Добавил:

Upload Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.

Вуз:

Университет имени Сулеймана Демиреля

Предмет:

[НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]

Файл:

Political Theories for Students

.pdf

Скачиваний:

137

Добавлен:

21.02.2016

Размер:

9.86 Mб

Скачать

☆

<<< < Предыдущая 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 / 4322 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 > Следующая >>>

L i b e r t a r i a n i s m

MAJOR WRITINGS:

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsMAJOR WRITINGS:

Eighty–six years after Locke explained the purpose of government, the second father of libertarianism, Adam Smith, explained the nature of markets in

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). According to Smith, free markets coordinated individual self–love and, through the division of labor, allowed for a harmony of interests to exist. Thus the butcher, brewer, and baker each had products for sale to Smith:

This division of labour, from which so many advantages are derived, is not originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and intends that general opulence to which it gives occasion. It is the necessary, though very slow and gradual, consequence of a certain propensity in human nature which has in view no such expensive utility; the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another....

In civilized society [man] stands at all times in need of the co–operation and assistance of great multitudes, while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons. In almost every other race of animals each individual, when it is grown up to maturity,

is entirely independent, and in its natural state has occasion for the assistance of no other living creature. But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self–love in his favour, and shew them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self–love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chuses to depend chiefly on the benevolence of his fellow–citizens. Even a beggar does not depend upon it entirely. The charity of well–disposed people, indeed, supplies him with the whole fund of his subsistence. But though this principle ultimately provides him with all the necessaries of life which he has occasion for, it neither does nor can provide him with them as he has occasion for them. The greater part of his occasional wants are supplied in the same manner as those of other people, by treaty, by barter, and by purchase.

limited constitutional government, and 5) a belief in social progress. John Gray broadened this description in Liberalism (1986) to include philosophies that demonstrate 1) individualism, 2) egalitarianism, and 3) universalism. In Liberalism Old and New (1991), J. G. Merquior argued that the theories of 1) human rights, 2) constitutionalism, and 3) classical econom- ics—in other words, free market positions such as that taken by Adam Smith—compose libertarian thought. David Boaz noted six ingredients for libertarianism in The Libertarian Reader (1997): 1) skepticism about power, 2) the dignity of the individual, 3) individual rights, 4) spontaneous order, 5) free markets, and 6) peace.

Although scholars have differed in the individual lists they have used to describe libertarianism, much consensus exists about the “big ideas” undergirding the tradition as a whole. First, libertarians

place an ethical emphasis on individuals as rights–bearers prior to the existence of any state, community, or society. This means that people have rights by virtue of the fact that they are people; no government grants these rights, and thus no government can take them away. Second, the libertarian tradition supports the right of property, and this, taken to its economic conclusion, leads to support of a free market system. From Adam Smith’s invisible hand to Friedrich Hayek’s spontaneous order, libertarian economists have described how the decentralized, private mechanism of the market creates the best outcomes for self–interested individuals as well as economies. Third, libertarians over the centuries have desired a limited constitutional government to protect individuals not only from other individuals, but also from the expansion of the state itself. Last, libertarianism proposes that these values—individu-

2 0 2

P o l i t i c a l

T h e o r i e s

f o r

S t u d e n t s

L i b e r t a r i a n i s m

BIOGRAPHY:

Friedrich A. Hayek

Born in Vienna, Austria in 1899, Friedrich August von Hayek studied law, psychology, and economics at the University of Vienna, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1923. He studied at New York University the following year and then returned to Austria to study with the eminent economist Ludwig von Mises. Mises was the most visible member of the Austrian School of Economics, which Carl Menger founded in 1871, and which became the longest–lived movement in libertarianism. Hayek’s prominence soon rose to challenge and even surpass that of Mises. From 1931 to 1950, Hayek served as the Took Professor of Economic Science and Statistics at the University of London. In 1947, he organized the Mount Pelerin Society, an ongoing international organization that met to discuss the principles and preservation of libertarianism. In 1950, Hayek became a Professor of Social and Moral Science at the University of Chicago; in 1962, he relocated to the University of Freiburg in Germany, where he taught economics until his retirement. Hayek became the first libertarian theorist to receive a Nobel Prize in 1974, when he received the honor for his work in Austrian economics.

