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Q: Are libertarianism and socialism mutually exclusive?
A: No. Libertarians believe liberty consists of personal autonomy, and they justify a strong distrust of the state upon this foundation. Socialism is a social and economic system characterised by social ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy, as well as a political theory and movement that aims at the establishment of such a system. Although socialism is commonly associated with the planned economies proffered by Marxism-Leninism and other "authoritarian socialists," libertarian socialism rejects economic direction from a central authority such as the state. Thus, libertarianism and anarchism have been synonyms since the 1890s, and other equivalents include libertarian socialism, socialist anarchism, and left-libertarianism. The libertarianism of the 19th century had two strong currents, social anarchism and individualist anarchism, both of which fall under the umbrella of libertarian socialism and were explicitly anti-capitalist.
In the 20th century, members of the Old Right in the United States such as Albert Jay Nock and H. L. Mencken began identifying as libertarians to declare their commitment to individualism and distance themselves from liberals who supported welfare capitalism. Some libertarians (e.g. Murray Rothbard, who popularized the libertarian philosophy anarcho-capitalism) were explicitly influenced by the American individualist anarchists, but most were "a rather automatic product of the American environment." This modern American libertarianism is also referred to as right-libertarianism.
Q: What is right-libertarianism? What is left-libertarianism?
Q: How are all these political philosophies related? Which ones are closely related or inclusive?
A: Some labels and qualifiers are typically used to group together multiple political movements or ideologies or distance them from others. Below is a rough and simplified visual representation of how many of the political camps described in the article (i.e. groups that have either identified or been described as libertarian) relate to one another, without any regard to their affinity for one another, their prominence or their significance.
Libertarian classification diagram
Libertarianism diagram
References
Badie, Bertrand; Berg-Schlosser, Dirk; Morlino, Leonardo (2011). International Encyclopedia of Political Science. SAGE Publications, Inc. p. 2456. ISBN 978-1412959636. "Socialist systems are those regimes based on the economic and political theory of socialism, which advocates public ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources."
Sacco, Nicola and Vanzetti, Bartolomeo (1928). The Letters of Sacco and Vanzetti. New York: Octagon Books. p. 274. "After all we are socialists as the social-democrats, the socialists, the communists, and the I.W.W. are all Socialists. The difference—the fundamental one—between us and all the other is that they are authoritarian while we are libertarian; they believe in a State or Government of their own; we believe in no State or Government."
Nettlau, Max (1996). A Short History of Anarchism (in English, translated). London:Freedom Press. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-900384-89-9. OCLC37529250.
Guérin, Daniel (1970). Anarchism: From Theory to Practice. New York:Monthly Review Press. ISBN 978-0853451754. "Some contemporary anarchists have tried to clear up the misunderstanding by adopting a more explicit term: they align themselves with libertarian socialism or communism."
Ostergaard, Geoffrey. "Anarchism". The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought. Blackwell Publishing. p. 14.
^ Bookchin, Murray and Biehl, Janet (1997). The Murray Bookchin Reader. New York:Cassell. p. 170.
Marshall, Peter (2009). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. Oakland:PM Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-60486-064-1. " emerged at the end of the eighteenth century in its modern form as a response partly to the rise of centalized States and nationalism, and partly to industrialization and capital. Anarchism thus took up the dual challenge of overthrowing both Capital and the State."
^ Chartier, Gary. Johnson, Charles W. (2011). Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty. Minor Compositions. pp. 4-5. ISBN 978-1570272424. "The anticapitalism of the 'first wave' individualists was obvious to them and to many of their contemporaries."
DeLeon, David (1978). The American as Anarchist: Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism.Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 127. "only a few individuals like Murray Rothbard, in Power and Market, and some article writers were influenced by . Most had not evolved consciously from this tradition; they had been a rather automatic product of the American environment."
^ Goodway, David (2006). Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward. Liverpool:Liverpool University Press. p. 4. "'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 anarchist tradition."
