Libertarianism

:This article is about libertarianism, a liberal individualist philosophy favoring private property (the most common meaning of the term today in the US, Canada, the UK and most other English-speaking countries). See libertarian socialism for the libertarian philosophy favoring socialism. The article "Libertarianism (metaphysics)" deals with the concept of libertarian free will. See also civil libertarian.

Libertarianism in the political spectrum

Most libertarians do not consider their political philosophy to be right-wing, left-wing, or centrist. In the U.S. some conservatives regard themselves as both conservative and libertarian, but other libertarians argue that the two conflict and that libertarianism is really a form of liberalism. One example of this position is Friedrich Hayek's Why I am Not a Conservative.{{ref|Hayek}}

Related Topics:
Right-wing - Left-wing - Centrist - Conservatives - Liberalism - Friedrich Hayek

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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 socio-political test used to place individuals by the Advocates for Self Government.{{ref|Quiz}} 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.

Related Topics:
Nolan chart - David Nolan - United States Libertarian Party - Advocates for Self Government

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Classical liberalism

Main article: Libertarianism and Classical Liberalism

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Libertarianism originated in the tradition of liberalism, and often the terms are used interchangeably by Libertarians. Advocacy of free markets, free trade, limited government, and a focus on personal liberty unite the two philosophies.

Related Topics:
Liberalism - Free market - Free trade - Limited government

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Liberal philosophical ideas, centered around liberty, evolved from many thinkers, in particular John Locke. The historical usage of the term "Classical Liberals" refers to people such as Locke, Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson (among many others) who were opposed to restrictions on individual liberty. Thomas Jefferson is credited as saying that "the government that governs best, governs least," which shares a common flavor with libertarianism, though Jefferson was not a libertarian in the modern sense. The original framers of the U.S. Constitution were aware of what they perceived as a danger of majority rule in oppressing freedom of the individual. For example, in Federalist No. 10 and elsewhere, James Madison advocates a republic as opposed to a democracy (where the latter refers to "absolute majority rule" rather than liberal democracy) because he feared that the majority would inevitably violate individual rights if it had the power to do so.{{ref|Madison}}. Libertarians, believing in the sovereignty of the individual, maintain that members of a majority group should not have any rights that an individual in the minority does not also have (and vice versa).

Related Topics:
John Locke - Adam Smith - Thomas Jefferson - Federalist No. 10 - James Madison - Republic - Democracy - Liberal democracy

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However, mainstream thought in America, and other locales, moved away from negative liberty and free market ideas and instead began to advocate Keynesian economic ideas. Rather then relegating government to a mere agent of defense, they began to recommend government intervention as a way to promote positive liberty. While the classic philosophy is called liberalism, the latter has also come to be called "liberalism". It is sometimes called Welfare Liberalism or New Liberalism to distinguish it from classical liberalism. As the term "liberal" began taking on this new meaning in several English-speaking countries, many of those who espoused the classical minimal-state philosophy began referring to themselves as "libertarians" to distinguish their doctrine.

Related Topics:
Negative liberty - Free market - Keynesian - Positive liberty - Liberalism - Welfare Liberalism - New Liberalism

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Some, such as David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian U.S think tank the Cato Institute, {{ref|DavidBoazOnClassicalLiberalismLabel}} 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.

Related Topics:
David Boaz - Think tank - Cato Institute

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