Left-libertarianism

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Left-libertarianism, [1] [2] [3] [4] also known as left-wing libertarianism, [5] or social libertarianism, [6] is a political philosophy and type of libertarianism that stresses both individual freedom and social equality. Left-libertarianism represents several related yet distinct approaches to political and social theory. Its classical usage refers to anti-authoritarian varieties of left-wing politics such as anarchism, especially social anarchism, [7] communalism, and libertarian Marxism, collectively termed libertarian socialism. A portion of the left wing of the green movement, including adherents of Murray Bookchin's social ecology, are also generally considered left-libertarian.

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In the United States, left-libertarianism represents the left wing of the libertarian movement, [7] including the political positions associated with academic philosophers Hillel Steiner, Philippe Van Parijs, and Peter Vallentyne that combine self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources. [7] [8] Although libertarianism in the United States has become associated with classical liberalism and minarchism, with right-libertarianism being more known than left-libertarianism, [4] political usage of the term until then was associated exclusively with anti-capitalism, libertarian socialism, and social anarchism; in most parts of the world, such an association still predominates. [7] [9]

Left-libertarians are skeptical of, or fully against, private ownership of natural resources, arguing, in contrast to right-libertarians, that neither claiming nor mixing one's labor with natural resources is enough to generate full private property rights, and they maintain that natural resources should be held in an egalitarian manner, either unowned or owned collectively. [10] Those left-libertarians who are more lenient towards private property support different property norms and theories, such as usufruct [11] or under the condition that recompense is offered to the local or even global community, such as the Steiner–Vallentyne school. [12] [13] Other currents of thought identified with left-libertarianism include adherents of Henry George's land tax ideas and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's mutualism, as well as more recent forms of left-wing market anarchism (or market-oriented left-libertarianism).

Definition

Some political scientists and writers classify the forms of libertarianism into two or more groups, such as left-libertarianism [1] and right-libertarianism. [2] [4] [14] In the United States, proponents of free-market anti-capitalism consciously label themselves as left-libertarians and part of the libertarian left. [7] [11]

As a term, left-libertarianism has been used to refer to various political economic philosophies emphasizing individual liberty. With the modern development of right-libertarian co-opting [14] the term libertarian in the mid-20th century to advocate laissez-faire capitalism and strong private property rights such as land, infrastructure, and natural resources, [15] left-libertarianism has been used more often to differentiate between the two forms, [7] [8] especially concerning property rights. [16]

According to Jennifer Carlson, right-libertarianism is the dominant form of libertarianism in the United States, while left-libertarianism "has become a more predominant aspect of politics in western European democracies over the past three decades." [4] Left-libertarianism also includes "the decentralist who wishes to limit and devolve State power, to the syndicalist who wants to abolish it altogether. It can even encompass the Fabians and the social democrats who wish to socialize the economy but who still see a limited role for the State." [17]

According to the textbook definition in The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy, left-libertarianism has at least three meanings, writing:

In its oldest sense, it is a synonym either for anarchism in general or social anarchism in particular. Later it became a term for the left or Konkinite wing of the free-market libertarian movement, and has since come to cover a range of pro-market but anti-capitalist positions, mostly individualist anarchist, including agorism and mutualism, often with an implication of sympathies (such as for radical feminism or the labor movement) not usually shared by anarcho-capitalists. In a third sense it has recently come to be applied to a position combining individual self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources; most proponents of this position are not anarchists. [7]

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy distinguishes left-libertarianism from right-libertarianism, arguing:

Libertarianism is often thought of as 'right-wing' doctrine. This, however, is mistaken for at least two reasons. First, on social—rather than economic—issues, libertarianism tends to be 'left-wing'. It opposes laws that restrict consensual and private sexual relationships between adults (e.g., gay sex, non-marital sex, and deviant sex), laws that restrict drug use, laws that impose religious views or practices on individuals, and compulsory military service. Second, in addition to the better-known version of libertarianism—right-libertarianism—there is also a version known as 'left-libertarianism'. Both endorse full self-ownership, but they differ with respect to the powers agents have to appropriate unappropriated natural resources (land, air, water, etc.). [18]

Terminology

As a term, left-libertarianism is used by some political analysts, academics, and media sources, especially in the United States, to contrast it with the libertarian philosophy, which is supportive of free-market capitalism and strong private property rights, in addition to supporting limited government and self-ownership which is common to both libertarian types. [19]

Peter Vallentyne describes left-libertarianism as the type of libertarianism holding that "unappropriated natural resources belong to everyone in some egalitarian manner." [18] He maintains that left-libertarianism most often refers to the political position that holds natural resources are originally common property. [20]

