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Libertarianism in the United States

This article is about the origin, history and development of libertarianism in the United States. For the broader political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core principle, see Libertarianism. For the most common type of libertarianism in the United States, see Right-libertarianism.

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The historical Gadsden flag is frequently used to represent libertarianism in the U.S.

In the United States, libertarianism is a political philosophy promoting individual liberty.[1][2][3][4][5][6] According to common meanings of conservatism and liberalism in the United States, libertarianism has been described as conservative on economic issues (fiscal conservatism) and liberal on personal freedom (cultural liberalism),[7] often associated with a foreign policy of non-interventionism.[8][9] Broadly, there are four principal traditions within libertarianism, namely the libertarianism that developed in the mid-20th century out of the revival tradition of classical liberalism in the United States[10] after liberalism associated with the New Deal;[11] the libertarianism developed in the 1950s by anarcho-capitalist author Murray Rothbard, who based it on the anti-New Deal Old Right and 19th-century libertarianism and American individualist anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner while rejecting the labor theory of value in favor of Austrian School economics and the subjective theory of value;[12][13] the libertarianism developed in the 1970s by Robert Nozick and founded in American and European classical liberal traditions;[14] and the libertarianism associated with the Libertarian Party, which was founded in 1971, including politicians such as David Nolan[15] and Ron Paul.[16]

The right-libertarianism associated with people such as Murray Rothbard and Robert Nozick,[17][18] whose book Anarchy, State, and Utopia received significant attention in academia according to David Lewis Schaefer,[19] is the dominant form of libertarianism in the United States, compared to that of left-libertarianism.[20] The latter is associated with the left-wing of the modern libertarian movement[21] and more recently to the political positions associated with academic philosophers Hillel Steiner, Philippe Van Parijs and Peter Vallentyne that combine self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources;[22] it is also related to anti-capitalist, free-market anarchist strands such as left-wing market anarchism,[23] referred to as market-oriented left-libertarianism to distinguish itself from other forms of libertarianism.[24]

Libertarianism includes anarchist and libertarian socialist tendencies, although they are not as widespread as in other countries. Murray Bookchin,[25] a libertarian within this socialist tradition, argued that anarchists, libertarian socialists and the left should reclaim libertarian as a term, suggesting these other self-declared libertarians to rename themselves propertarians instead.[26][27] Although all libertarians oppose government intervention, there is a division between those anarchist or socialist libertarians as well as anarcho-capitalists such as Rothbard and David D. Friedman who adhere to the anti-state position, viewing the state as an unnecessary evil; minarchists such as Nozick who recognize the necessary need for a minimal state, often referred to as a night-watchman state;[28] and classical liberals who support a minimized small government[29][30][31] and a major reversal of the welfare state.[32]

The major libertarian party in the United States is the Libertarian Party. However, libertarians are also represented within the Democratic and Republican parties while others are independent. Gallup found that voters who identify as libertarians ranged from 17 to 23% of the American electorate.[33] Yellow, a political color associated with liberalism worldwide, has also been used as a political color for modern libertarianism in the United States.[34][35] The Gadsden flag and Pine Tree flag, symbols first used by American revolutionaries, are frequently used by libertarians and the libertarian-leaning Tea Party movement.[36][37][38][39]

Although libertarian continues to be widely used to refer to anti-state socialists internationally,[25][40][41][42][43][44] its meaning in the United States has deviated from its political origins to the extent that the common meaning of libertarian in the United States is different from elsewhere.[17][26][27][28][45] The Libertarian Party asserts the following core beliefs of libertarianism: "Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties".[46][47] Libertarians have worked to implement their ideas through the Libertarian Party, the Free State Project, agorism, and other forms of activism.[48][49][50]