During his long and productive career Hayek published many books and articles. He began with

Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle (1929) and The Pure Theory of Capital (1941), but gained greatest attention with his 1944 The Road to Serfdom, in which he argued that socialism inevitably leads to totalitarianism. In his 1952 Counter–Revolution of Science, he asserted that human unpredictability makes it impossible to apply the methodology of physical science to social studies, and he followed with ideas about the legal frameworks needed to maintain a free society in The Constitution of Liberty (1960) and Law, Legislation and Liberty (three volumes in 1973, 1976, and 1979). His last publication, The Fatal Conceit, appeared in 1988. Throughout his career, Hayek supported the view that the spontaneous order of the market remained the most efficient information system available to humanity; state intervention in the economy, he said, only creates misleading signals that lead to misallocation. Hayek’s work through publications, universities, and the Mount Pelerin Society made him the most recognizable member of the Austrian School of Economics, and one of the most celebrated representatives of libertarianism.

alism, property, limited government—work for all people in all times; they are global and ahistorical. Other, more specific policies follow from these ideas: nonviolence, in order to preserve life and maintain free trade; nonaggression, in deference to individual rights. Specific political platforms and activism campaigns springboard from these broader ideals.

What It Is Not

Though the ingredients of libertarianism appear to be very general, they do exclude certain thinkers commonly linked with Enlightenment or rights–based theory. Failure to embrace all of these values, however, does point to a very fundamental difference with the minds that compose the historical libertarianism. Two diverse cases of philosophers associated with but not belonging to the tradition serve as case studies. First, the British theorist Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) and

his fellow utilitarians supported certain individual rights and laissez–faire economics, as long as they produced the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Libertarian ends—rights and free markets— therefore served as convenient means to these thinkers, but the eventual ends they sought betrayed an intellectual collectivism incompatible with libertarianism’s individualism. “The why” in this case matters as much as “the what.” On the other hand, French philosopher Jean–Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who perhaps is known best for his theory of the social contract—an idea at first blush in harmony with libertarianism’s emphasis on constitutional government—believed in an almost mystic notion of “the general will.” The abstract nature of this idea created a power elite to interpret and impose this will, by force if necessary. The coercion and unaccountability connected to the implementation of Rousseau’s model put him and his theory outside of the libertarian framework.

P o l i t i c a l

T h e o r i e s

f o r

S t u d e n t s

2 0 3

L i b e r t a r i a n i s m

Differences Within the Movement

Beyond the key ideas of libertarian mentioned above, two parallel concepts survive throughout the history of the tradition. One rests on a negative view of human nature, accepting that all people are fallen and incapable of perfection. It follows from this perspective that power must be limited because, otherwise, some corrupt individuals could do even more harm than others. The second view maintains that all people inherently are good and perfectible. It follows from this position that power must be limited in order to allow humans to explore their potentials and evolve toward a more ideal order of self–government. In addition to these two philosophical positions remain the historical and religious contexts of thinkers and their times; libertarianism’s heritage includes arguments made from Protestant (John Locke), Catholic (Felicite Robert de Lamennais), and atheist (Ayn Rand) assumptions, among others.

Defining a tradition labeled with ever-changing names, derived from multiple centuries, and developed in different countries poses a challenge; indeed, if most of the luminaries of the tradition were brought back and questioned about libertarianism, they doubtless would not understand the question. Nevertheless, most would understand and adhere to the ideal of noncoercion and, in one form or another, its related facets: individualism, property, constitutionalism, and universalism. These values often lead libertarians to the same conclusions about the role of government (limited to the protection of rights, if government is needed at all), the role of the people (enjoy their rights while not infringing on others’ rights), and the control of distribution and production (all privatized and directed by the free market).

Due to its close relationship with the Enlighten- ment—or, perhaps more properly, Enlightenments— libertarianism benefited from the era’s remarkable communication and interdependence, at least in the West. Just as the fire of revolution swept Europe and America, each igniting another, often sharing leaders and literature in the process, libertarian theory gained from the dialogue of thinkers and ideas borne of a variety of homelands and backgrounds. Any single attempt to chronicle the past of libertarianism must by its very nature fall short of doing justice to the richness and complexity of the individuals and movements within it. National differences did leave their mark, however. Three distinct flavors coexist and often blend in libertarian political theory.

