Outline of libertarianism

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to libertarianism:

Libertarianism – collection of political philosophies and movements that upholds liberty as its principal objective. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and freedom of choice, emphasizing political freedom, voluntary association and the primacy of individual judgment.

Nature of libertarianism

Supports

Economic freedom – the freedom to produce, trade and consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force, fraud or theft
Egalitarianism – the idea that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or social status
Free society – a society in which one has the freedom to obtain the power and resources to fulfill their own potential
Individual responsibility – the idea that a person is responsible for their own actions and their own lives
Self-governance – the idea that a person or group are able to exercise all of the necessary functions of power without intervention from any authority which they cannot themselves alter
Self-management – methods, skills and strategies by which individuals can effectively direct their own activities toward the achievement of objectives and includes goal setting, decision making, focusing, planning, scheduling, task tracking, self-evaluation, self-intervention, self-development and so on
Self-ownership – the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to be the exclusive controller of his or her own body and life
Voluntary association – a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose

Rejects

Authoritarianism – a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority
Coercion – the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force
Discrimination by the state – a form of collectivism that involves treating people based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit
Imperialism – as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, it is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination"

Debates

Abortion
Anarcho-capitalism and minarchism and libertarian municipalism
Free market and laissez-faire vs. socialism and communism

Branches and schools of libertarianism

Libertarianism has many overlapping schools of thought, all focused on smaller government and greater individual responsibility. As interpretations of the guiding non-aggression principle vary, some libertarian schools of thought promote the total abolition of government while others promote a smaller government which does not initiate force. Some seek private ownership of all property and natural resources while others promote communal ownership of all natural resources and varying degrees of private property.

Origins of libertarianism

Libertarian theory and politics

Libertarian ideals

These are concepts which although not necessarily exclusive to libertarianism are significant in historical and modern libertarian circles.

Civil liberties
Co-operative economics
Counter-economics
Decentralization
Dispute resolution organization
Economic freedom
Egalitarianism
Free market
Free society
Free trade
Free will
Freedom of association
Freedom of contract
Homestead principle
Individualism
Laissez-faire – the Age of Enlightenment idea of "live-and-let-live" in economics
Law of equal liberty
Liberty
Limited government
Methodological individualism
Natural rights
Night watchman state
Non-aggression
Non-interventionism
Non-politics
Non-voting
Participatory economics
Private defense agency
Polycentric law
Property
Self-governance
Self-management
Self-ownership
Spontaneous order – the notion in economics and the social sciences that human beings organize through ordinary action and not by imposed design or coercion
Stateless society
Subjective theory of value
Subsidiarity
Tax resistance
Title-transfer theory of contract
Worker's self management
Voluntary association
Voluntary society

Philosophers and economists who have influenced libertarianism

Anarchists

Émile Armand – one of the most influential individualist anarchists of the early 20th century
Mikhail Bakunin – one of the main theorists of collectivist anarchism and a major influence on the development of left-libertarianism
William Godwin – the first modern proponent of anarchism, whose political views are outlined in his book Political Justice
Robert Nozick – philosopher and author of Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon – the first self-described anarchist and founder of mutualism
Lysander Spooner – notable individualist anarchist and founder of the American Letter Mail Company
Max Stirner – founder of egoist anarchism
Benjamin Tucker – a leading theorist of individualist anarchism in the 19th century
Josiah Warren – the first known American anarchist and author of the first anarchist periodical The Peaceful Revolutionist

Economists

Frédéric Bastiat – 19th century creator of the concept of opportunity cost
Milton Friedman – Nobel Prize-winning monetarist economist, notable for his advocacy of economic deregulation and privatization
Robin Hahnel – modern participatory economics scholar and libertarian socialist
Friedrich Hayek – Nobel Prize-winning Austrian School economist, notable for his political work The Road to Serfdom
Elinor Ostrom – Nobel Prize-winning common pool resource theorist and environmentalist
Ludwig von Mises – philosopher, Austrian School economist, sociologist and classical liberal
Murray Rothbard – founder of anarcho-capitalism and a leading Austrian School economist
E. F. Schumacher – internationally influential British economist and statistician and author of Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered
Nassim Nicholas Taleb – statistician, philosopher and author of The Black Swan

Objectivists

Ayn Rand – the creator of the philosophy of Objectivism
Leonard Peikoff – founder of the Ayn Rand Institute and Rand's designated "intellectual" heir

Others

Murray Bookchin – the founder of libertarian municipalism and a leading theorist of the social ecology movement
Noam Chomsky – pioneering linguist and social critic
Karl Hess – libertarian socialist and tax resistor
Hans-Hermann Hoppe – developed extensive work on argumentation ethics
David Hume – Scottish Enlightenment writer whose Treatise of Human Nature (Book 3) argued that rules of justice originated from many human actions, not rational calculation
Ron Paul – politician and 2012 presidential candidate
Henry David Thoreau – one of the leading philosophers of American transcendentalism and anarcho-pacifism
Robert Anton Wilson – radical author of The Illuminatus! Trilogy

References

External links

Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Libertarianism". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Humble Libertarian, a libertarian resource and index of libertarian websites.
Foundation for Economic Education, one of the oldest libertarian organizations in the United States.
Libertarianism.com , a non-profit site for libertarianism.

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