Followers of Samuel Edward Konkin III, who characterized agorism as a form of left-libertarianism [21] and strategic branch of left-wing market anarchism, [22] use the terminology as outlined by Roderick T. Long, who describes left-libertarianism as "an integration, or I'd argue, a reintegration of libertarianism with concerns that are traditionally thought of as being concerns of the left. That includes concerns for worker empowerment, worry about plutocracy, concerns about feminism and various kinds of social equality." [23]

Anthony Gregory maintains that libertarianism "can refer to any number of varying and at times mutually exclusive political orientations." Gregory describes left-libertarianism as maintaining an interest in personal freedom, having sympathy for egalitarianism and opposing social hierarchy, preferring a liberal lifestyle, opposing big business, and having a New Left opposition to imperialism and war. [24] Although some American libertarians may reject the political spectrum, [25] others have written about libertarianism's left-wing opposition to authoritarian rule and argued that libertarianism is fundamentally a left-wing position. [26] Rothbard himself previously made the same point, rejecting the association of statism with the left. [27]

Philosophy

While all libertarians begin with a conception of personal autonomy from which they argue in favor of civil liberties and a reduction or elimination of the state, left-libertarianism encompasses those libertarian beliefs that claim the Earth's natural resources belong to everyone in an egalitarian manner, either unowned or owned collectively. [5] [7] [10] [12] [13]

Left-libertarian schools of thought can be characterized as communist, anarchist, or otherwise anti-statist; some do not use the communist label such as syndicalists, market anarchists, and geolibertarians. While left-libertarians' goals are similar and often overlap with that of communism, it is important to note how this overall quadrant of the political compass houses many ideologies and cannot be collectively labeled one thing. Likewise, it would be just as incorrect to label all left-libertarians as anarchists and Georgists. In the end, what left-libertarian schools of thought are depends on who you ask within the quadrant. In terms of economics, some advocate for a moneyless society using labor vouchers, gifting, and bartering; conversely, advocacy for alternative currency like time-based currency is found elsewhere though not as prevalent. In conclusion, the libertarian left houses proponents of communism, minarchism, council democracy, and plenty of other ideologies; one should not be concerned with adhering to a specific ideology when entering the quadrant.

Contemporary left-libertarians such as Hillel Steiner, Peter Vallentyne, Philippe Van Parijs, Michael Otsuka, and David Ellerman believe the appropriation of land must leave "enough and as good" for others or be taxed by society to compensate for the exclusionary effects of private property. [8] [12]

State

There are a number of different left-libertarian positions on the state, which can range from advocating for the complete abolition of the state, to advocating for a more decentralized and limited government with social ownership of the economy. [17] According to Sheldon Richman of the Independent Institute, other left-libertarians "prefer that corporate privileges be repealed before the regulatory restrictions on how those privileges may be exercised." [26]

Property rights

Left-libertarians generally uphold self-ownership and oppose strong private property rights, instead supporting the egalitarian distribution of natural resources. [4] Other left-libertarians believe that neither claiming nor mixing one's labor with natural resources is enough to generate full private property rights [28] [29] and maintain that natural resources ought to be held in an egalitarian manner, either unowned or owned collectively. [18]

Political scientist Peter Mclaverty notes it has been argued that socialist values are incompatible with the concept of self-ownership when this concept is considered "the core feature of libertarianism" and socialism is defined as holding "that we are social beings, that society should be organised, and individuals should act, so as to promote the common good, that we should strive to achieve social equality and promote democracy, community and solidarity." [30] However, political philosopher Nicholas Vrousalis has also argued that "property rights [...] do not pass judgment as to what rights individuals have to their own person [...] [and] to the external world" and that "the nineteenth-century egalitarian libertarians were not misguided in thinking that a thoroughly libertarian form of communism is possible at the level of principle." [31]

Economics

Other left-libertarians make a libertarian reading of progressive and social-democratic economics to advocate a universal basic income. Building on Michael Otsuka's conception of "robust libertarian self-ownership", Karl Widerquist argues that a universal basic income must be large enough to maintain individual independence regardless of the market value of resources because people in contemporary society have been denied direct access to enough resources with which they could otherwise maintain their existence in the absence of interference by people who control access to resources. [32]

