Libertarianism

views updated

LIBERTARIANISM

Libertarianism is the belief that one has the right to dominion over one's own person, including the fruits of one's labor. Adults are entitled to make their own decisions and agreements. Coercion, particularly by the government, is wrong.

In contemporary American politics libertarians side with the far left in favoring personal freedom and side with the far right in favoring economic freedom. Thus, libertarians argue for the decriminalization of recreational drug use on the grounds that adults should have the right to make choices about their bodies. Libertarians oppose a national health care system as coercive and inevitably interfering with the rights of individuals to make their own choices about health care.

Libertarians view other ideologies as overly paternalistic. Politicians routinely begin a sentence with "We must," as in " We must reduce our dependence on foreign oil" or "We must spend more on education." A libertarian asks, "Who is this 'we'?" Libertarians argue that individuals can decide for themselves how much to spend on their own education. Moreover, people who want to see others obtain more education are free to donate funds for that cause. To libertarians "We must spend more on education" translates into "The government is going to coerce individuals into paying for their own or others' education."

For many people economic freedom is justified on utilitarian grounds. Those individuals endorse free markets because markets deliver economic growth and a high average standard of living. For libertarians economic freedom is justified on first principles. Even when government regulation is intended to make people better off, libertarians oppose such regulation as coercive. Thus, libertarians would not endorse most regulation carried out in the name of protecting consumers, preferring instead that consumers be expected to protect themselves.

Libertarianism faces a number of challenges. First, libertarians must establish the boundaries between freedom and coercion. In theory, one person's freedom can negate another's. The libertarian solution to this problem is to focus on property rights. If a person's property is clearly defined, no one may take that property without that person's consent. The libertarian's ideal role for government is to enforce property rights and nothing else.

Second, libertarianism is criticized for taking social institutions and cultural norms for granted. That is, libertarians speak as if society could function with only markets as institutions. However, markets operate in a context of cultural values and government protections, and chaos would result if those protections were taken away.

On the left critics of libertarianism argue that without social welfare programs the poor might turn to crime or armed insurrection. Without public education people might not acquire the basic tools needed to function in and maintain their society. On the right critics of libertarianism argue that individual morality is too fragile to prevail in the noncoercive environment favored by libertarians. Without the restraints imposed by religion, social opprobrium, and legal sanction people's behavior would degenerate, ultimately reaching the point where they no longer were capable of respecting themselves or one another.

Third, libertarianism is criticized as an ideology that ignores inequality and scorns the disadvantaged. This line of criticism is embedded in lines such as "The rich man and the poor man have equal freedom to sleep in the gutter" and "Freedom of the press exists only if you own one" (the second quote is attributed to the journalist A. J. Liebling).

These critics argue that property rights are not sufficient to make everyone free. They suggest that those born without sufficient endowments of land, capital, and aptitude are at the mercy of the powerful even in the absence of coercion. In response libertarians argue that government programs enacted for the benefit of the disadvantaged often are counterproductive, circumscribing freedom without aiding the intended beneficiaries.

History of Libertarianism

Libertarianism has its roots in Enlightenment philosophy, particularly the writings of the philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). Locke argued that dominion over one's own body and one's own property is a natural right. Locke viewed government as legitimate only if it has the consent of the governed. In Chapter 8 of the Second Treatise on Government Locke wrote, "The only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society, is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a greater security against any, that are not of it." Locke was a major influence on the founders of the United States, who embodied the contractual theory of government in the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Bill of Rights also reinforced libertarian ideas of natural rights.

Another major libertarian work is On Liberty by the philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Mill argued that social condemnation could be as oppressive as government coercion.

In the twentieth century one of the most important libertarian thinkers was Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992), who argued against the dominant view that a modern economy requires central planning and a welfare state. Hayek believed that the price system, fed by local information in markets, is more efficient than any central planner. For him the coercion required to implement the welfare state would undermine freedom and thus was The Road to Serfdom (1944).

The Internet and Libertarianism

In 1996, John Perry Barlow, a writer and activist in the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF), composed "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace," which argued that government should adopt a hands-off approach with respect to the Internet. Barlow's declaration exemplifies the symbiotic relationship between the Internet and libertarian thinking. Barlow's words contain echoes from Locke ("We are forming our own Social Contract."), Mill ("We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity."), and Hayek ("our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than could be obtained by any of your impositions") (quoted in Barlow 1996, Internet site).

The Internet is, like the U.S. Constitution, designed as an agreement among consenting individuals. It is a set of communication protocols that allow data to be transmitted from one computer to another. Any communication that uses Internet Protocols (IP) can be sent over the Internet. The protocols impose only minimal constraints on the information that can be transmitted. Video, telephony, text, and data all can be sent via IP.

The Internet is also decentralized. No single computer acts as a hub or main distribution point. Instead, like Hayek's spontaneous order, the Internet relies on local information, contained in routing tables, to pass data from any computer on the network to another. Also, the Internet is configured to facilitate anonymity. This tends to shift the balance of power away from government officials and toward individuals. As a result it has proved all but impossible to regulate pornography and junk mail on the Internet.

The Internet was designed to have multiple routes between endpoints, which makes it more difficult both to attack militarily and to regulate. John Gilmore, a libertarian Internet activist, famously said, "The Internet interprets censorship and damage, and routes around it."

Personal computers and the Internet have changed the relationship between individuals and large organizations. One does not need to own a printing press to publish ideas that can reach the masses. One does not need to lease stores to sell goods to people all over the world. One does not need a mainframe computer costing millions of dollars to write a piece of software.