Hamowy, Ronald. "Left Libertarianism." The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. p. 288
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North's general thoughts
My efforts on libertarian articles over 10 years have been more as a facilitator than someone with strong opinions on the topics being discussed. This expanded into be a sort of mediator years ago when there were range wars at Libertarianism. The decision back then for the article is I think a good one for all of the libertarian articles which to cover all significant aspects of libertarianism. Contentious articles are usually fueled by some real-world contest/battle being played out in Misplaced Pages. Thank goodness I don't think that we have that here. I think that most or all participants want to simply do the best thing. The biggest challenge, probably uniquely strong here is that people have learned this topic and sources have covered this topic through fundamentally different frameworks and even different languages amongst the English languages. The latter refers to the words "libertarianism" and "liberal" having very different (but partially overlapping) meanings in the US vs. Europe. So here are some of those different lenses:
Fundamentally different English languages spoken in Europe vs. the US on political science terms like "libertarianism" and "liberal"
The numerically largest form of libertarianism is a large vague phenomena in the US, with 23% of Americans identifying as libertarians and 27% with libertarian voting pattern. It is not useful to try to define it as a philosophical strand. Operating in areas of libertarian where it is useful to dedine them primarily as philosophical strands creates a lens or bias. Even less useful to apply a foreign lens to it. For example, defining US libertarianism as being a pro-capitalism ideology is like defining European conservative ideology as one that is anti-canibalism.
It's pretty cool that we have so many conversations going on regarding coverage of libertarianism. It also presents a challenge that if we're talking about a zillion things at once we might not get anything done. Possibly the work we were doing at Right-libertarianism is now jammed up. Perhaps we should focus on a large scale general outline for libertarianism articles, while putting the above described "lenses" aside.
Keep and enhance articles about the strands of libertarianism with genuine unique names that have more or less consistent meanings.
Deprecate all of the other "two word" libertarianism articles into short articles about those terms and who uses those terms. So, if you have a "dogs" article, and 200 articles about the breeds of dogs, the "big dogs" article would be about the meanings and usage of the term "big dogs", not duplicate coverage about 100 breeds of dogs that somebody considers to be big.
Use this just as a general guide, there will be exceptions and special cases.
Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 19:10, 14 November 2019 (UTC)
@North8000: Numerical numbers are worthless. For over one hundred year, libertarian has been used in relation of anarchism and libertarian socialism; and it continues these days in most countries. We could also just easily say that 90% of Americans are liberals because conservatism, liberalism and modern liberalism are all variants of liberalism. I also don't understand your example in "defining US libertarianism as being a pro-capitalism ideology is like defining European conservative ideology as one that is anti-canibalism." While not all libertarianism is a "pro-capitalism ideology", some libertarianisms indeed are. Could you also more clear and give example of articles about "the strands of libertarianism with genuine unique names that have more or less consistent meanings" as well as the "two word" libertarianism articles" you keep referencing to, but without giving any example? Because there may be some that could be merged into a Libertarian schools of thought articles, but Left-libertarianism and Right-libertarianism aren't some of them. Could you also please make more political pertinents examples? Should we also delete democratic socialism, social democracy, social liberalism, classical liberalism, conservative liberalism, national conservatism, social conservatism, liberal conservatism et all other "two word" political related articles? Should we merge all of them in socialism, liberalism and conservatism articles? Most of these "two word" libertarianism articles don't refer to Libertarianism but rather to a specific strand of it, hence they have their articles. However, we could put them all in Libertarian schools of thought. Articles like Consequentialist libertarianism, Natural-rights libertarianism, Neoclassical liberalism and Neo-libertarianism are all short and could be included in the Libertarian shools of thought. I just disagree with deleting or merging Left-libertarianism and Right-libertarianism.--Davide King (talk) 10:37, 17 November 2019 (UTC) --Davide King (talk) 02:27, 10 January 2020 (UTC)
I think that I should reword my proposal for more clarity and fine-tuning, but your question points to a misread of something important that I did include. The likely fate of targeted articles isn't limited to "merge";just as likely would be to reduce the articles to be primarily about the term and it's usage. The reductions will invariably be material that is duplicated from other articles that are in the main plan anyway. Regarding the specific ones that you ask about, my proposal would just be setting the criteria framework between the two possibilities. Persons who know those terms/topics better than I (typically the main editors at those articles) would make the decision based on those criteria. North8000 (talk) 18:56, 22 November 2019 (UTC)
