Libertarianism

This series is linked to the Politics series 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). ... The Elections and Parties Series Democracy Representative democracy History of democracy Referenda Liberal democracy Representation Voting Voting systems Ideology Elections Elections by country Elections by calendar Electoral systems Politics Politics by country Political campaigns Political science Political philosophy Related topics Political parties Parties by country Parties by name Parties by...

Factions Minarchism Anarcho-capitalism Paleolibertarianism Neolibertarianism Geolibertarianism In civics, minarchism, sometimes called minimal statism, is the view that the size, role and influence of government in a free society should be minimal - only large enough to protect the liberty of each and every individual, without violating the liberty of any individuals itself. ... Anarcho-capitalism refers to an anti-statist philosophy that embraces capitalism as one of its foundational principles. ... Paleolibertarianism is a school of thought within American libertarianism founded by Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell, and closely associated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute. ... Neolibertarianism is a subset of libertarian thought that embraces incrementalism and pragmatism domestically and a generally interventionist foreign policy. ... Geolibertarianism is a political philosophy that holds with other forms of libertarianism that all products of labor should be privately owned and controlled. ... Influences Objectivism Austrian School Classical liberalism Individualist anarchism Objectivism is the philosophy of Russian-born American philosopher and author Ayn Rand. ... The Austrian School is a school of economic thought which rejects opposing economists reliance on methods used in natural science for the study of human action, and instead bases its formalism of economics on relationships through logic or introspection called praxeology. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with liberalism. ... Individualist anarchism is a philosophical tradition, appearing primarily in the United States, that emphasises the autonomy of the individual, most notably in regard to its advocacy of private property rather than collective property. ... Practices Capitalism Non-aggression In common usage capitalism refers to an economic system in which all or most of the means of production are privately owned and operated, and where investment and the production, distribution and prices of commodities (goods and services) are determined by the influence of market forces (in a free market... The non-aggression principle or non-aggression axiom is defined as a prohibition against the initiation of force, or the threat of force, against persons or property. ... Key issues Economic views Views of rights Theories of law Criticism The Austrian School of economics and the Chicago School of economics are important foundations of the economic system favored by modern libertarians —capitalism, where the means of production are privately owned, economic and financial decisions are made privately rather than by state control, and goods and services are exchanged in... Libertarian theories of law build on libertarianism or classical liberalism. ... Libertarianism is a political philosophy that supports largely unrestricted property rights and opposes most government functions (such as taxation, prosecution of victimless crimes and regulations on businesses beyond the minimum required to prevent fraud or property damage) as coercive, even if a democratic majority supports it. ...

Libertarians and Objectivists limit what they define as "rights" to variations on "the right to be left alone," and argue that other "rights" such as "the right to a good education" or "the right to have free access to water" are not legitimate rights and do not deserve the same protections. Likewise, libertarians often cite the example of a right to "the pursuit of happiness" as asserted in the Declaration of Independence, saying that it does not posit a right to be provided with happiness but a right to pursue it, and that the wording as such illustrates the libertarian sensibilities of the author, Thomas Jefferson. Image File history File links An uncircumcised penis in both flaccid and fully erect states, respectively. ... This article deals with the libertarianism as defined in America and several other nations. ... Objectivism is opposed to subjectivism and may mean: Metaphysical objectivism The philosophy of Ayn Rand, Objectivist philosophy The poetry of the Objectivist poets Moral objectivism, Objective morality This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A declaration of independence is a proclamation of the independence of a newly formed or reformed independent state, usually from a part or the whole of the territory of another nation, or a document containing such a declaration. ...

One way of describing the distinction is that a "right" to be left alone by other people is a negative right whereas a "right" to be provided with something through the action of another is a positive right. According to libertarians, a right requiring an individual to provide something to another is not logically compatible with a right of all individuals to be left alone --in other words, if everyone has the right to keep to themselves, then no positive rights can exist. Some believe that this distinction is poorly defined, or is completely invalid. Other critics of libertarianism, who grant a distinction, assert that no one should be allowed to keep to themselves. These sometimes cite what they believe to be a moral obligation of individuals to provide for others (altruism). This is a central point of contention concerning libertarianism. A negative right is a right, either moral or decreed by law, to not be subject to an action of another human being (usually abuse or coercion). ... A positive right is a right, either moral or decreed by law, to be provided with something through the action of another person or group of people (usually a state). ... Altruism is either a practice or habit (in the view of many, a virtue) as well as an ethical doctrine. ...