Historically, British, French, and German contributions to libertarianism each provided a variation on the theory’s theme. The British offered a realistic tradition of law. John Locke’s work built on the foun-

dation of the ancient constitution ideal; Adam Smith’s approach to markets carried a scientific thirst for patterns. Mechanisms of the social contract and the corresponding right of revolution evolved from this British sensibility. The French dialogue added a rationalistic tradition of humanism. Whereas many of the greatest British minds used scholarly works as vehicles for their messages, many of the most accomplished French philosophers used the novel or the play. English revolt remained preoccupied with the letter of the law, while French revolt also focused on symbolic speech and national pageantry as key vehicles for political statement. At the heart of the French Revolution, and libertarian thinkers, such as the Marquis de Condorcet, lay a faith in the progressive evolution of humanity. British thought often remained rooted in Protestant realism, but French intellectuals often embraced a more agnostic or atheistic sensibility with reason as a secular god.

Beyond the realistic British tradition of law and the rational French tradition of humanism rested the organic German tradition of individualism. More than its counterparts, this strain of libertarianism came from an aesthetic viewpoint. Though the Austrian School’s understanding of spontaneous order was colored by a German sensibility, the best example of this individualism remains Wilhelm von Humboldt. Humboldt’s The Limits of State Action, published posthumously in 1851, proposed that the individual’s highest purpose was bildung, or self-cultivation. In order to meet his or her potential, according to Humboldt, each person must possess freedom and a variety of experiences. The state, then, should act only as a “nightwatchman” by reacting to trespasses but not interfering proactively. Humboldt’s belief in the cultivation of the self and the potential of human flourishing typified the Romantic German strain of libertarianism.

The three varieties of the libertarian tradition evolved in their own historical, political, and social contexts. In his 1986 work Liberalism, John Gray characterized these views as competing yet complementary definitions of liberty, with Britain representing independence, France self–rule, and Germany self–realiza- tion. All three remain inextricably woven into the fabric of the tradition, at times blending in the thought of a given movement or individual, at other times diverging into separate patterns across years and miles.

THEORY IN ACTION

No single thinker better illustrates the intersection of British, French, and German flavors of libertarian-

2 0 4

P o l i t i c a l

T h e o r i e s

f o r

S t u d e n t s

L i b e r t a r i a n i s m

ism than John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). The son of James Mill, a utilitarian philosopher and the author of the first English textbook of economics, John Stuart Mill was heavily influenced by the “greatest happiness for the greatest number” calculus of his father’s utilitarian thought. He also studied extensively on his own, reading Greek and Latin classics as well as free market economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. His intensive scholarly pursuits, added to the tensions he found between individualism and utilitarianism, led him to suffer a nervous breakdown in his early twenties. After recovering he undertook the private task of developing a more libertarian utilitarianism to resolve the problems he observed.

Mill’s most celebrated writings—On Liberty

(1861), Considerations on Representative Government (1861), and Utilitarianism (1863)—represented a crossroads of British, French, and German strains of thought. Mill drew upon the English libertarian tradition by warning against the tyranny of opinion that silences voices in the dialogue of ideas and calling for a kind of intellectual toleration of others’ views. Mill called forth the French tradition of self–rule to propose an ethical sphere of privacy for each individual, a space that the state and the majority cannot touch. Neither toleration nor privacy sat easily with the traditional utilitarian plan to impose the system producing the most good for the most people.

Most significantly, Mill revised the standard “greatest happiness for the greatest number” equation that formed the bedrock of utilitarianism; to do this, he relied on the German tradition in general and Humboldt’s aesthetic individualism in particular. With Humboldt’s exhortation to pursue self–cultivation in mind, Mill altered the equation to include the quality of happiness as well as the quantity in judging utility, with those higher pleasures of self–realization ranking highest in quality. Mill’s attempt to reform and repair utilitarianism led him to fuse the diverse strains of libertarian thought. Tensions remained—When could privacy be invaded? Who judged the quality of happiness?—and eventually led him to a pessimistic view of society and its options. Nonetheless, he continued to believe that individuals made the best decisions concerning themselves and the general welfare when acting alone or in voluntary associations—in other words, without governmental interference. The three forms of libertarian thought, at times competing with each other and at times complementing each other, united in Mill’s work and continue to remain joined in the libertarian tradition.

