Libertarian Papers

Abstract: Critics of Nozick have claimed that his formulation of the Lockean proviso is too permissive to serve as a morally plausible constraint on resource acquisition. In this essay, I advance a new critique of Nozick’s entitlement theory. In particular, I argue that even on his own permissive formulation of the Lockean proviso, he faces a dilemma. Either: (a) Nozick must accept redistributive taxation for the purposes of guaranteeing a compensatory level of welfare, which pushes him far beyond his goal of a minimal state, or (b) he must admit that his entitlement theory cannot satisfy the Lockean proviso. I will develop this dilemma by advancing a unique challenge to the way Nozick and contemporary libertarians like Jan Narveson evaluate the welfare prospects of the poor in conditions of moderate scarcity. In brief, they weight material welfare too heavily and discount more subjective elements of wellbeing, including self-mastery.

Keywords: Robert Nozick, minimal state, Lockean proviso, wealth redistribution, entitlement theory, Jan Narveson

Download PDF: “Forcing Nozick Beyond the Minimal State: The Lockean Proviso and Compensatory Welfare”

Abstract: In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, stockbrokers, speculators, and stockjobbers were often accused of fraud and price manipulation. Seven key regulatory acts were passed into law in England from 1697 to 1737. Evidence suggests that well into the nineteenth century, virtually none of these laws were adhered to or seriously enforced. An apparent gap existed between the legislation and judicial enforcement of regulations. However, the emerging London stock exchange operated within a private and self-regulating alternative legal system. In the few cases that did come before the English common law courts from 1697 to 1845, justices, many of whom were themselves active traders and investors, predominantly avoided enforcing stock market regulations and upheld private contracts between individuals. In this manner, members of the judiciary demonstrated that they were acting as an integral part of the private, self-regulating stock exchange. The legal decisions that upheld private stock-transfer contracts in the eighteenth century have important implications for our understanding of the development of judicial interpretation of commercial contract law.

Keywords: Speculation, financial regulation, English courts, common law, economic history

JEL Codes: G28, N23, O16

Download PDF: “Speculation and the English Common Law Courts, 1697-1845”

Abstract: The editors of the volume Speaking Truth to Power from Medieval to Modern Italy make an effort to wrestle the category of power away from the Foucauldian camp and use it as a tool to investigate state coercion and literary expressions of resistance against it. As Jo Ann Cavallo and Carlo Lottieri explain in the introductory chapter (which, however, takes aim more at Marxism than post-modernism), scholars have usually reduced the concept of power to economic and cultural processes. Instead, the editors of this volume wish to focus their attention on political power, its violent nature, and in particular, its most disturbing embodiment: the state.

Keywords: Literary criticism, critical theory, Italian literature, power, liberalism

Download PDF: “Book Review: Speaking Truth to Power from Medieval to Modern Italy“

Abstract: This article presents a new approach to considering the categories and concepts necessary for praxeology based on the theoretical framework proposed by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard. Natural semantic metalanguage theory can be a comprehensive method for defining the conceptual foundations of human action and of rational discussion in general. Behind the very premise of praxeology lies the basis from which one may infer the universal parts of “human semantics.” Therefore, it is possible to attach a praxeological interpretation to the shape that natural semantic metalanguage theory has taken. Additionally, the linguistic framework proposed by Wierzbicka enables a precise and coherent description of the universal foundation of human cognition that can be transferred to reflections surrounding the study of purposeful human behavior. This contemporary version of the concept of lingua mentalis is not only a useful tool in a discussion of hermeneutics and relativism, but has also undergone considerable empirical testing.

Keywords: Praxeology, Austrian school of economics, universalism, relativism, natural semantic metalanguage, cognitive linguistics

Download PDF: “The Universal Categories of Praxeology in Light of Natural Semantic Metalanguage Theory”

Abstract: This article discusses the parallels between Friedrich von Hayek and Bruno Leoni’s criticisms of democracy. Both men were leading protagonists of the classical liberal tradition. The thesis contained of this paper is that Hayek, although critical of democratic systems that do not reconcile liberty and equality, still believed in the democratic principle and tried to save it. On the other hand, Leoni’s approach to democracy was much more radical and very close to some strands of modern libertarianism. In particular, he theorized a model of power virtually without coercion.

