Map My Politics

LIBERTARIANISM – The Ideology of Freedom

Libertarianism is one of the six core political ideologies on the Map My Politics ideology chart, occupying the area below the conservative zone. It is certainly a right-wing ideology on the conventional left-right continuum of relative economic freedom. But libertarians also place tremendous value on personal liberty as well, which demonstrates the need for a two-axis chart.

In terms of economic liberty, there is no doubt that libertarians embrace the virtues of the free enterprise system just as much as their conservative neighbors to the north. One could argue that libertarians are the ultimate champions of unrestricted free markets, predisposed to no regulations whatsoever, and this is essentially true because all the ideologies in this lower right quadrant are, broadly speaking, libertarian in orientation. But most libertarians do not go quite as far to the right in laissez-faire terms as neoliberals. They do, however, advocate for less government taxation, spending and protection of the environment than their social libertarian cousins to the immediate left on the Map My Politics chart. For libertarians, it’s an article of faith that taxes should be kept to a minimum – just enough to pay for the necessary functions of government, like police, fire protection and courts (the latter for enforcing contracts and administering criminal justice). Libertarians aren’t overly troubled by disparities of wealth among citizens because they view impediments to a person’s ability to work freely and run a business as a much greater sin.

Regarding the y-axis of social liberty, libertarians are the true champions of a classical liberalism that calls for not only freedom of speech, press and religion but nearly unrestricted freedom in family and personal matters too. To libertarians, who view liberty (in the negative sense) as the right to be left alone, there is no justification for externally-imposed limits on taking recreational drugs, obtaining an abortion or riding a motorcycle without a helmet. If I’m not harming you, says a libertarian, why should you restrict what I do?

The roots of libertarianism can be traced to Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke and Adam Smith. Smith, whose major work was The Wealth of Nations, is often called the “Father of Capitalism,” while Locke, who wrote Two Treatises of Government, is commonly referred to as the “Father of Liberalism” – in the classical sense of liberal, not the modern American ideological sense. Locke laid the groundwork for the form of limited government adopted by the framers of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia while Smith described the theoretical mechanisms behind the free market.

Because the United States is – for the most part – a two-party system, libertarians traditionally had to make an imperfect home within the Democratic and Republican parties. Until 1971 that is, when a group of young libertarian ideologues became so disenchanted with those options that they formed their own party. Those Libertarian Party founders, including David Nolan (who is also credited with creating an early version of the two-axis chart we utilize), could abide neither the taxation and spending of the Democrats nor the hawkish military policy and abandonment of the monetary gold standard of the GOP. No one running as a libertarian has succeeded in holding national office, but libertarianism has had tremendous success in influencing American political thought, especially with private foundations and think tanks such as the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation and the Federalist Society. As we stress repeatedly on the Map My Politics site, politics at its most fundamental level is about ideology.

Prominent American libertarian politicians have included Ron Paul, Gary Johnson and Justin Amash – and, in a prior generation, Barry Goldwater (but only later in his career). Important American libertarian thinkers and writers have included Murray Rothbard, Robert Nozick and David Boaz. The novelists Robert Heinlein and Ayn Rand have also been enormously influential among American libertarians, but we categorize Rand more as an anarcho-capitalist in the extreme lower-right quadrant on our chart.

For further reading about the libertarian ideology, click here.

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