After Mill, international movements such as the Austrian School and Chicago School in economics, the Objectivist movement in philosophy, and the Pub-

lic Choice School in economics and public policy have put libertarian ideas into practice through their scholarship, theory, fiction, and policy analysis. All four of these movements remain active with formal institutions and continued publication in the twenty–first century.

Others, however, looked to put libertarian ideas into practice through less scholarly, more political means. In the United States, for example, some self–proclaimed libertarians sought and won office through the tradition two–party system. Perhaps the most obvious example is self–proclaimed libertarian Ron Paul (1935– ), the long–time Republican Congressman from Texas, whose voting record reflects the position of many libertarian activists on a variety of national issues.

Despite the success of some Republicans, Democrats, and Independents of libertarian persuasion who sought public office in the United States, others believed that the political theory required its own party in order to offer a separate message and alternative values to the nation’s public. On December 11, 1971, a small gathering in the Colorado home of activist David Nolan became the first meeting of the Libertarian Party. The party soon made history. In 1972, the party’s first national convention nominated University of Southern California Professor of Philosophy John Hospers (1918– ) for its presidential candidate. Tonie Nathan (1928– ) received the party’s nomination for vice president; she then became the first woman in U.S. history to receive a vote from the Electoral College.

The party gained new political ground, it seemed, with each major election. By 1976, Libertarian presidential and vice presidential candidates Roger MacBride and David Bergland achieved ballot status in thirty–two states and received over 170,000 votes. In 1978, Ed Clark (1926– ) ran as a Libertarian party member in the race for Governor of California and received five percent of the vote; in the same year, Alaska’s Dick Randolph became the first Libertarian elected to a state legislature.

The Libertarian party truly gained widespread national attention for the first time in 1979, when it earned permanent ballot status in California after over 80,000 voters registered as Libertarians. The next year, Libertarian presidential and vice presidential candidates Ed Clark and David Koch appeared on the ballot in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Guam. For the first time, national advertisements ran to introduce U.S. voters to the Libertarian Party and its platform. The Clark/Koch ticket received almost one million votes in the election.

P o l i t i c a l

T h e o r i e s

f o r

S t u d e n t s

2 0 5

(AP/World Wide Photos)

L i b e r t a r i a n i s m

BIOGRAPHY:

Russell Means

Libertarianism has influenced not only scholarship, policy, and art, but it also has contributed to activist movements. Few public figures represent this side of the libertarian tradition as well as Russell Means. Means was born an Oglala/Lakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near the U.S. Black Hills. In the 1960s he began to work for Native American self–determination and individual rights. He became the first national director of the American Indian Movement, a group organized to promote American Indian sovereignty and protest rights abuses, and worked for over a decade with the United Nations. His concern for individual liberty and the limitation of government power led him to embrace libertarianism publicly. In 1988, Means ran for the nomination of the Libertarian Party as candidate for U.S. President.

Russell Means mastered several media in the interest of sharing his libertarian message. He starred in several commercial films including Last of the Mohicans (1991) and Pocahontas (1995), produced albums of political protest music, and penned his autobiography, Where White Men Fear To Tread (1995). He remains best known as an orator and activist who thrives on symbolic speech—he stormed Mount Rushmore, occupied Plymouth Rock, and led a seventy–one day takeover of Alcatraz to gain attention for his cause. By tapping into Native American individualism and bringing his heritage to bear on the Libertarian Party, Means underscored the fact that the libertarian tradition can apply to more than just the white mainstream.

By 1982, Libertarians had achieved political visibility at the state level. For example, Louisiana candidate for governor James Agnew earned twenty–three percent of the vote, while Alaska gubernatorial candidate Dick Randolph took fifteen percent and Arizona gubernatorial candidate Sam Steiger won five percent. Two years later, the David Bergland/Jim Lewis ticket brought the Libertarian party into third place—a Libertarian first—for the White House. Also in 1984, Alaska elected its third Libertarian state legislator. Eleven other Libertarians won local offices

Russell Means, standing in front of a statue of a Native American.

across the nation. By 1986, over two hundred Libertarian candidates across the United States received a total of 2.9 million votes.