Schools of thought

Classical liberalism

Contemporary left-libertarian scholars such as David Ellerman, Michael Otsuka, Hillel Steiner, Peter Vallentyne, and Philippe Van Parijs root an economic egalitarianism in the classical liberal concepts of self-ownership and appropriation. They hold that it is illegitimate for anyone to claim private ownership of natural resources to the detriment of others, a condition John Locke explicated in Two Treatises of Government . [33] Most left-libertarians of this tradition support some form of economic rent redistribution on the grounds that each individual is entitled to an equal share of natural resources [34] and argue for the desirability of state social welfare programs. [35] [36]

Individuals in this left-libertarian tradition include Henry George, Locke, Thomas Paine, William Ogilvie of Pittensear, Herbert Spencer, and more recently, Baruch Brody, Ellerman, James O. Grunebaum, Otsuka, Steiner, Vallentyne and Van Parijs, among others. [8] [37] Hippolyte de Colins, [38] George, [38] François Huet, [38] William Ogilvie of Pittensear, [37] Paine, [38] and Léon Walras [38] are left-libertarians also seen as being within the left-liberal tradition of socialism. [37]

Philosophical anarchist William Godwin, classical economists such as David Ricardo, [39] Thomas Robert Malthus, Nassau William Senior, Robert Torrens, and the Mills, the early writings of Herbert Spencer, [40] socialists such as Thomas Hodgskin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, social reformer Henry George [40] and the Ricardian/Smithian socialists, [41] [42] among others, "provided the basis for the further development of the left libertarian perspective." [43]

Green politics

Bookchin was one of the main influences behind the formation of the Alliance 90/The Greens, the first green party to win seats in state and national parliaments. Modern green parties attempt to apply these ideas to a more pragmatic system of democratic governance as opposed to contemporary individualist or socialist libertarianism. The green movement, especially its more left-wing factions, is often described by political scientists as left-libertarian. [44] [45] [46] [47]

Political scientists see European political parties such as Ecolo and Groen in Belgium, Alliance 90/The Greens in Germany, or the Green Progressive Accord and GroenLinks in the Netherlands as coming out of the New Left and emphasizing spontaneous self-organisation, participatory democracy, decentralization and voluntarism, being contrasted to the bureaucratic or statist approach. [47] Similarly, political scientist Ariadne Vromen has described the Australian Greens as having a "clear left-libertarian ideological base." [48]

Libertarian socialism

Noam Chomsky, a noted left-libertarian of the libertarian socialist school Noam chomsky cropped.jpg
Noam Chomsky, a noted left-libertarian of the libertarian socialist school

Libertarian socialism is a left-libertarian tendency [49] [50] within the socialist movement that rejects the state socialist notion of socialism as centralized state ownership and statist control of the economy. [51] [ failed verification ]

Market-oriented left-libertarianism

BenjaminTucker.jpg
LysanderSpooner.jpg
Benjamin Tucker (left) and Lysander Spooner (right), who have greatly influenced the development of left-wing libertarianism in the United States

American Individualist anarchists are opposed to property that gives privilege and is exploitative. [52] Certain American left-wing market anarchists who come from the left-Rothbardian school such as Roderick T. Long and Sheldon Richman, cite Murray Rothbard's homestead principle with approval to support worker cooperatives. [53]

Also referred to as left-wing market anarchists, [54] according to Sheldon Richman in The American Conservative , these proponents of this market-oriented left-libertarian approach strongly affirm the classical liberal ideas of self-ownership and free markets, while maintaining that, taken to their logical conclusions, these ideas support strongly anti-corporatist, anti-hierarchical, pro-labor positions in economics; anti-imperialism in foreign policy; and thoroughly liberal or radical views regarding such cultural issues as gender, sexuality and race. [26] Members of this school typically urge the abolition of the state, arguing that vast disparities in wealth and social influence result from the use of force—especially state power—to steal and engross land and acquire and maintain special privileges. They judge that in a stateless society the kinds of privileges secured by the state will be absent and injustices perpetrated or tolerated by the state can be rectified, concluding that with state interference eliminated it will be possible to achieve "socialist ends by market means." [55]

According to libertarian Sheldon Richman, left-libertarians "favor worker solidarity vis-à-vis bosses, support poor people's squatting on government or abandoned property, and prefer that corporate privileges be repealed before the regulatory restrictions on how those privileges may be exercised." Richman says left-libertarians see Walmart as a symbol of corporate favoritism, being "supported by highway subsidies and eminent domain", viewing "the fictive personhood of the limited-liability corporation with suspicion" and doubting that "Third World sweatshops would be the 'best alternative' in the absence of government manipulation." Richman also says left-libertarians also tend to "eschew electoral politics, having little confidence in strategies that work through the government [and] prefer to develop alternative institutions and methods of working around the state." [26]

