Main article: Libertarianism and Objectivism

Libertarianism's status is in dispute among those who style themselves Objectivists (Objectivism is the name philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand gave her philosophy). Though elements of Rand's philosophy have been adopted by libertarianism, Objectivists (including Rand herself) have condemned libertarianism as a threat to freedom and capitalism. In particular, it has been claimed that libertarians use Objectivist ideas "with the teeth pulled out of them".^[41][42]

Conversely, some libertarians see Objectivists as dogmatic, unrealistic, and uncompromising (Objectivists do not see the latter as a negative attribute). According to Reason editor Nick Gillespie in the magazine's March 2005 issue focusing on Objectivism's influence, Rand is "one of the most important figures in the libertarian movement... Rand remains one of the best-selling and most widely influential figures in American thought and culture" in general and in libertarianism in particular. Still, he confesses that he is embarrassed by his magazine's association with her ideas. In the same issue, Cathy Young says that "Libertarianism, the movement most closely connected to Rand's ideas, is less an offspring than a rebel stepchild." Though they reject what they see as Randian dogmas, libertarians like Young still believe that "Rand's message of reason and liberty... could be a rallying point" for libertarianism.

Objectivists reject the oft-heard libertarian refrain that State and government are "necessary evils": for them, a government limited to protection of its citizens' rights is absolutely necessary and moral. Objectivists are opposed to all anarchist currents and are suspicious of libertarians' lineage with individualist anarchism.^[43]

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The libertarian movement

Main article: Libertarian movement

The Libertarian Program is an international project to define and document key current and potential voluntary replacements of government programs.

Some, such as David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian U.S. think tank, the Cato Institute, argue that the term classical liberalism should be reserved for early liberal thinkers for the sake of clarity and accuracy, and because of differences between many libertarian and classical liberal thinkers. Nevertheless, the Cato Institute's official stance is that classical liberalism and libertarianism are synonymous; they prefer the term liberal to describe themselves, but choose not to use it because of its confusing connotation in some English-speaking countries (where most self-described liberals prefer a mixed economy rather than a free-market economy). The Cato Institute dislikes adding classical because, in their view, "the word classical connotes a backward-looking philosophy". Thus, they finally settle on libertarian, as it avoids backward implications and confused definitions.^{[citation needed]}

Libertarians and their allies are not a homogeneous group, but have collaborated to form think tanks, political parties, and other projects. For example, Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard co-founded the John Randolph Club, the Center for Libertarian Studies, and the Cato Institute to support an independent libertarian movement, and joined David Nolan in founding the Libertarian Party of the United States in 1971. (Rothbard ceased activity with the Libertarian Party in 1989, and some of his followers like Lew Rockwell are hostile to the group.) In the U.S. today, some libertarians support the Libertarian Party, some support no party, and some attempt to work within more powerful parties despite their differences. The Republican Liberty Caucus (a wing of the Republican Party) promotes libertarian views.

Costa Rica's Movimiento Libertario (Libertarian Movement) is a prominent, non-U.S. libertarian party which holds roughly 10% of the seats in Costa Rica's national assembly (legislature). The Movimiento Libertario is considered the first libertarian organization to achieve substantial electoral success at the national level, though not without controversy. For example, Rigoberto Stewart, co-founder of the party and founder of the Limón REAL Project^[44] for autonomy in a province in Costa Rica, and director of INLAP^[45], a libertarian think tank, lost his influence within Movimiento Libertario and support for the Limón REAL Project. As perhaps explained by Public Choice Theory, while accepting money from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a German liberal foundation, the party compromised on their libertarian principles in return for more power, turning to anti-libertarian positions.^[46]

There are other Libertarian parties that have had various amounts of success throughout the world. Libertarianism is emerging in France with the inception of Liberté chérie (Cherished Liberty), a think tank and activist association that has 2,000 members. Liberté chérie gained significant publicity when it managed to draw 80,000 Parisians into the streets to demonstrate against government employees who were striking.^{[citation needed]}

In the United Kingdom, the Libertarian Alliance was founded in 1977 as a non-partisan libertarian group and free market think tanks such as the Adam Smith Institute^[47] have espoused libertarian principles. The United Kingdom Independence Party is currently the largest Libertarian party in the United Kingdom.

In Germany a Libertäre Plattform in der FDP (Liberty Caucus within the Free Democratic Party) was founded in 2005.

In 2001, the Free State Project was founded by Jason Sorens, a political scientist and libertarian activist who argued that 20,000 libertarians should migrate to a single U.S. state in order to concentrate their activism. In August 2003, the membership of the Free State Project chose New Hampshire because of its friendliness to libertarian causes (note the state motto: Live Free or Die), limited government, citizen legislature (paid only $100 per year) and history of political activism. Despite the lower than expected rate of growth, the Free State Project has seen moderate success. They saw their first member elected to the New Hampshire legislature in 2006 and successfully completed the "First 1000" pledge in 2005, which signed up 1,033 people to move to New Hampshire by 2008. Some of the original Free Staters (about 1,000) were discontented with the choice of New Hampshire. Some have started rival projects, including the Free West Alliance, Free State Wyoming and North to the Future, a project for a Free Alaskan Nation, to concentrate activism in a different state or region. There is also a European Free State Project.

