Libertarianism + Classical Liberalism

libertarianism

says this: Individuals have one, and only one, fundamental right, namely, the right to not be forcibly interfered with by others in their person and property; and the state’s sole job is to enforce that right

To be a self-owner is to…

have a right to determine for oneself what will be done to one’s body and what one will think, say and do

property

libertarianism says that individuals may acquire rights to things external to themselves which they call this

positive right

a right TO something. an entitlement to be provided with some good or service by some person or persons.

A negative right

is a right against being interfered with. a right AGAINST something - being interfered with. A right against interference or coercive interference According to libertarianism, we do not have any pre-political (or natural) positive rights.

Liberty Tradition

all the political philosophies think the liberty of individuals is really important. Including Left Liberalism, Classical Liberalism, etc.

inalienable

it cannot be taken away from you.

alienate

means to be taken or separate.

Coercive

Violating someone’s rights by force

virtue of a mutually voluntary exchange

A positive right. imagine someone agrees (say, by entering into a contract with you) to provide you with a good or service in exchange for something you agree to give them. In that case, you acquire a positive right to that particular good or service from that particular person called

right to compensation

A positive right. Imagine someone causes you to incur a loss by violating your rights – say they break your window while playing ball. In that case, you acquire a positive right to compensation

Rights may be transferred voluntarily

I may voluntarily transfer to you my right to something external to myself by giving it to you or exchanging something with you for it. Once I’ve transferred my right to that thing to you, you may do to it what would otherwise have been a violation of my rights. So, for example, you may destroy it or sell it.

rights and duties are correlative

This means that any time a person has a right, other persons have a correlated duty. Since all individuals have a right to not be coercively interfered with, each individual has the duty to not coercively interfere with anyone

Just acquisition

Is when you come to own something that was not previously owned. Scuba-diving in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, which is unowned, I find a seashell and take possession of it, I thereby come to own it.

Just transfer

Is when someone acquires property by receiving something from someone whose property it is as a gift, or by inheritance, or by exchange. I own my grandmother’s rocking chair because I inherited it from her.

Coercible Duty

The duty to not violate another’s rights. That a right is coercible means that individuals may justly be forced by other people to fulfill it. So, according to libertarianism, individuals may be justly forced to not coercively interfere with one another.

rights enforcement

It should be clear that libertarianism holds that some coercion is permissible and thus justified when used, namely the coercion used to enforce individuals’ rights. We will call this coercion. According to libertarianism, rights enforcement – and rights enforcement alone – is the job of the state.

What rights enforcements does the state have?

First is by forcing individuals to not violate others’ rights.

Second is by forcing individuals to pay taxes to fund the institutions that enforce rights.

the taxing minimal state

We call it the minimal state because it is limited to rights enforcement; we call it the taxing minimal state because it taxes individuals to pay for rights enforcement.

paternalistic

That is, governments often force (or encourage) citizens to do what is good for them, or to avoid what is bad for them.

moralistic

The state forces (or encourages) citizens to do what is morally right or to avoid doing what is morally wrong. Enforcing observance of the Christian Sabbath); prohibited women from obtaining birth control (enforcing the religious command to be fruitful and multiply);

libertarian feminism

moralistic and paternalistic laws have played a major role in the oppression of women – and still do. in many parts of the world – some embrace libertarianism’s anti-moralism and anti- paternalism as the foundation of a

libertinism

a philosophy that recommends living a life unconstrained by custom and traditional morality. Libertarianism, by contrast, doesn’t tell individuals how to live.

libertarianism vs libertinism

Libertinism simply tells us what coercible duties each person has, and what the state may and should do. Libertarianism says the state should not prohibit anyone from defying custom or traditional morality. It says individuals have the right to live as they like, so long as they don’t violate others’ rights.

Personal freedoms

nclude the freedom to make one’s own choices and do what one wants (so long as one doesn’t interfere with others’ freedoms).his includes determining for oneself what one will do with one’s own body; pursuing a life of one’s own according to one’s preferences and values

Social conservatives

believes that individuals should live within the constraints of custom and traditional morality. We will use the term ‘political conservatism’ for the philosophy that says that state power may and should be used to enforce society’s customs and traditional morality.

what is theft

Libertarians believe that taxation for purposes like those just listed – and many others that, like them, go beyond rights enforcement. It is an impermissible, unjustified taking of money from individuals by the state

Anti-trust laws

aim to promote competition between companies by prohibiting the formation of monopolies. Libertarians reject anti-trust laws because they do not protect anyone’s rights. You might prefer (to take just one example) that there be multiple air conditioner producers that compete against one another so air conditioner prices are low and air conditioner quality high

minimum wage

libertarians believe, it is the minimum wage law itself that coercively interferes with employers’ right to run their businesses as they see fit, as well as with employees’ right to decide what employment arrangements to agree to