In the 21st century, left-libertarianism has come to encapsulate forms of free-market anti-capitalism, [7] [26] such as the mutualism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Benjamin Tucker. [7] [26]

Steiner–Vallentyne school

Contemporary left-libertarian scholars such as David Ellerman, [56] [57] Michael Otsuka, [58] Hillel Steiner, [59] Peter Vallentyne [60] and Philippe Van Parijs [61] root an economic egalitarianism in the classical liberal concepts of self-ownership and land appropriation, combined with geoist or physiocratic views regarding the ownership of land and natural resources (e.g. those of Henry George and John Locke). [62] [18] [63]

Scholars representing this school of left-libertarianism often understand their position in contrast to right-libertarians, who maintain that there are no fair share constraints on use or appropriation that individuals have the power to appropriate unowned things by claiming them (usually by mixing their labor with them) and deny any other conditions or considerations are relevant and that there is no justification for the state to redistribute resources to the needy or to overcome market failures. A number of left-libertarians of this school argue for the desirability of some state social welfare programs. [64] [36] Left-libertarians of the Carson–Long left-libertarianism school typically endorse the labor-based property rights that Steiner–Vallentyne left-libertarians reject, but they hold that implementing such rights would have radical rather than conservative consequences. [65]

Left-libertarians of the Steiner–Vallentyne type hold that it is illegitimate for anyone to claim private ownership of natural resources to the detriment of others. [8] [66] These left-libertarians support some form of income redistribution on the grounds of a claim by each individual to be entitled to an equal share of natural resources. [67] [68] Unappropriated natural resources are either unowned or owned in common and private appropriation is only legitimate if everyone can appropriate an equal amount or if private appropriation is taxed to compensate those who are excluded from natural resources. [68]

See also

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

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Social anarchism, also known as left-wing anarchism or socialist anarchism, is the branch of anarchism that sees liberty and social equality as interrelated.

Market socialism is a type of economic system involving social ownership of the means of production within the framework of a market economy. Various models for such a system exist, usually involving cooperative enterprises and sometimes a mix that includes public or private enterprises. In contrast to the majority of historic socialist economies, which have substituted the market mechanism for some form of economic planning, market socialists wish to retain the use of supply and demand signals to guide the allocation of capital goods and the means of production. Under such a system, depending on whether socially owned firms are state-owned or operated as worker cooperatives, profits may variously be used to directly remunerate employees, accrue to society at large as the source of public finance, or be distributed amongst the population in a social dividend.