Keywords: Bruno Leoni, F.A. Hayek, democracy, equality, political representation

Download PDF: “Liberty Versus Democracy in Bruno Leoni and Friedrich von Hayek”

Abstract: Joseph Newhard (2017) argues that a libertarian anarchist society would be at a serious military disadvantage if it extended the nonaggression principle to include potential foreign invaders. He goes so far as to recommend cultivating the ability to launch a nuclear attack on foreign cities. In contrast, I argue that the free society would derive its strength from a total commitment to property rights and the protection of innocent life. Both theory and history suggest that a free society would be capable of defending itself, and indeed that it would probably use other means to avoid military conflict altogether.

Keywords: private defense, national defense, nonaggression principle, minimum deterrence, nonviolence

JEL Codes: H41, H56, K40

Download PDF: “Libertarian Law and Military Defense”

Abstract: It is a commonplace of the current learned diagnoses that modern technology has all but abolished the resistances of nature to the physical production and transportation of goods. Distribution is regarded as less well developed—as the open or broken link between our needs and their ful­fillment, between desire and gratification. To concede this should suggest not that the current processes of distribution should be attacked or abolished but rather that they should be examined and understood, for it should be remem­bered that distribution, for all its difficulties, does at least measurably take place and, like any other phenomena, it can be understood only in terms of its functioning and carrying on and never in terms of its non-functioning or failure to do so.

Keywords: Distribution, market process, ownership, land, productivity

Download PDF: “What is Distribution in the Market Process?”

Abstract: Unlike economists, it is unusual for political scientists to discuss first principles of our discipline. My purpose in this article is to make a small contribution toward remedying this situation by calling to mind a few fundamentals about government that all students of politics should know. Drawing on the work of classical, modern and contemporary scholarship, and my own empirical analysis of 700 elections in 50 democracies, of more than a dozen dictatorships of various ideological cast, and of the history of two cases with which I am most familiar—the United States and Cuba—I identify five elements of politics, two basic compounds or regime types, and six scientific “laws” that govern their operations.

Keywords: Political science, laws of politics, democracy, dictatorship, United States, Cuba

Download PDF: “Some Principles of Politics”

Abstract: In a new book-length treatment, Tara Smith, who has written extensively on the intersections of Objectivist philosophy and law, explains how judicial review, a feature of non-Objectivist jurisprudence, should function in a truly Objectivist legal system. Divided into two halves, Judicial Review in an Objective Legal System first sets forth what Objectivism is and how Objectivists understand law. Of particular importance in this regard, Smith stresses, is the written constitution, which Smith, following the logical premises of Objectivism, calls “bedrock legal authority.” In the second half of the book, Smith moves to narrower considerations of judicial review proper. Smith’s first task in those sections is to critique the “failures” of “the reigning accounts” to understand judicial review. After dispensing with the various mistaken versions of judicial review as she sees them, Smith defines Objectivist judicial review before providing a handful of examples of how such a process might work in “contemporary conditions.”

Keywords: Objectivism, judicial review, common law, natural law, rule of law

Download PDF: “Book Review: Judicial Review in an Objective Legal System“

Abstract: Jan Narveson criticizes the view expressed in my Libertarian Philosophy in the Real World that there is no orthodox libertarian position on the ethics of abortion. He asserts that fetuses lack the defining characteristics of personhood, and thus are ineligible for what he terms “intrinsic” rights under his, and presumably any other, plausible libertarian theory. My counterargument is threefold: (i) Narveson’s contractarianism can be interpreted in a way that is consistent with the pro-life perspective; (ii) because his theory permits no principled distinction between the moral status of third trimester fetuses and newborns, the contrary reading of his social contract produces a result that is implausible and even repellent; and (iii) even if his version of contractarianism does imply a unique, aggressively pro-choice stance on abortion, there are competing libertarian theories that are receptive to pro-life views.