Republican U.S. Congressman Ron Paul left his party to run for president as a Libertarian in 1988. Over 430,000 million citizens voted for him and his running mate, Andre Marrou, giving the Libertarian party almost twice the votes of any other third party. Though Paul later returned to the Republican party, he never renounced his libertarian perspective. Approximately two million voters cast ballots for Libertarian candidates in 1990; that number nearly doubled in 1992, counting only state and federal races. The twenty–three Libertarian candidates for U.S. Senate won over one million votes, making the 1992 vote total the highest for a third party since 1914. Once again, the Libertarian presidential ticket remained on the ballots of all fifty states as well as those of Washington, D.C. and Guam.

The party broke more U.S. national records in 1996, when it became the first third party in the country’s history to earn ballot status in all fifty states in two presidential elections in a row. Presidential nominee Harry Browne earned almost 500,000 votes, while nearly eight hundred state and federal Libertarian candidates won a total of 5.4 million votes. Public intellectuals and celebrities such as African–Amer-

2 0 6

P o l i t i c a l

T h e o r i e s

f o r

S t u d e n t s

L i b e r t a r i a n i s m

ican civil rights leader Roy Innis (1934– ) and talk radio personality Art Bell (1945– ) publically embraced the party and its platform, as well, adding to the visibility of the party.

In the year 2000, Libertarian candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives alone took 1.6 million votes, yet another national record for any U.S. third party. The year 2000 was also the first time in eight decades that a third party had contested a majority of the seats in the U.S. congress. In fact, 1,430 Libertarian candidates ran in the 2000 election, a number more than twice that of all other third party candidates together. In 2001, more than three hundred Libertarians held elective office, which is more than double the number of all other third–party officials combined. The numbers reveal the Libertarian party to be the largest, most long–lived, and most successful third party in the United States.

The Libertarian party platform achieved a certain stability across the years. The party’s principles echo those of the theory on which it is based: liberty, individual rights, and the ability to pursue one’s goals peacefully, without governmental interference. The Libertarian party platform has applied these principles to support a limited government designed to protect individual rights, a state with little or no involvement in the social or economic spheres of individuals’ lives or on the international stage beyond the establishment and protection of free trade. Many of the party’s positions might sound familiar either to Republicans—lower taxation, privatization of government agencies, and school choice—or to Democrats—pro–choice regarding abortion, anti–censorship regarding the First Amendment, and equal rights for gay and lesbian couples.

Other positions seem more unusual; for example, the Libertarian party supports the legalization of drug use and prostitution, as well as the right to die. Some who identify with libertarian political theory choose to remain aloof from the party because it tends to follow ideas to their consistent conclusions, even if the resulting policy seems extreme or idealistic. These libertarians prefer to work for small changes from within the major two parties, believing that incremental accomplishments will in the long run add up to more than great changes that never found implementation. Even at the party level, libertarianism remains caught in the chasm between how things are and what is feasible, and how things could be and what is ideal.

Libertarianism has found adherents across the globe, as well, particularly through movements such as the Austrian School of Economics that unify the work of economists the world over who share the same convictions. The consistent growth and accomplish-

ment of the U.S. Libertarian party, however, despite its controversy among some libertarians, is one of the success stories of the twentieth century.

ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL RESPONSE

Over the centuries, and especially in its time of decline in the early twentieth century, libertarianism faced criticism from some theorists and laypersons alike; even in its reemergence in the late twentieth and early twenty–first century, the theory never commanded a majority of adherents the Western mainstream. As one would expect, some critiques of the tradition reflect more insight than others.

Critiques

Libertinism A common and easily answered challenge to the tradition is the concern that libertarianism, in effect, is little more than libertinism in sophisticated trappings; in other words, the theory uses the rhetoric of philosophy to justify the worst excesses and self–indulgences of sensual license. Liberty for individual choice, these critics argue, is little more than permission to feed every appetite—be it drugs, obscenity, promiscuity, or other “vices”—without accountability to a higher law.

Libertarians respond to this concern in two ways. First, if people are free to make decisions concerning their lives, they are as free to choose not to do something as they are to do it. No one forces people to make “wrong” choices. For example, alcohol and tobacco are legal in the United States, yet many U.S. citizens choose not to drink or smoke. No one is forced to do so; moreover, in the libertarian framework, individual decision–makers would be responsible for the consequences of their actions, good or bad—this accountability is the direct opposite of libertinism’s license. Second, libertarianism does not deny the call of a higher law: it simply proposes that governments should not necessarily coerce individuals to follow it. Many libertarian thinkers also published and spoke in order to practice moral persuasion, to convince individuals that their view of the good was the one to adopt. Religious, community, and other voluntary associations would be free to pursue their idea of the right way to live and try to persuade others to follow their example. They would not, however, have access to the monopolistic power of the state to enforce their conception of the virtuous life on others. In short, libertarians explain that individualism is not an excuse for vice; instead, it is a call for noncoercion.