Regarding the "I don't understand your example". "Anti-canibalism" is not a defining aspect of European conservatism, they merely tacitly accept anti-canibalims as the norm. If another strand of conservatism somewhere in the world advocates cannibalism, is not a reason to define European conservatism ideology as "anti-canibalism". Analogously, common American libertarianism tacitly accepts capitalism. Analogously, the fact that a different strand of libertarianism may oppose capitalism is not a reason to say that "pro-capitalism" or "anti-canibalism" are planks of the common US version. North8000 (talk) 19:08, 22 November 2019 (UTC)
Davide King: You said, "For over one hundred year, libertarian has been used in relation of anarchism and libertarian socialism". But I wonder how true that really is. You mention a span of time, but you don't say how common the usage during that period actually was. The article contains material in the section Etymology which refers to "In the United States, libertarian was popularized by the individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker around the late 1870s and early 1880s. Libertarianism as a synonym for liberalism was popularized in May 1955 by writer Dean Russell, a colleague of Leonard Read and a classical liberal himself." Presumably, that 70-year span is contained in the "...for over one hundred years" that you are referring to. But, how much actual usage did the term "libertarianism" get during that 70 year period? Is it possible that 'the left' almost entirely abandoned their usage of "libertarianism" and "libertarian" during that time? Riverine721 (talk) 04:02, 16 November 2020 (UTC)
This article is primary source about the use of the term
This Misplaced Pages article is the main source of this original theory that conflates the polisemic term "libertarian" with the non-polisemic term "libertarianism". Where in the common use the anarchists (in the historical and left wing sense) or libertarian socialists use the term "libertarianism" to define their ideology?: In no place, they use anarchism or in last case libertarian socialism but never libertarianism. This article is an original essay where the author(s) expose how they think ideologies should be named and classified but not how they are actually named and classified in the common use. And that common use of libertarianism as a free market capitalism ideology is not only a reality in the US (the supposed US exclusivity of the use is another primary source theory of this Misplaced Pages article) but in all the American continent at least, you can consult "libertario" or "libertarismo" or "libertarianismo" in Google for Spanish and Portuguese results and what you will get are very predominantly free market capitalist descriptions of the terms (from places like Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, and even in Spain that is in Europe). Maybe was just an US social movement in the 70s — like historical anarchism was a particularly French social movement in the 1880s before become international —, but now we are 50 years after that. --Hades7 (talk) 14:50, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
This was already opened by you and discussed in February 2019. I do not see anything new that has changed. This article includes both capitalist or right and socialist or left libertarian viewpoints. If you are asking us to make Libertarianism only about the American/capitalist/right viewpoint, which is what I seem to gasp from your comment, I do not think that is going to pass. For that free-market capitalist viewpoint, we already have Libertarianism in the United States (specifically about the United States) and Right-libertarianism (internationally). As noted by The Four Deuces in that discussion, modern American libertarianism developed out of 19th century libertarianism and retains some of its tenets, terminology and symbols. Hence it is both historically and philosophically related. This is why we mention both capitalist and socialist libertarian views.
I also agree with Finx's comment that the purpose of the article is to answer the question "what is a libertarian" – and I don't think that making some contrived distinction between "libertarian" and "libertarianism" helps to answer that question clearly. I think you are generally wrong about that as George Woodcock and others used libertarianism, certainly not to refer to the free-market capitalist viewpoint. Another relevant comment by Finx from that discussion which I believe is relevant is that here was a deliberate effort to hijack (or "capture" in the words of Rothbard) pivotal leftist terminology, with considerable success. I don't think we can just remove a syllable and eliminate that issue, somehow. I guess your argument is that socialist libertarians used libertarian rather than libertarianism and so libertarianism should only refer to the free-market capitalist viewpoint, but that is wrong because socialist libertarians have used libertarianism too.--Davide King (talk) 18:17, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
There wasn't any "libertarianism" in the 19th century. There was an anarchism in that century and not a "libertarianism". Libertarianism is a word and philosophy of the 20th century. This article is creating a use of words and philosophical classification where this Misplaced Pages article is the primary source. Eventualy this have to change, a primary source article couldn't be preserved forever.
