What is “Liberalism”?

Some months ago, Katie Miller was criticized online for not knowing the difference between Classical Liberals and the Political Left. A co-founder of Anthropic said “My deep loyalty is to the principles of classical liberal democracy” and she confused “classical liberal” with so-called “Woke and deeply leftist ideology…” I don’t blame her for the confusion because right-wing commentators have been referring to the political Left as “liberals” for decades.

The beliefs of classical liberals, however, are very different from today’s progressive Left who have appropriated the term “liberal”. Classical liberals believe human beings have the right to free trade, own private property, and participate in democratic governments exercising limited powers. Ludwig von Mises, in his book Liberalism: The Classical Tradition, says that if liberalism could be described in one word, it would be “…property, that is, private ownership of the means of production… All the other demands of liberalism result from this fundamental demand” (p. 2). By “means of production” he is referring to the land, resources, and all the tools and machines that go into producing goods and services. If these means of production are owned by the government, then many of the human rights we cherish today would not exist. For example, freedom of speech would be an illusion if the government controls the printing presses and decides what books to publish. The term “libertarian” is sometimes used to describe both Classical Liberals and Anarcho-Capitalists. The primary difference between the two is that classical liberals believe there is a role for government to protect private property rights (p. 17). Anarcho-capitalists, on the other hand, believe that all functions that are typically carried out by governments (such as infrastructure, policing, or the judicial system) can and should be privatized and executed through voluntary cooperation. Murray Rothbard writes that this code of ethics is based on the Non-Aggression Axiom or Non-Aggression Principle, which is “that no man or group of men may aggress against the person or property of anyone else” unless it is in defense of your own property (p. 27).

-- Colin Braman

References

Ludwig von Mises (2005). Liberalism: The Classical Tradition. Liberty Fund, Inc. [originally written in German in 1927].

Murray Rothbard (1973). For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto. Ludwig von Mises Institute.