P o l i t i c a l

T h e o r i e s

f o r

S t u d e n t s

2 0 7

L i b e r t a r i a n i s m

Individualism leading to atomism A second critique with a similar appeal to morality suggests that libertarianism’s focus on individualism leads to atomism. In other words, individuals lose all sense of community and instead lead isolated, empty lives driven by nothing but selfishness. Once again, the libertarian answer is twofold. First, defenders would say, individual choice means just that: individuals might choose to value empty materialism and self–involvement, but individuals might also choose to connect to other individuals in meaningful and enriching ways. No particular outcome follows just because people are not coerced into leading the same kind of lifestyle.

An even more compelling response, however, is that critics use a primitive and two–dimensional understanding of community when they seek centralized planning and forced membership, or believe some ideal form of community somehow existed before the individuals who composed it. Life and its relationships, the argument continues, are too complex to be built by coercion. Individuals who enjoy the liberty to be creative and innovative in the ways they relate to one another create true communities spontaneously. Individualism is not the death of community, libertarians explain—in fact, it is often the recipe for more unexpected, diverse, and fulfilling communities than those previously imagined.

Liberty vs. stability Critics also claim that libertarianism overestimates the value people place on liberty as opposed to other options such as stability, equality, or virtue. Is it better to be free, or secure? Or equal? Or good? The libertarian response is rather simple: in the framework of individual rights, people could choose to value any measure of the good they wish. They are not forced to be free. If, for example, they wish to follow a certain code of virtue, form communities with those of like minds, and try to encourage others to do the same, they may. The only limitation is that they may not harness the authority of the state to enforce their value on everyone else. Of course, one might argue that this response still maintains liberty as the primary value.

Market failure Beyond moral concerns rest economic ones. A trio of economic critiques of libertarianism draws responses of variable usefulness. First, some opponents believe that libertarianism’s emphasis on free markets ignores the so–called “market failure” problem of externalities, or spillover effects, which occur when people uninvolved in an exchange are harmed or benefited by that exchange. These effects might be desirable or unwanted. For example, universal educa-

tion produces a positive externality; even if an individual does not have a child to be educated, he or she reaps the benefit of living in a society where laws and elections are determined by an educated citizenry. In an extreme libertarian framework, public education might not exist. Pollution exemplifies a negative externality with dispersed effect. Everyone might be hurt a small amount by air pollution, but costs are too high for any one individual, for instance, to sue every industry in the nation for damages. The result is that everyone suffers a very small amount from pollution, but no one does anything about it.

Libertarians admit that the problem of externalities exists in a completely free market situation. They respond that these small effects—if there were large, concentrated effects on any one person, damages could be sought through legal means—are a price of living in a free society, in the same way that the cost of free speech is that we must tolerate some indecent speech in the process. Furthermore, the argument continues, the cost of eliminating externalities by government means would exceed the cost of living with the externalities due to the government failures of efficiency. Some libertarians admit that there might be a role for government in correcting the externality problem, however. These theorists stress that solutions must strive to mirror the market through choice and competition as much as possible. School vouchers, allowing parents choice and allowing schools to compete, or housing vouchers, allowing low–income families to seek their best options for homes, for example, would be a preferable initiative than public schools or government housing projects.

Stratification of wealth A second problem with markets, critics claim, is that they promote stratification of wealth—or, to use a catchphrase, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” The libertarian response contains two parts. First, the argument goes, the stratification of a pure market system would not be as extreme as it is in mixed systems like that in the United States that include government regulation and interference in the economy; stratification is more the product of rent-seeking, or using power and influence to lobby for government protectionism and favoritism, than of profit-seeking. Even so, the libertarian reasoning continues, it would be better for some people to live in relative poverty created by stratification than for everyone to live in absolute poverty due to the inherent miscalculations of planned economies as seen, for example, in the former Soviet Union. As with the issue of externalities, the libertarian position seems in part to be one of taking the lesser of two evils.