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References

Notes

  1. 1 2 Bookchin, Murray; Biehl, Janet (1997). The Murray Bookchin Reader. New York: Cassell. p. 170.
  2. 1 2 Goodway, David (2006). Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward. Liverpool University Press. p. 4. ISBN   978-1-84631-025-6. 'Libertarian' and 'libertarianism' are frequently employed by anarchists as synonyms for 'anarchist' and 'anarchism', largely as an attempt to distance themselves from the negative connotations of 'anarchy' and its derivatives. The situation has been vastly complicated in recent decades with the rise of anarcho-capitalism, 'minimal statism' and an extreme right-wing laissez-faire philosophy advocated by such theorists as Murray Rothbard and Robert Nozick and their adoption of the words 'libertarian' and 'libertarianism'. It has therefore now become necessary to distinguish between their right libertarianism and the left libertarianism of the libertarian tradition.
  3. Marshall, Peter (2008). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism . London: Harper Perennial. p. 641. "The word 'libertarian' has long been associated with anarchism, and has been used repeatedly throughout this work. The term originally denoted a person who upheld the doctrine of the freedom of the will; in this sense, Godwin was not a 'libertarian', but a 'necessitarian'. It came however to be applied to anyone who approved of liberty in general. In anarchist circles, it was first used by Joseph Déjacque as the title of his anarchist journal Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social published in New York in 1858. At the end of the last century, the anarchist Sebastien Faure took up the word, to stress the difference between anarchists and authoritarian socialists."
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilbur R. (ed.). The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia. Sage Publications. p. 1006. ISBN   978-1412988766. Archived from the original on 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2023-01-29. [S]ocialist libertarians view any concentration of power into the hands of a few (whether politically or economically) as antithetical to freedom and thus advocate for the simultaneous abolition of both government and capitalism.
  5. 1 2 Spitz, Jean-Fabien (March 2006). "Left-wing libertarianism: equality based on self-ownership". Raisons Politiques. 23 (3). Archived from the original on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  6. Grunberg, Gérard; Schweisguth, Etienne; Boy, Daniel; Mayer, Nonna, eds. (1993). "Social Libertarianism and Economic Liberalism". The French Voter Decides. University of Michigan Press. p. 45. ISBN   978-0472104383. Archived from the original on 2023-06-04. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Long, Roderick T. (2012). "Anarchism 9. Terminological Note". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy. Routledge Philosophy Companions Ser. (1st ed.). Taylor & Francis Group. p. 227. ISBN   978-0415874564.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Kymlicka, Will (2005). "libertarianism, left-". In Honderich, Ted. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. New York City: Oxford University Press. p. 516. "'Left-libertarianism' is a new term for an old conception of justice, dating back to Grotius. It combines the libertarian assumption that each person possesses a natural right of self-ownership over his person with the egalitarian premiss that natural resources should be shared equally. Right-wing libertarians argue that the right of self-ownership entails the right to appropriate unequal parts of the external world, such as unequal amounts of land. According to left-libertarians, however, the world's natural resources were initially unowned, or belonged equally to all, and it is illegitimate for anyone to claim exclusive private ownership of these resources to the detriment of others. Such private appropriation is legitimate only if everyone can appropriate an equal amount, or if those who appropriate more are taxed to compensate those who are thereby excluded from what was once common property. Historic proponents of this view include Thomas Paine, Herbert Spencer, and Henry George. Recent exponents include Philippe Van Parijs and Hillel Steiner." ISBN   978-0199264797.
  9. Bookchin, Murray; Biehl, Janet (1997). The Murray Bookchin Reader. London: Cassell. p. 170. ISBN   0304338737.
  10. 1 2 Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilbur R. The social history of crime and punishment in America. London: Sage Publications. p. 1007. ISBN   1412988764. "Left-libertarians disagree with right-libertarians with respect to property rights, arguing instead that individuals have no inherent right to natural resources. Namely, these resources must be treated as collective property that is made available on an egalitarian basis".
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  12. 1 2 3 Vallentyne, Peter (March 2009). "Libertarianism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University. Archived from the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2010. Libertarianism is committed to full self-ownership. A distinction can be made, however, between right-libertarianism and left-libertarianism, depending on the stance taken on how natural resources can be owned.
  13. 1 2 Narveson, Jan; Trenchard, David (2008). "Left Libertarianism". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 288–289. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n174. ISBN   978-1412965804. LCCN   2008009151. OCLC   750831024. Archived from the original on 2023-01-09. Retrieved 2016-03-18. Left libertarians regard each of us as full self-owners. However, they differ from what we generally understand by the term libertarian in denying the right to private property. We own ourselves, but we do not own nature, at least not as individuals. Left libertarians embrace the view that all natural resources, land, oil, gold, and so on should be held collectively. To the extent that individuals make use of these commonly owned goods, they must do so only with the permission of society, a permission granted only under the proviso that a certain payment for their use be made to society at large.
  14. 1 2 Marshall, Peter (2008). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism . London: Harper Perennial. p. 565. "The problem with the term 'libertarian' is that it is now also used by the Right. [...] In its moderate form, right libertarianism embraces laissez-faire liberals like Robert Nozick who call for a minimal State, and in its extreme form, anarcho-capitalists like Murray Rothbard and David Friedman who entirely repudiate the role of the State and look to the market as a means of ensuring social order".
  15. Hussain, Syed B. (2004). Encyclopedia of Capitalism. Vol. II : H-R. New York: Facts on File Inc. p. 492. ISBN   0816052247. Archived from the original on 2024-02-07. Retrieved 2019-03-23. In the modern world, political ideologies are largely defined by their attitude towards capitalism. Marxists want to overthrow it, liberals to curtail it extensively, conservatives to curtail it moderately. Those who maintain that capitalism is a excellent economic system, unfairly maligned, with little or no need for corrective government policy, are generally known as libertarians.
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  29. Narveson, Jan; Trenchard, David (2008). "Left Libertarianism". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). Archived copy. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 288–289. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n174. ISBN   978-1412965804. LCCN   2008009151. OCLC   750831024. Archived from the original on 2023-01-09. Retrieved 2016-03-18. [Left libertarians] regard each of us as full self-owners. Left libertarians embrace the view that all natural resources, land, oil, gold, trees, and so on should be held collectively. To the extent that individuals make use of these commonly owned goods, they must do so only with the permission of society, a permission granted only under the provision that a certain payment for their use be made to society at large.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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Further reading