  1. ^ Long, Roderick T. (1998). "Towards a Libertarian Theory of Class". Social Philosophy and Policy. 15 (2): 303–349 (online: "Part 1" Archived October 8, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, "Part 2" Archived August 4, 2019, at the Wayback Machine).
  2. ^ Becker, Lawrence C.; Becker, Charlotte B. (2001). Encyclopedia of Ethics: P–W. 3. Taylor & Francis. p. 1562 Archived March 11, 2023, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ Paul, Ellen F. (2007). Liberalism: Old and New. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 187 Archived March 11, 2023, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ Christiano, Thomas; John P. Christman (2009). Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy. "Individualism and Libertarian Rights". Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 121 Archived June 12, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ Vallentyne, Peter (March 3, 2009). "Libertarianism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 ed.). Stanford, California: Stanford University. Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
  6. ^ Bevir, Mark (2010). Encyclopedia of Political Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; Cato Institute. p. 811.
  7. ^ Boaz, David; Kirby, David (October 18, 2006). The Libertarian Vote. Cato Institute.
  8. ^ Carpenter, Ted Galen; Innocent, Malen (2008). "Foreign Policy". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; Cato Institute. pp. 177–180. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n109. ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024. Archived from the original on September 19, 2024. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
  9. ^ Olsen, Edward A. (2002). US National Defense for the Twenty-First Century: The Grand Exit Strategy. Taylor & Francis. p. 182 Archived March 11, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. ISBN 978-0714681405.
  10. ^ Adams, Ian (2001). Political Ideology Today (reprinted, revised ed.). Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0719060205. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Russell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference DeLeon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rothbard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Van der Vossen, Bas (January 28, 2019). "Libertarianism" Archived September 11, 2020, at the Wayback Machine. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Martin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Caldwell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ a b 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".
  18. ^ 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".
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Schaefer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed. The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. London: Sage Publications. p. 1006 Archived February 7, 2024, at the Wayback Machine. ISBN 1412988764.
  21. ^ Long, Riderick T. "Anarchism". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred, eds. (2012). The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy. p. 227.
  22. ^ Kymlicka, Will (2005). "libertarianism, left-". In Honderich, Ted. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 516. ISBN 978-0199264797. "'Left-libertarianism' is a new term for an old conception of justice, dating back to Grotius. It combines the libertarian assumption that each person possesses a natural right of self-ownership over his person with the egalitarian premise that natural resources should be shared equally. Right-wing libertarians argue that the right of self-ownership entails the right to appropriate unequal parts of the external world, such as unequal amounts of land. According to left-libertarians, however, the world's natural resources were initially unowned, or belonged equally to all, and it is illegitimate for anyone to claim exclusive private ownership of these resources to the detriment of others. Such private appropriation is legitimate only if everyone can appropriate an equal amount, or if those who appropriate more are taxed to compensate those who are thereby excluded from what was once common property. Historic proponents of this view include Thomas Paine, Herbert Spencer, and Henry George. Recent exponents include Philippe Van Parijs and Hillel Steiner."
  23. ^ Chartier, Gary; Johnson, Charles W. (2011). Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty. Brooklyn: Minor Compositions/Autonomedia. pp. 1–16.
  24. ^ Sheldon Richman (February 3, 2011). "Libertarian Left: Free-market anti-capitalism, the unknown ideal". The American Conservative. Archived June 10, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  25. ^ a b Bookchin, Murray (January 1986). "The Greening of Politics: Toward a New Kind of Political Practice" Archived October 1, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Green Perspectives: Newsletter of the Green Program Project (1). "We have permitted cynical political reactionaries and the spokesmen of large corporations to pre-empt these basic libertarian American ideals. We have permitted them not only to become the specious voice of these ideals such that individualism has been used to justify egotism; the pursuit of happiness to justify greed, and even our emphasis on local and regional autonomy has been used to justify parochialism, insularism, and exclusivity – often against ethnic minorities and so-called deviant individuals. We have even permitted these reactionaries to stake out a claim to the word libertarian, a word, in fact, that was literally devised in the 1890s in France by Elisée Reclus as a substitute for the word anarchist, which the government had rendered an illegal expression for identifying one's views. The propertarians, in effect – acolytes of Ayn Rand, the earth mother of greed, egotism, and the virtues of property – have appropriated expressions and traditions that should have been expressed by radicals but were willfully neglected because of the lure of European and Asian traditions of socialism, socialisms that are now entering into decline in the very countries in which they originated".
  26. ^ a b The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective (December 11, 2008). "150 years of Libertarian" Archived May 19, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Anarchist Writers. The Anarchist Library. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  27. ^ a b The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective (May 17, 2017). "160 years of Libertarian" Archived April 25, 2020, at the Wayback Machine. Anarchist Writers. Anarchist FAQ. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  28. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Marshall was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ Goodman, John C. (December 20, 2005). "What Is Classical Liberalism?". National Center for Policy Analysis. Retrieved June 26, 2019. Archived March 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  30. ^ Boaz, David (1998). Libertarianism: A Primer. Free Press. pp. 22–26.
  31. ^ Conway, David (2008). "Freedom of Speech". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). Liberalism, Classical. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 295–298 [296]. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n112. ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024. Archived from the original on January 9, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2019. Depending on the context, libertarianism can be seen as either the contemporary name for classical liberalism, adopted to avoid confusion in those countries where liberalism is widely understood to denote advocacy of expansive government powers, or as a more radical version of classical liberalism.
  32. ^ Cite error: The named reference Baradat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  33. ^ Gallup Poll news release, September 7–10, 2006.
  34. ^ Adams, Sean; Morioka, Noreen; Stone, Terry Lee (2006). Color Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design. Gloucester, MA: Rockport Publishers. p. 86. ISBN 159253192X. OCLC 60393965.
  35. ^ Kumar, Rohit Vishal; Joshi, Radhika (October–December 2006). "Colour, Colour Everywhere: In Marketing Too". SCMS Journal of Indian Management. 3 (4): 40–46. ISSN 0973-3167. SSRN 969272.
  36. ^ "Tea Party Adopts 'Don't Tread On Me' Flag". NPR. March 25, 2010. Archived from the original on December 6, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  37. ^ Walker, Rob (October 2, 2016). "The Shifting Symbolism of the Gadsden Flag". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on January 21, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  38. ^ Parkos, Jack (May 2, 2018). "History of the Gadsden Flag". 71Republic. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  39. ^ Shaloup, Dean (June 10, 2024). "Libertarians stage City Hall protest of mayor's decision against flying 'Pine Tree Flag'". UnionLeader.com. Archived from the original on September 19, 2024. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  40. ^ Rothbard, Murray (2009) [1970s]. The Betrayal of the American Right (PDF). Mises Institute. ISBN 978-1610165013. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 3, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2016. One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, 'our side,' had captured a crucial word from the enemy. 'Libertarians' had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over.
  41. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nettlau was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  42. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fernandez was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  43. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chomsky was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  44. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ward was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  45. ^ Cite error: The named reference Graham was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  46. ^ "Libertarian Party 2010 Platform". Libertarian Party. May 2010. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
  47. ^ Watts, Duncan (2006). Understanding American government and politics: a guide for A2 politics students (2nd Revised ed.). Manchester University Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-7190-7327-4.
  48. ^ "Platform". Libertarian Party. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  49. ^ "Eric Brakey: How libertarians can attain political power". Reason.com. July 10, 2024. Archived from the original on September 19, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  50. ^ "Black Market Activism : Agorism and Samuel Edward Konkin III". www.libertarianism.org. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2024.

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