Also, the neutrality of an article not implies equal importance of, in this case, a use of a word - a marginal use couldn't be in the same rank of common use. And, what is the most common use of the word libertarianism? Well, main sources and search point to a capitalist free market ideology and not to historical anarchism. You shouldn't construct an article founded on exceptions. --Hades7 (talk) 23:49, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
I think the comment that olitical descriptions in almost all cases were invented long after the ideologies they described had become established is spot on. I am not sure whether, for example, Locke called himself a liberal, yet he is widely considered to be the father of liberalism. I think the same thing applies to the 19th-century libertarian tradition. Anarchist, libertarian and liberal ideas go back to ancient history (see for example Laozi), but there are clearly timelines about when the actual movement truly developed and formed. I think the 19th-century libertarian tradition cannot simply be put away like that.--Davide King (talk) 00:57, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
The reality is exactly the opposite. The two most serious, comprehensive and noteworthy sources for the article are Graham's "Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas" and Woodcock's "Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements" – neither of which even bothers to mention that marginal Koch-funded, right-wing oddity, explicitly tasked with inverting the meaning of the term, which you want to be the sole focus of the article. You can check for yourself. That should give you some idea how much it actually matters globally, in a broad, historical context, which – protests notwithstanding – does have a clear documentary record spanning over 160 years. fi (talk) 14:25, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
Hades7, first this article is not AN essay by any long shot. It is the product of about 13,000 article space edits plus 15,000 discussion page posts by hundreds of editors over 19 years of evolution, countless discussions and RFC's including a giant range war about a decade ago which I was the pseudo-mediator/moderator on. Most of the debates stemmed from people who figure that they know the one true meaning of libertarianism/libertarian and that all others are mistaken. The result of the rfc's including the mega rfc in particular is to acknowledge that there are widely varying strands of libertarianism and meanings of the term and that we are to cover and try to explain all of the significant ones. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 01:21, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
Why this article mixes up "Libertarianism" and "Libertarian socialism" in a giant, incompatible and intelligible mess? These two are utterly different concepts, with no points of convergence, and they even stem from very different philosophical schools, with very little influence one on the other. Their only similarity starts and ends with the use of the word "libertarian" somewhere in their self-descriptive names, and little more. As a result, this article is almost unreadable; the orthography is correct, the grammar is correct, but nevertheless unreadable.
Equally unnecessary, and even artificial, is the use of "left libertarianism" (which is essentially a duplication of the "libertarian socialism" article) and "right-wing libertarianism" as two separate articles, furthermore using the quasi-obsolete political terms left and right. This almost seems as a botch attempt to deconstruct the term "libertarian" via divide-and-conquer. The reality is that "Libertarianism" refers to what is described in the "right-wing libertarianism" article, and "left-wing libertarianism" is actually "libertarian socialism," which has its own article already and which the left-wing libertarianism article is a reverberation of. It seems impossible to understand why (and how) this article has achieved such level of degradation. I propose that this article to be eliminated and the term "Libertarianism" be reconstituted into what currently is the "right-wing libertarianism" article. Ajñavidya (talk) 07:14, 8 July 2021 (UTC)
Yet another right-libertarian who wants to claim the term "libertarianism" entirely for their variety, despite the fact that right-libertarianism self-admittedly (read the article! and its references) co-opted the term that previously referred to libertarian socialism. Yawn.
There are two things that both claim the term "libertarianism" as rightfully their name and their name alone, that despite their differences also have significant commonalities, and this article is about all of that, not about either one of them alone, with both of them having their own articles to talk about themselves alone. We've been over this a million times before; read up the talk page(s). --Pfhorrest (talk) 08:37, 8 July 2021 (UTC)
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