Eminent domain

the power a government has to force an individual to sell their property if that property is necessary to promote some public purpose. libertarians do not agree

normative conceptions of society

are beliefs about how society should be regarded from a political point of view. Libertarianism says that, from a political point of view, society should be understood as an aggregate of inviolable individuals – an assemblage of individuals each of which is sovereign over themself.

voluntary goods

libertarians are in favor of people being safe from harm, and of people fulfilling their moral duties to themselves and others. They are in favor of schools and parks and sanitation and roads and help for the poor. They are in favor of adequate income in retirement and in cases of disability. And all the rest. Libertarians recognize that any good society will make it possible for many or all of these goods to be broadly enjoyed. However, libertarians think these goods should be produced by the voluntary choices of individuals and not by the coercive action of the state.

Freedom of Conscience

Thinking ones own thoughts

Freedom of association

freedom to associate with ones choosings

classical liberalism

The philosophies in this family hold that the state’s job is to make the free society possible by:

1) securing the right of individuals to a broad array of freedoms, including market freedoms

2) securing a narrow range of “public goods and improvements.”

ideal of the free society. (CL)

The rule of law exists when the state exercises its power – that is, governs – exclusively by creating and enforcing general, impersonal legal rules;when those legal rules apply not only to citizens but to the government itselfEqy

Free society includes four factors (CL)

1) the rule of law
2) formal (or legal) equality
3) the right to a broad array of freedoms
4) democracy

Equality under the law (formal equality) (CL)

laws apply to each individual without distinction. There are no legal classes or castes; this means that there are neither special group-based legal rights nor special group-based legal obligations or burdens.

Political Liberties (CL)

We also exercise freedom of association when we voluntarily participate in democratic governance.

Market Freedom (CL)

Classical Liberals endorse this - to acquire and own property. Ownership of property is often described as a bundle of rights including the right to use something, the right to exclude others from its use, and the right to dispose of it through exchange or by destroying it.

Constitutional Democracy (CL)

In the free society, the right to these freedoms has a special – institutionally protected – status. Think of the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of the many states. This division serves to protect individual freedoms by placing them largely out of reach of the legislature and the executive. That is, these legal documents explain that legislative majorities may not pass laws that infringe on a constitutionally enshrined set of freedoms of individuals, nor may the executive act in ways that infringe on them.

The moral core of classical liberalism.

The ideal of the self-sovereign and morally responsible individual.

An individual is self-sovereign when they are able to follow their own will. Another way of putting this is that an individual is self-sovereign when their actions result from their own choices based on their preferences and value

The second moral core of classical liberalism.

ideal of society as an association of self-sovereign and morally responsible individuals. According to this ideal, individuals should recognize, respect and treat one another as self-sovereign and individually responsible

The ideal of the self-sovereign and morally responsible individual caused what? (CL)

abolition of slavery and full civil rights and 20th century women’s movements,

What is the job of the state according to classical liberalism

produce and sustain the free society

why do classical liberal value the free society?

because it serves the deeper ideal of the self-sovereign and morally responsible individual.

Roles of the state according to classical libealism

1) Police its own use of power to ensure that it does not exceed what is required to secure the free society
2) protect individuals’ rights against their freedoms infringed by other individuals
3) ensure that individuals take responsibility for the costs of their own conduct
4) enable individuals “at times to accomplish jointly what they find it difficult or expensive to accomplish severally.

Disagreements among Classical Liberals 1

How much regulation is justified to prevent harm.

Disagreements among Classical Liberals 2

Which goods qualify as necessary public goods.

Disagreements among Classical Liberals 3

Whether state interventions like public education or healthcare can be justified under the "net benefit constraint" (i.e., benefiting all individuals without making some worse off).

Net Benefit Constraint (CL)

State actions must benefit all individuals without making anyone worse off.

The net benefit constraint also rules out redistributive and uses of state power that are moralistic.

Redistributive uses of State Power (CL)

Think of uses of state power that bring about benefits for some by imposing costs on others

Moralistic uses of State Power (CL)

aim to leave everyone better off as measured by some particular conception of the morally good life. Classical liberalism doesn’t recognize something as a benefit unless your own preferences and values recognize it as such.

Does CL permit paternalism?

it seems that classical liberalism permits some uses of it — if it solves coordination problems and meets net-benefit constraint

Why do classical liberals put such constraints on uses of state power?

Classical liberals often make the empirical claim that non-state solutions are usually more effective than solutions provided by the state. If they are usually more effective, then they should be tried first.

“fraught with danger.” (CL)

this means that state power is always, “a dangerous instrument.”