Barry Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964; his supporters contrast his libertarian rationale with the racist one of some other opponents.

One example of such a dispute was over the so-called public accommodation laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which held that privately owned businesses were forbidden to exclude customers (based on racial discrimination, for example). Libertarians argued that the unserved customers had no right to services that businesses did not want to provide and that government had no right to coerce businesses into serving them, either. In a similar case, after the Boy Scouts of America were forced by the New Jersey Supreme Court to include gay members, Lew Rockwell wrote: "There is no right to crash a private dinner party... The owners of the house have the right to invite or not invite on any grounds. Similarly, there is no right to invade a private organization."[1] The authors of the Boy Scouts decision disagree: "The sad truth is that excluded groups and individuals have been prevented from full participation in the social, economic, and political life of our country. The human price of this bigotry has been enormous.... [A]dherence to the principles of equality demands that our legal system protect the victim of invidious discrimination." Libertarians may argue that economic incentives to gain customers make such laws unnecessary, though their opponents counter that racism and homophobia may make inclusion impossible without government intervention. http://bioguide. ... http://bioguide. ... President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ... President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ... An African-American drinks out of a water fountain marked for colored in 1939 at a street car terminal in Oklahoma City. ... The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is an organization for boys between the ages of 7 and 18, and for both young men and women between the ages of 14 and 21, based in the United States of America, with some presence in other countries. ... The New Jersey Supreme Court is the highest court in the State. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Lew Rockwell Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. ... A black man drinks out of a water fountain designated for black people in 1939 at a streetcar terminal. ... The term homophobia is constructed from Greek όμοιος (homos), same and φόβος (fobos), fear. ...

In both personal and business dealings, libertarians believe private individuals should be allowed to discriminate upon any basis they choose in regard to deciding with whom they will associate. However, when it comes to a public institution, which is funded by taxpayers, they do not believe such discrimination should be permitted. Barry Goldwater, for example, unlike other opponents of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, "opposed it for libertarian reasons, not supporting the idea that the government should be able to tell businesses what to do," rather than out of racism; he "had desegregated Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, years before."[2] Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 1, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was a United States politician and a founding figure in the modern conservative movement in the USA. Goldwater personified the shift in balance in American culture from the Northeast to the West. ... President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ...

Libertarians argue that rights rest originally in individuals and never in groups such as nations, races, religions, classes, or cultures, and distinguish between a wrong done to individual members of a group and the group itself. This position also undercuts rhetorical expressions such as, "The government has the right to ...", since under this formulation "the government" has no original rights but only those duties with which it has been lawfully entrusted under the citizens' rights. When democratic concerns and the libertarian view of individual liberty conflict, libertarians generally side with their view of rights. Libertarianism frequently dovetails neatly therefore with strict constructionism and the constitution in exile. // For publications of this name, see also Nation (disambiguation). ... A race is a population of humans distinguished in some way from other humans. ... Social class describes the relationships between people in hierarchical societies or cultures. ... Cultural studies developed in the late 20th century, in part through the re-introduction of Marxist thought into sociology, and in part through the articulation of sociology and other academic disciplines such as literary criticism. ... Strict constructionism is a philosophy of judicial interpretation and legal philosophy that holds to the meanings of words and phrases as used when they were written down. ... The Constitution in Exile is a controversial term that refers to provisions of the United States Constitution whose interpretation by the Supreme Court have changed since roughly the 1930s, and which have not been strictly enforced, such as the interstate commerce clause. ...

To the extent that libertarians advocate any system of law, it tends to be common law, which they see as less arbitrary, more consistent, and more adaptable over time. Friedrich Hayek had some of the most developed ideas on what libertarian common law would be like, while Robert Nozick, Richard Epstein, Loren Lomasky, and Randy Barnett are among the most influential modern thinkers in this area. This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ... Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an economist and social scientist of the Austrian School, noted for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against a rising tide of socialist and collectivist thought in the mid-20th... Robert Nozick (November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher and Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. ... Richard Epstein is currently a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School. ... Loren Lomasky is currently a professor of Political Philosophy, Policy and Law at the University of Virginia Department of Philosophy. ... Randy E. Barnett is a lawyer, law professor at Boston University, and legal theorist in the United States, noted for his libertarian theory of law and his work on contract theory and constitutional law and theory. ...