Keywords: Abortion, natural rights, newborn rights, child rights, parenting

Download PDF: “Libertarianism and Abortion: A Reply to Professor Narveson”

Abstract: This paper defends the Blockian Proviso against its critics, Kinsella in particular, and interprets it as a law of non-contradiction in the theory of just property rights. I demonstrate that one may not lawfully appropriate in such a way as to forestall others from appropriating an unowned land because such appropriation would result in conflict-generating norms, and conflict-generating norms are not rationally justifiable and just norms. The Blockian Proviso, which precludes forestalling, operates therefore at the level of original appropriation and determines, according to the homestead principle of justice in first acquisition, what may and what may not be lawfully appropriated. Hence, the Blockian Proviso is not an add-on to the homestead principle but part and parcel thereof.

Keywords: Blockian Proviso, forestalling, homestead principle, property rights, conflict avoidance, law of non-contradiction, compossibility of property rights

Download PDF: “The Blockian Proviso and the Rationality of Property Rights”

Abstract: Ayn Rand and Friedrich A. Hayek were two of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century in the effort to turn the current of opinion away from collectivism and toward what could be called classical liberalism or libertarianism. The purpose of this pedagogical article is to explain, describe, and compare the essential ideas of these great advocates of liberty in language that permits generally educated readers to understand, recognize, and appreciate their significance. It that sense, it hopes to make the the ideas of Rand and Hayek accessible to a wide range of readers through the use of clear explanations. To aid in this endeavor, the article concludes with the presentation and discussion of a table that summarizes and compares their ideas on a variety of problems in and dimensions of philosophy and social science. The target audience of this essay includes educated laypeople and college students, many of whom may decide to read and study the original works of these prominent theorists of a free society after being exposed to their essential ideas.

Keywords: Ayn Rand, Friedrich A. Hayek, Objectivism, Austrian Economics, libertarianism

Download PDF: “Ayn Rand and Friedrich A. Hayek: A Comparison”

Abstract: The nineteenth century was a period of unprecedented productivity in the world, occasioned by the widespread development and practice of contract and voluntary exchange. For the first time in history, man began to cease, like other animals, to be essentially predatory on his environment, despoiling and exhausting it, and began instead to make it progressively more productive and more able to support his own kind. Thomas Robert Malthus lived well into this productive century, but his thinking remained in the past, as did that of his contemporary, David Ricardo, and his successors, the Classical Economists, including even J.S. Mill. In this essay Spencer Heath carefully refutes Ricardo’s argument in support of Malthus and stresses the importance of understanding man not in terms of his animal nature, but in terms of his uniquely human potential; that is, his evolving, creative nature.

Keywords: Thomas Malthus, Ricardo’s law of rent, the golden rule, property in land, social evolution, organic society

Download PDF: “Malthus’s Doctrine in Historical Perspective”

Abstract: Minimum deterrence, though consistent with the nonaggression principle, is inadequate to deter states from invading anarchist territory and provides inadequate means of territorial defense when deterrence fails. In order to be effective, and thus attract clients, private defense agencies may want to adopt a military posture that incorporates first-strike counterforce and second-strike countervalue capabilities. To this end, they must acquire weapons of mass destruction—including tactical and strategic nuclear weapons—and long-range delivery vehicles capable of penetrating deep into enemy territory. They must also decline to extend the nonaggression principle to states and individuals outside the voluntary defense network. Paradoxically, advertising such a posture while possessing a nuclear arsenal will save lives on both sides by minimizing the probability that anarchists must ever wage a defensive war at all.

Keywords: private defense, national defense, nonagression principle, minimum deterrence, nuclear weapons

Download PDF: “Minimum Deterrence as a Vulnerability in the Market Provision of National Defense”

Abstract: Lysander Spooner has become one of the most influential anarchist thinkers of the nineteenth century, but the details of his transition toward anarchism are unclear. This paper explores this question. I argue that although Spooner was a natural-rights Jeffersonian prior to the Civil War, it is clear he was not yet an anarchist. His writings on the constitutionality of slavery demonstrate the seeds of anarchism, but also show his willingness to effect change through the legislative process. After the Dred Scott ruling, he became markedly more radical, but the American Civil War was the catalyst for his embrace of the anarchism for which he is known today. More specifically, I contend that Spooner’s 1864 letter to Charles Sumner is the first written expression of his anarchism, a position that was retroactively explained through his No Treason pamphlets.