Because individuals are now better able to bypass large organizations, the rationale for government intervention as a check against corporate power has lost its appeal to many people who make a living using computers and the Internet. In Cyberselfish, a critical survey of libertarianism in the technology community, the journalist Paulina Borsook wrote that "with geeks, the attitude, mind-set, and philosophy is libertarianism" and "libertarians are the most vocal political thinkers and talkers in high tech" (Borsook 2000, pp. 3 and 7).

Intellectual Property

The low cost of distributing and copying content on the Internet has opened a schism within the libertarian community concerning the issue of intellectual property. Some libertarians argue that intellectual property rights are legitimate, based on Locke's principle that one has a natural right to property created by one's labor. According to this view, if one composes a song or another creative work, one has a property right that should be protected.

Other libertarians, including Barlow, believe that ideas should not to be regarded as property. One person can use an idea without infringing on another person's ability to use that idea. Barlow argues in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote, "He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me" (Quoted in Barlow 1996, Internet site).

A potential libertarian approach to the issue of copyright is Digital Rights Management (DRM). The idea behind DRM is that the composer of a creative work would embed in its digital representation a digital "lock" that could be opened only by a consumer who agreed to purchase and use the work within the limitations intended by the author.

However, there are those who doubt that DRM can be effective. Those critics say that the ability of individuals to circumvent DRM will make it impossible to rely on the private sector alone to protect intellectual property. Instead, DRM will require government involvement in the design and enforcement of restrictions on the specifications of equipment. For example, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) criminalized the production of technology that could be used to circumvent copyright restrictions. Many libertarians were troubled by the DMCA.

Biotechnology

The libertarian position on biotechnology, nanotechnology, and other potentially revolutionary scientific developments is one of laissez-faire. The libertarian view is that individuals are capable of addressing the ethical issues raised by new technologies without government interference.

Libertarians tend to dismiss concerns such as those raised by the President's Commission on Bioethics. In Beyond Therapy (President's Council of Bioethics 2004) the commission argues that biotechnology poses ethical problems by potentially enhancing human capabilities, eliminating death, and giving parents control over the characteristics of their children. Libertarians believe that individuals are capable of dealing with these issues as they arise. Moreover, libertarians argue that the sort of regulatory regime that would be needed to enforce controls over such technologies would be draconian.

Privacy

Libertarians are mindful of the effect of technology on privacy. Some technologies, such as miniature cameras, radio identification tags, and powerful storage and processing for large databases, seem to threaten privacy. Other technologies, such as the decentralized Internet and cryptography, seem to enhance privacy.

David D. Friedman has painted one scenario for the way these technologies could play out. In Chapter 1 of his draft Future Imperfect he writes, "Put all of these technologies together and we may end up with a world where your realspace identity is entirely public, with everything about you known and readily accessible, while your cyberspace activities, and information about them, are entirely private—with you in control of the link between your cyberspace persona and your realspace identity."

The last point—that the individual will control the link between electronic identity and physical identity—is crucial. If the opposite scenario were to emerge, in which the government always would have the ability to trace electronic communications to an individual person, the potential for totalitarian control would appear to be high.

In The Transparent Society (1998) David Brin has suggested that the inevitable improvement in surveillance technology is going to cause privacy to be replaced by transparency. Cameras are certain to become smaller, digital radio tracking devices will become more powerful, and all forms of surveillance will become cheaper. In light of this outlook Brin argues that freedom and autonomy can best be preserved by ensuring that individuals have as much access to information about government and large corporations as those organizations have access to information about individuals.

The Future of Libertarianism

In the late industrial age libertarianism went into eclipse. For most of the twentieth century it appeared that the future belonged to powerful manufacturing enterprises and the large government that was thought necessary to regulate and plan the industrial economy. In the Internet age many people are seeing the potential for unplanned order emerging from the decisions of individuals. This has revived libertarianism as an important philosophy.

Libertarianism may have reawakened, but it is far from triumphant. Libertarian approaches to government policy on recreational drugs, education, and health care remain far from the mainstream, where paternalism remains entrenched. Moreover, technology poses problems for which libertarianism, typically absolutist and unabashed, lacks clear answers. Intellectual property poses a conflict between the natural right to own the product of one's labor and the right to engage in free expression and activities that do not infringe directly on another person. New technologies also provide surveillance potential in ways that require libertarians to reconsider the fundamental basis for privacy.

ARNOLD KLING

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boaz, David. (1994). Libertarianism: A Primer. New York. Free Press.

Borsook, Paula. (2000). Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech. New York: PublicAffairs.

Brin, David. (1998). The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose between Privacy and Freedom? Reading, MA: Perseus. A remarkably prescient book on the challenges that surveillance technology will pose for privacy and liberty.

Caldwell, Bruce. (2004). Hayek's Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F.A. Hayek. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hayek, F. A. (1944). The Road to Serfdom. London: Routledge.

Lessig, Lawrence. (1999). Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books.

Postrel, Virginia. (1998). The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress. New York: Free Press.

President's Council on Bioethics. (2004). Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness. Washington, DC: President's Council on Bioethics.

Stock, Gregory. (2003). Redesigning Humans: Choosing Our Genes, Changing Our Future. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Thierer, Adam, and Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr., eds. (2002). Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age. Washington, DC: Cato Institute. Exemplifies the differences among libertarians on intellectual property issues.