The Libertarian Tradition: An Overview |
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The purpose of the following pages is to give very brief introductions to themes or concepts related to the classical liberal/libertarian tradition and then point the reader to other books or online resources that can help him or her explore the concept. There is not one, single classical liberal or libertarian tradition with a single answer to an intellectual problem or a policy question. Classical Liberals and Libertarians disagree amongst themselves about a great many difficult issues. Those ongoing debates are invigorating, but make it hard to answer the question, "what is libertarianism?" in a single paragraph or, even, book. Classical Liberals and Libertarians, however, do generally agree on a number of core concepts that I'll introduce below. If you have a question, clarification, or think IHS has misstated a view here, please, by all means, email me. Finally, if you're already familiar with the Classical Liberal or Libertarian tradition, you should check out Tom Palmer's excellent "Literature of Liberty," originally published as an appendix to David Boaz's The Libertarian Primer. While they hold many different views about the proper role of government in society, the extent to which free markets can provide for human welfare, and the solution to many current economic and social problems, libertarians and classical liberals share a presumption in favor of liberty.At its most basic level, the libertarian tradition emphasizes peaceful, voluntary, and honest cooperation among people. That principle of a society founded on voluntary cooperation might not seem very radical. However, much of human history has been the story of oppression, violence, and coercion. The idea that human beings ought to be free to pursue their own dreams, desires, wishes, and projects has only emerged fairly recently - in the last two centuries or so. Even today throughout much of the world human beings face injustices and oppression. The idea that coercion ought to be avoided - an important part of the libertarian tradition - applies to government as well. The libertarian or classical liberal tradition argues that, in general, government ought not to interfere with the voluntary interactions and exchanges among peaceful people. Why does the libertarian tradition emphasize individual freedom? What about other social values, such as equality and security? Where does libertarian tradition come from? How does the libertarian perspective useful to understand contemporary public policy issues? These are difficult questions - questions on which many people who consider themselves libertarian or classical liberal disagree. History of the Libertarian Tradition The history of liberty is brief. Most of history is littered with dictators, kings, wars, and societies torn apart by ethnic, religious and racial conflicts. But in the past few hundred years the ideas of liberty - particularly the idea that humans ought to be able to lead their lives as they see fit so long as they don't harm others - have had a tremendous impact on political and social institutions. While liberty as an idea has a relatively short history, the main threads of the classical liberal or libertarian tradition can be traced back to the foundational texts of Western civilization. For instance, the Hebrews and Greeks each developed the idea of a higher law, a law to which everyone, including the ruler, is accountable. This simple idea that the will of the ruler is not the ultimate source of authority helped lay the groundwork for a pluralist society, the flowering of individualism, and eventually the scientific and economic miracles of Western civilization (see David Boaz, The Libertarian Reader, Free Press, 1997). Ideas of individual liberty and of equality under the law are not exclusive to Western civilization. The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu, for instance, wrote about the problems posed by the centralization of power in a single ruler. But it would be ahistorical to call ancient thinkers "libertarian" or "classical liberal". The ideas they developed, however, combined with historical developments in Europe over the next two millennia led to the emergence of liberalism in the 17th century. Liberalism first emerged in a consistent form as a response to absolutism (the belief that kings were divinely ordained rulers). John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1690) set forth a philosophical justification for liberty, property, and a government based on consent. The American Founding Fathers The American Revolution and the founding of the United States of America were a significant events in the history of liberty and the Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents articulating a classical liberal perspective. Indeed, many of the Founders of the new American republic, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and George Washington held perspectives shaped by the Locke's philosophy of individualism. The Founders not only risked their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" by declaring their independence from a tyrannical government, but they had the wisdom to place explicit limits on their new government's power through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Classical Liberal Tradition's Thinkers Why has freedom blossomed in the last few hundred years? Libertarian or Classical Liberal ideas (e.g., individual liberty, constitutionally-limited government, the rule of law, private property, and free markets) were for a long time called by another name: liberalism. The term liberalism is still used more or less in this "classical" sense by Europeans and others around the world, but in North America it is now commonly used to describe people who advocate a much more expansive role for government. So, who were the original liberals? Many of them were scholars and thinkers from the Enlightenment period in European history (roughly 1600-1800 A.D.). A few notables include John Locke, David Hume, Voltaire, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Adam Smith. In the 18th and 19th centuries, liberalism was advanced by people such as many of the founders of the United States, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and others like the British philosopher John Stuart Mill, the American abolitionist Lysander Spooner, the British author Lord Acton, the American individualist Henry David Thoreau, the French economist Frederic Bastiat, and the French political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville. Respect for the Individual The libertarian or classical liberal has at its core a number of important ideas that are themselves part of the larger liberal tradition. Central among those ideas is the concept that the individual has a special moral status and that others - alone, in groups, or in the form of the government - may not deprive an individual of her liberty except in exceptional circumstances. Some classical liberals - like John Locke or Robert Nozick - argue that human beings have rights either granted to them by God (in Locke's case) or by virtue of their status as thinking beings with interests and desires. Other classical liberals - like John Stuart Mill or many modern economists - are utilitarians who believe that the individual's autonomy and choices ought to be respected because only by respecting such choices and autonomy do we create a society that advances happiness or human welfare. Still other classical liberals or libertarians argue that society ought to respect individuals because of a "social contract." Social Contract Theorists argue that in a pre-society, were we to ask each other how we ought to live together, people would agree to abide by a set of rules that respect individuals and their autonomy. This social contract, they argue, helps set the rules by which we interact with each other. There are, of course, still other ways to think about the concept of individualism and many different justifications (as well as criticisms) of the idea of individual liberty. And while classical liberals may agree on the importance of individualism, they often disagree on the ways in which the individual ought to be respected in practice. Finally, and this is important, while the classical liberal and libertarians emphasize individualism, they don't mean to say that communities and groups are not important. Libertarians and classical emphasize the importance of the individual precisely because they argue that respect for the individual allows people to come together voluntarily in communities, schools, churches, civic associations, clubs, and so forth. Related Links Robert Nozick (Contemporary Philosophy in Focus) |
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