2 0 8

P o l i t i c a l

T h e o r i e s

f o r

S t u d e n t s

L i b e r t a r i a n i s m

Role of corporations A third economic criticism of libertarianism is that the tradition’s focus on free markets is naïve, for it overlooks the fact that other institutions besides the government—such as, for example, corporations—also represent centralized power over individuals. Some libertarians counter that corporations have reached their current strength in part due to the state. Governments are lobbied by corporations and in turn give them legal and financial special treatment; moreover, the regulatory boards set up by governments to oversee corporate behavior often are co–opted by insiders who lobby for positions of power—in effect, the watchers are watching themselves. Other libertarians counter that the tradition’s support of decentralization would lead not to undoing markets to solve this problem, but rather to redoing the corporate structure that has evolved over the last century. The classic retort to this critique, however, is that corporations, though powerful, cannot do what governments do. Only states hold the monopoly on coercion.

Enforcement The most successful argument against libertarianism is the question of enforcement. Who makes everyone play by the rules in the absence of coercion? Peace and free trade might work well as long as all nations agree to be peaceful traders, but what happens when one nation attacks another? How can the rogue nation be made to “play fair,” except by coercion, perhaps even violence? Libertarians differ on their response to this question. Though many support a noninterventionist foreign policy, they also maintain the right of a nation to defend itself. The question remains, however, at what point does self–de- fense begin? May a country strike preemptively at a potential threat, or must it wait until it suffers harm? This question also applies to internal matters within communities.

At day’s end, the value of libertarianism remains tied to our understanding of the human condition. Are individuals capable of the demands of a libertarian world?

Criticisms aside, the libertarian tradition has much to recommend it: a long and varied past, a tradition of toleration and diversity, and broad principles that leave it open to adaptation and innovation. As a political movement, the theory has consistency on its side. In the United States, for example, the Democratic Party calls for freedom in the social sphere but government regulation in the economic one, and the Republican Party calls for freedom in the economic sphere but government regulation in the social one. The Libertarian Party continues to add members thanks to its consistent view of governmental nonin-

terference in either sphere of life. As a theory, libertarianism has reaped impressive fruits, including multiple, productive movements and methodologies, and more than one Nobel Prize. Perhaps most importantly, the by–products of the libertarian theory speak for themselves. For example, the tradition’s emphasis on individual rights helped to create a number of move- ments—abolitionism, feminism, and civil rights among them—that offer the theory impressive character references. One thing is certain: with centuries under its belt and a reemergence to welcome the new millennium, libertarianism remains a living and relevant political theory.

TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY

•Consider the issue of an involuntary military draft. In what different ways might a libertarian criticize this policy?

•Read the political platforms of the two major political parties in the United States. Which of the two might be more likely to integrate libertarian ideas into its policy agendas? Why?

•If a libertarian were able to create his or her ideal libertarian society, what would it look like? Could it function effectively? Why or why not?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sources

Barry, Norman. On Classical Liberalism and Libertarianism. New York: St. Martin’s, 1987.

Bergland, David. Libertarianism in One Lesson. 6th Edition. Costa Mesa, CA: Orpheus Publications, 1993.

Boaz, David, ed. The Libertarian Reader. New York: The Free Press, 1997.

Boaz, David. Libertarianism: A Primer. New York: The Free Press, 1997.

Bramstead, E. K. and K, J. Melhuish, ed. Western Liberalism: A History in Documents from Locke to Croce. London: Longman, 1978.

Buchanan, James and Gordon Tullock. The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1962.

Gray, John. Liberalism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota

Press, 1986.

The Libertarian Party. Available at http://lp.org.

Merquior, J. G. Liberalism Old and New. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991.

P o l i t i c a l

T h e o r i e s

f o r

S t u d e n t s

2 0 9

L i b e r t a r i a n i s m

Narveson, Jan. The Libertarian Idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.

Rand, Ayn. For The New Intellectual. New York: Signet, 1961.

Sturgis, Amy H. “The Rise, Decline, and Reemergence of Classical Liberalism.” Great Thinkers in Classical Liberalism: The LockeSmith Review, Volume I. Amy H. Sturgis, Nathan D. Griffith, Melissa English, Joshua B. Johnson, and Kevin D. Weimer, eds. Nashville: The LockeSmith Institute, 1994: 20–56.