Criticism of libertarianism
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Criticism of libertarianism includes
Ethical criticism
Aggression and coercion
The validity of
Other critics, including
Authenticity of libertarian goals
Critics such as Corey Robin describe right-libertarianism as fundamentally a reactionary conservative ideology united with more traditional conservative thought and goals by a desire to enforce hierarchical power and social relations:[5]
Conservatism, then, is not a commitment to limited government and liberty – or a wariness of change, a belief in evolutionary reform, or a politics of virtue. These may be the byproducts of conservatism, one or more of its historically specific and ever-changing modes of expression. But they are not its animating purpose. Neither is conservatism a makeshift fusion of capitalists, Christians, and warriors, for that fusion is impelled by a more elemental force – the opposition to the liberation of men and women from the fetters of their superiors, particularly in the private sphere. Such a view might seem miles away from the libertarian defense of the free market, with its celebration of the atomistic and autonomous individual. But it is not. When the libertarian looks out upon society, he does not see isolated individuals; he sees private, often hierarchical, groups, where a father governs his family and an owner his employees.
Will Moyer, a former libertarian, thought that Anarchism was the full realization of libertarianism. Political libertarianism was a distorted version of the philosophy, appealing solely to people who admired libertarianism's feelings but lacked the principle to follow it to its logical (and moral) consequences.[6]
Property
In his essay "From Liberty to Welfare", philosopher James P. Sterba argues that a morally consistent application of right-libertarian premises, including that of negative liberty, requires that a libertarian must endorse "the equality in the distribution of goods and resources required by a socialist state". Sterba presents the example of a typical conflict situation between the rich and poor "in order to see why libertarians are mistaken about what their ideal requires". He argues that such a situation is correctly seen as a conflict of negative liberties, saying that the right of the rich not to be interfered with in the satisfaction of their luxury needs is morally trumped by the right of the poor "not to be interfered with in taking from the surplus possessions of the rich what is necessary to satisfy their basic needs".
According to Sterba, the liberty of the poor should be morally prioritized in light of the fundamental ethical principle "ought implies can" from which it follows that it would be unreasonable to ask the poor to relinquish their liberty not be interfered with, noting that "in the extreme case it would involve asking or requiring the poor to sit back and starve to death" and that "by contrast it would not be unreasonable to ask and require the rich to sacrifice their liberty to meet some of their needs so that the poor can have the liberty to meet their basic needs". Having argued that "ought implies can" establishes the reasonability of asking the rich to sacrifice their luxuries for the basic needs of the poor, Sterba invokes a second fundamental principle, "The Conflict Resolution Principle", to argue that it is reasonable to make it an ethical requirement. He concludes by arguing that the application of these principles to the international context makes a compelling case for socialist distribution on a world scale.[7]
Jeffrey Friedman argues that natural-rights libertarianism's justification for the primacy of property is incoherent:[8]
[W]e can press on from [the observation that libertarianism is egalitarian] to ask why, if ... the liberty of a human being to own another should be trumped by equal human rights, the liberty to own large amounts of property [at the expense of others] should not also be trumped by equal human rights. This alone would seem definitively to lay to rest the philosophical case for libertarianism. ... The very idea of ownership contains the relativistic seeds of arbitrary authority: the arbitrary authority of the individual's "right to do wrong."
Philosopher
Standards of well-being
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Theory of liberty
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J. C. Lester has argued that right-libertarianism has no explicit theory of liberty.[12] He supplies a theory of liberty, briefly summarized as the absence of imposed cost. Frederick[13] criticizes Lester for smuggling in concepts not specified in the theory. Lester[14] responded. Both Lester and Frederick are proponents of critical rationalism, the epistemological approach of Karl Popper. Lester has criticized libertarians for neglecting epistemology.