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Libertarianism in the United States

Libertarians may differ over particular issues, such as abortion and the United States' ongoing presence in Iraq.^[48] The fact that libertarians are often diametrically opposed on so many issues lead to frequent condemnation of the philosophy by many, including those who hold similar thoughts. ^[49]

In the United States, libertarianism is claimed to be the philosophy advocated by Thomas Jefferson and several of the Founding Fathers.^[50] Libertarianism is often being bundled with American conservatism, due to many conservatives wishing to retain the ideas of the Founders of the United States. On the other hand, many conservatives are uncomfortable with libertarianism,^[51] while a few conservative Republicans, such as United States congressman Ron Paul, maintain viewpoints sympathetic to libertarian philosophy. Furthermore, the fortieth President of the United States, Ronald Reagan who said he believed that "the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism."^[52] The term "libertarian" is used to describe adherents to libertarian principles, and not necessarily to members of Libertarian political parties, who are distinguished with a capital "L". As in all political parties, not all libertarians agree with the platform of any given Libertarian party. Libertarians who support limited government use the term "classical liberalism" almost interchangeably with the term "libertarianism."^[53]

Polls, in 2007, indicate that 10 to 20 percent of voting-age Americans have libertarian views, with "libertarian" being understood as agreeing with conservatives on economic issues and with liberals on personal freedom.^[54][55]

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Libertarian politics

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

See also: Controversies within libertarianism

The main organized expression of libertarian politics in the United States has been the Libertarian Party since its founding. However, some libertarians have decided it is more effective to disseminate their ideas through think tanks like the Cato Institute.

In the United Kingdom, a similar Libertarian Party was founded on January 1st, 2008. Prior to this, the primary British expression of libertarian politics was through the Libertarian Alliance and think tanks such as the Adam Smith Institute.

Libertarianism is often portrayed as right-wing by non-libertarians in the United States. Under the concept of fusionism, it was proposed that American libertarians ally themselves with traditional conservatives, with whom they have historically had more in common than they do with American liberals, particularly with regard to economic and gun control policies. Such an alliance can be seen in uniting of libertarian and conservative lawyers in the Federalist Society. Others however, call for an alliance between libertarians and civil libertarians in the Democratic party. Many describe libertarians as being "conservative" on economic issues and "liberal" on social issues, so they can find allies in both of the two main parties while remaining distinct from both, especially on the use of state power to solve perceived problems, and constitutional compliance.^{[citation needed]}

A historical example of libertarian politics would be discrimination in the workplace. Libertarians could be expected to oppose any laws on this matter because these would infringe on the property rights or freedoms of either the business owner or the just-hired employee. In other words, one should be free to discriminate against others in their personal or business dealings (within the constraints of principal–agency agreements); one should be free to choose where they accept work, or to start one's own business in accordance with their personal beliefs and prejudices; and one should be free to lead a boycott or publicity campaign against businesses with whose policies they disagree.^{[citation needed]}

While the traditional political spectrum is a line, the Nolan chart is a plane, situating libertarianism in a wider gamut of political thought.

In a more current example, conservatives are likely to support a ban on same-sex marriage in the interests of preserving traditional order, while liberals are likely to favor allowing same-sex marriage in the interest of guaranteeing equality under the law. Libertarians are likely to disagree with the notion of government-sanctioned marriage itself. Specifically, they would deny that the government deserves any role in marriage other than enforcing whatever legal contract people choose to enter, and to oppose the various additional rights currently granted to married people (married couples could make the property pool in their own contract).

Instead of a "left–right" spectrum, some libertarians use a two-dimensional space, with Personal Freedom on one axis and Economic Freedom on the other, which is called the Nolan chart. Named after David Nolan, who designed the chart and also founded the United States Libertarian Party, the chart is similar to a sociopolitical test used to place individuals by the Advocates for Self Government. A first approximation of libertarian politics (derived from these charts) is that they agree with liberals on social issues and with conservatives on economic issues. Thus, the traditional linear scale of governmental philosophy could be represented inside the chart stretching from the upper left corner to the lower right, while the degree of state control is represented linearly from the lower left to the upper right.^[56][57]

Libertarians have tended to unite with constitutionalists in calling for strict construction of the U.S. Constitution, which they expect would vastly reduce the size and intrusiveness of government.

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See also

Look up libertarian in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Americans for Limited Government
• Australian Libertarian Society
• Cato Institute
• Christian anarchism
• Constitutionalism
• Criticism of libertarianism
• Criticisms of the War on Terrorism
• Criticism of fractional-reserve banking
• Free Talk Live
• Laissez Faire Books
• Liberation
• Liberator Online
• Liberism
• Libertarian Management
• Libertarianz
• Libertarian Party
• Libertarian transhumanism
• Liberty
• Liberty Magazine
• List of libertarian political parties
• Progressive libertarianism
• Right-libertarianism
• Ron Paul
• Society for Individual Freedom
• South Park Republican
• The Freeman
• List of liberal theorists

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References

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Bibliography

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External links

• Libertarian wiki
• "What is Libertarian?" by the Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University
• Libertarianism entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Libertarianism entry at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Libertarianism.com by the Advocates for Self-Government
• Libertarian FAQ from USENET, last modified 11 May 1998
• Society: Politics: Liberalism: Libertarianism at the Open Directory Project

The content of this section may be in violation of Wikipedia's Manual of Style and needs to be integrated into the body of the article. Lists of external links should be converted into in-text citations where possible.

• Freedom Fighters, City Journal review of Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement
• "The Philosophy of Liberty" (Flash) at the International Society for Individual Liberty
• "a libertarian Democrat manifesto" by former DNC press secretary Terry Michael, July 2006
• "The Old School Conservatives" A grassroots Libertarian activist group.
• Libertarian Celebrities and VIPs
• Comprehensive Listing of Notable Libertarians
• Critiques from Critiques of Libertarianism.
• Are Libertarians "Anarchists"? - Article by Murray N. Rothbard
• Liberalati Magazine

Political parties and organizations

• Libertarian National Committee / Libertarian Party (U.S.)
• Democratic Freedom Caucus (U.S.)
• Republican Liberty Caucus (U.S.)
• Australian Libertarian Society
• The Libertarian Alliance (UK)
• The UK Libertarian Party
• Association of Libertarian Feminists

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