving the Republica ...
because of Paul's conservative appearance and his discomfort with abortion. Nonetheless, Paul himself did not make cultural issues central to his public persona during his
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gath ...
presidential campaigns for the
Republican presidential nomination and focused on a simple message of support for personal freedom and civil liberties, commitment to fiscal discipline and opposition to war, although he did continue to take what some regarded as a conservative position regarding immigration, arguing for some restrictions on cross-border freedom of movement.
Paul's fellow libertarian anti-militarist
Justin Raimondo, a co-founder of
Antiwar.com
Antiwar.com is a website that describes itself as devoted to non-interventionism and as opposing imperialism and war. It is a project of the Randolph Bourne Institute. The website states that it is "fighting the next information war”.
History ...
, described himself as a "conservative paleolibertarian." Unlike Feser and Rockwell, Raimondo's ''Reclaiming the American Right'' argued for a resurgence of Old Right political attitudes and did not focus on the social and cultural issues that are of central importance to Feser and Rockwell.
Free State Project
One of the most prominent groups dedicated to promulgating and instituting right-libertarian values is the
Free State Project. The Free 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. , the project website showed that 19,988 people have pledged to move and 6,232 people identified as Free Staters in New Hampshire.
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, and in 2021, the
New Hampshire Liberty Alliance
The New Hampshire Liberty Alliance (NHLA) is a nonpartisan, libertarian coalition in New Hampshire. The organization supports libertarian candidates for state and local offices, and other libertarian causes and organizations.
Just before the Nov ...
, 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. Participants also engage with other like-minded activist groups such as Rebuild New Hampshire,
Young Americans for Liberty
Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) is a libertarian, classical liberal and conservative student activism organization headquartered in Austin, Texas. Formed in 2008 in the aftermath of the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign, YAL establishes chap ...
, and
Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States funded by Charles Koch and formerly his brother David. As the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group, it is one ...
.
Criticism
Criticism of right-libertarianism includes ethical, economic, environmental, pragmatic and philosophical concerns,
[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.][Partridge, Ernest (2004)]
"With Liberty and Justice for Some"
In Zimmerman, Michael; Callicott, Baird; Warren, Karen; Klaver, Irene; Clark, John. ''Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology'' (4th ed.). Pearson. . including the view that it has no explicit theory of liberty.
It has been argued that ''laissez-faire'' capitalism
does not necessarily produce the best or most efficient outcome,
nor does its philosophy of individualism and policies of
deregulation prevent the
abuse of natural resources.
Use of the NAP as a justification for right-libertarianism has been criticized as
circular reasoning
Circular may refer to:
* The shape of a circle
* ''Circular'' (album), a 2006 album by Spanish singer Vega
* Circular letter (disambiguation)
** Flyer (pamphlet), a form of advertisement
* Circular reasoning, a type of logical fallacy
* Circula ...
and as a rhetorical obfuscation of the coercive nature of right-libertarian property law enforcement,
with critics arguing that the principle redefines aggression in their own terms.
Jeffrey H. Reiman criticized right-libertarians' support of private property, arguing that "the holders of large amounts of property have great power to dictate the terms upon which others work for them and thus in effect the power to 'force' others to be resources for them".
See also
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Anarchism and capitalism
*
Anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforc ...
*
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...
*
Conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism or right-liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or simply representing the right-wing of the liberal movement. M. Gallagher, M. Laver and P. Mair, ''Repre ...
*
Constitutionalism
*
Criticism of democracy
Criticism of democracy has been a key part of democracy and its functions. As Josiah Ober explains, "the legitimate role of critics" of democracy may be difficult to define, but one "approach is to divide critics into 'good internal' critics ...
*
Debates within libertarianism
Libertarianism is variously defined by sources as there is no general consensus among scholars on the definition nor on how one should use the term as a historical category. Scholars generally agree that libertarianism refers to the group of poli ...
*
Egalitarianism
*
Fiscal conservatism
*
Free banking
*
Free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
*
Freedom of association
*
Issues in anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful
. The following sources cite anarchism as a political philosophy: Slevin, Carl (2003). McLean, Aiaun; McMillan, Allistai ...
*
Labor mobility
*
Libertarianism
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
*
Libertarianism in South Africa
*
Libertarianism in the United Kingdom
Libertarianism in the United Kingdom can either refer to a political movement synonymous with anarchism, left-libertarianism and libertarian socialism, or to a political movement concerned with the pursuit of propertarian right-libertarian ideal ...
*
Market fundamentalism
*
Objectivist movement
*
Outline of libertarianism
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to libertarianism, a political philosophy that upholds liberty as its principal objective. As a result, libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and freedom of choice, emphasizi ...
*
Patriot movement
*
Republican Liberty Caucus
The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) is a political action organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of individual liberty, limited government and free market economics within the Republican Party in the United States. It is part of the lib ...
*
Sovereign citizen movement
References
Bibliography
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{{neoliberalism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
Libertarianism
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
Libertarianism by form
Libertarianism in the United States