Economic criticism
Right-libertarians are accused of ignoring
Environmental criticism
Reconciliation of individual rights and the advances of a free market economy with
Right-libertarians are also criticized for ignoring
Pragmatic criticism
Lack of contemporary examples
In 2013, Michael Lind observed that of the 195 countries in the world, none have fully actualized a society as advocated by right-libertarians:[18]
If libertarianism was a good idea, wouldn't at least one country have tried it? Wouldn't there be at least one country, out of nearly two hundred, with minimal government, free trade, open borders, decriminalized drugs, no welfare state and no public education system?
Furthermore, Lind has criticized right-libertarianism as being incompatible with democracy and apologetic towards autocracy.[19] In response, right-libertarian Warren Redlich argues that the United States "was extremely libertarian from the founding until 1860, and still very libertarian until roughly 1930".[20]
Counter-criticism
Declan McCullagh, writing for Wired, argued that libertarianism "attracts the most strident criticism from those who understand it the least. Expending little or no effort on research, critics barely familiar with libertarian ideas concoct an unappetizing stew of ideas – anarchism, egoism, and plain selfishness and greed – and mistakenly dub it libertarianism." McCullagh further argues:[21]
Libertarianism is not about anarchy, utopia, or selfishness. Instead, libertarians simply are skeptical of 'nanny government,' and recognize the many ways state power has been abused in the past. They believe that government programs like health assistance, Social Security, foreign aid, and corporate welfare do more harm than good. They argue that everyone must be equal before the law, and everyone has human rights to personal security, to property, and to free speech that the government must protect, not violate.
— Declan McCullagh
See also
- Criticism of anarchism
- Criticism of anarcho-capitalism
- Criticism of capitalism
- Criticism of democracy
- Criticism of globalization
- Criticism of socialism
- Debates within libertarianism
- Outline of libertarianism
References
- ^ )
- ISBN 978-0674037304.
- ^ ISBN 978-0131126954.
- ^ Huemer, Michael (2013). The Problem of Political Authority.
- ISBN 978-0199793747.
- ^ Moyer, Will (14 June 2014). "Why I left libertarianism: An ethical critique of a limited ideology". Salon. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
- ^ Sterba, James P. (October 1994). "From Liberty to Welfare." Ethics (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell). 105 (1). pp. 237–241.
- ^ Friedman, Jeffrey (1993). "What's Wrong with Libertarianism". Critical Review. 11 (3). p. 427.
- ^ Wolff, Jonathan. "Libertarianism, Utility, and Economic Competition" (PDF). Virginia Law Review. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 January 2013.
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(help) - ^ Bruenig, Matt (28 October 2013). "Libertarians Are Huge Fans of Economic Coercion" Archived 2013-11-01 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b Friedman, Jeffrey (1993). "Politics or Scholarship?". Critical Review. 6 (2-3). pp. 429–445.
- ^ Lester, J. C. (22 October 2017). "New-Paradigm Libertarianism: a Very Brief Explanation" Archived 2018-07-06 at the Wayback Machine. PhilPapers. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ Frederick, Danny. "A Critique of Lester's Account of Liberty" Archived 2023-04-04 at the Wayback Machine. PhilPapers. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
- ^ Lester, J. C. "A Reply to Frederick 2013: 'A Critique of Lester's Account of Liberty'" Archived 2020-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. SSRN. Retrieved 19 May 2020
- ISBN 978-0199933914. Archivedfrom the original on 8 February 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-2511001516. Archivedfrom the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
- ISBN 0415082544. Archivedfrom the original on 8 February 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
- Salon.
- ^ Lind, Michael (30 August 2011). "Why libertarians apologize for autocracy". Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
- ^ "Was America Ever Libertarian". Independent Political Report. 25 April 2017. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
- from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
Further reading
- Bird, Colin (2008). "Liberal Critique of Libertarianism". In OCLC 750831024.
- OCLC 750831024.
- Mulligan, Thomas (2018). "6: What's Wrong About Libertarianism: A Meritocratic Diagnosis". The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism. London and New York: Taylor & Francis. pp. 77–89. ISBN 978-0367870591.