Keywords: Lysander Spooner, anarchism, abolitionism, natural rights, American Civil War, No Treason, Dred Scott

Download PDF: “From Abolitionist to Anarchist: Lysander Spooner’s Radical Transition through the Civil War”

Abstract: It is widely believed that John Maynard Keynes wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) to protest the reparations imposed on Germany after the First World War.  The central thesis of this paper is that Britain’s war debt problem, not German reparations, led Keynes to write The Economic Consequences of the Peace.  His main goal at the Paris Peace Conference was to restore Britain’s economic hegemony by solving the war debt problem he helped to create.  We show that Keynes was responsible for many of the most notorious aspects of the reparations section of the Treaty, and he crafted his proposals in light of mercantilist theories designed to keep Germany relatively poor after the war.  His desperate desire to solve Britain’s war debt problem, mixed with his mercantilist ideas, inspired him to write The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

Keywords: John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, First World War, Treaty of Versailles, reparations

JEL Codes: B17, E12, N14

Download PDF: “Keynes and the First World War”

Abstract: Thomas C. Leonard presents an intellectual history of the Progressive Era from the perspective of economists. It is hard to understate the influence this group had in developing Progressive ideas. Leonard brilliantly details how Progressive economists wielded enormous influence not only in spreading ideas about traditional economic concepts, but also ideas and theories that influenced political and civil liberties. For example, the Progressives gave us the social science professor, the scholar-activist, social worker, muckraking journalist, and expert government advisor. All of these reform-vocations, according to Leonard, sought to replace the invisible hand of the market with the visible hand of the administrative state. In short, Leonard’s book is a must-read for everyone remotely interested in political economy.

Keywords: progressivism, race, eugenics, American economics, political economy

Download Paper: “Book Review: Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era“

Abstract: Libertarian Quandaries is a slim volume of tight reasoning that makes a resolute case for libertarianism. Libertarianism is “the social philosophy that identifies individual liberty as the most fundamental social value, and by extension treats moral cooperation as the only morally permissible form of social interaction.” More specifically, the book is a compendium of concise rebuttals to commonplace counterarguments advanced against libertarianism. It attempts to show that libertarianism withstands wide-ranging criticisms in principle, but also that it can be implemented in practice. It does an admirable job in this regard. The book is not, however, aimed at lightweight lovers of liberty. The content—conveyed in carefully crafted phrases—makes non-trivial intellectual demands on the reader.

Keywords: Aggression, lifeboat situations, moral tragedy, social safety net, market anarchy

Download Paper: “Book Review: Libertarian Quandaries“

Abstract: This note evaluates the claim of Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature that the advent of strong states led to a decline in violence. I test this claim in the modern context, measuring the effect of the strength of government in lower-income countries on reductions in homicide rates. The strength of government is measured using Polity IV, Worldwide Governance Indicators, and government consumption as a percentage of GDP. The data do not support Pinker’s hypothesis.

Keywords: homicide, political institutions, Steven Pinker

JEL Codes: D74, H11

Download Paper: “Are Strong States Key to Reducing Violence? A Test of Pinker”

Abstract: Arguments for handgun ownership typically appeal to handguns’ value as an effective means of self-protection. Against this, critics argue that private ownership of handguns leads to more social harm than it prevents. Both sides make powerful arguments, and in the absence of a reasonable consensus regarding the merits of gun ownership, David DeGrazia proposes two gun control policies that ‘reasonable disputants on both sides of the issue have principled reasons to accept.’ These policies hinge on his claim that ‘an even-handed examination of the available evidence casts considerable doubt on the thesis that handgun ownership enables more adequate self-defense and physical security in the home.’ We challenge DeGrazia’s ‘moderate gun control’ policies on both philosophical and empirical grounds. Philosophically, we show that the arguments he gives in support of his proposed gun-control measures are too narrow and incomplete to warrant his conclusions about what kind of gun control there ought to be, even if he is right about the empirical evidence. Empirically, we argue that a truly even-handed examination of the evidence makes DeGrazia’s claim that gun ownership is on average self-defeating much less plausible than he supposes. Our conclusion is that DeGrazia has failed to establish his claim that gun ownership is self-defeating and therefore has no case for the gun-control policies he suggests.

Keywords: gun control, handguns, self-defense, concealed carry, homicide, suicide

Download Paper: “Against Moderate Gun Control”