Left-libertarianism

This article is about the type of libertarianism stressing both individual freedom and social equality. For the socialist anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarian philosophy, see Libertarian socialism.

Left-libertarianism,^[1][2][3][4] also known as left-wing libertarianism,^[5] or social libertarianism,^[6] is a political philosophy and type of libertarianism that stresses both individual freedom and social equality. Left-libertarianism represents several related yet distinct approaches to political and social theory. Its classical usage refers to anti-authoritarian varieties of left-wing politics such as anarchism, especially social anarchism,^[7] communalism, and libertarian Marxism, collectively termed libertarian socialism. A portion of the left wing of the green movement, including adherents of Murray Bookchin's social ecology, are also generally considered left-libertarian.

In the United States, left-libertarianism represents the left wing of the libertarian movement,^[7] including the political positions associated with academic philosophers Hillel Steiner, Philippe Van Parijs, and Peter Vallentyne that combine self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources.^[7][8] Although libertarianism in the United States has become associated with classical liberalism and minarchism, with right-libertarianism being more known than left-libertarianism,^[4] political usage of the term until then was associated exclusively with anti-capitalism, libertarian socialism, and social anarchism; in most parts of the world, such an association still predominates.^[7][9]

Left-libertarians are skeptical of, or fully against, private ownership of natural resources, arguing in contrast to right-libertarians that neither claiming nor mixing one's labor with natural resources is enough to generate full private property rights, and maintain that natural resources should be held in an egalitarian manner, either unowned or owned collectively.^[10] Those left-libertarians who are more lenient towards private property support different property norms and theories, such as usufruct^[11] or under the condition that recompense is offered to the local or even global community, such as the Steiner–Vallentyne school.^[12][13] Other currents of thought identified with left-libertarianism include adherents of Henry George's land tax ideas and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's mutualism, and more recent forms of left-wing market anarchism (or market-oriented left-libertarianism), including Samuel Konkin III's agorism.

Definition

See also: Definition of anarchism and libertarianism

Some political scientists and writers classify the forms of libertarianism into two or more groups, such as left-libertarianism^[1] and right-libertarianism.^[2][4][14] In the United States, proponents of free-market anti-capitalism consciously label themselves as left-libertarians and part of the libertarian left.^[7][11]

As a term, left-libertarianism has been used to refer to various political economic philosophies emphasizing individual liberty. With the modern development of right-libertarian co-opting^[14] the term libertarian in the mid-20th century to advocate laissez-faire capitalism and strong private property rights such as land, infrastructure, and natural resources,^[15] left-libertarianism has been used more often to differentiate between the two forms,^[7][8] especially concerning property rights.^[16]

According to Jennifer Carlson, right-libertarianism is the dominant form of libertarianism in the United States, while left-libertarianism "has become a more predominant aspect of politics in western European democracies over the past three decades."^[4] Left-libertarianism also includes "the decentralist who wishes to limit and devolve State power, to the syndicalist who wants to abolish it altogether. It can even encompass the Fabians and the social democrats who wish to socialize the economy but who still see a limited role for the State."^[17]

According to the textbook definition in The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy, left-libertarianism has at least three meanings, writing:

In its oldest sense, it is a synonym either for anarchism in general or social anarchism in particular. Later it became a term for the left or Konkinite wing of the free-market libertarian movement, and has since come to cover a range of pro-market but anti-capitalist positions, mostly individualist anarchist, including agorism and mutualism, often with an implication of sympathies (such as for radical feminism or the labor movement) not usually shared by anarcho-capitalists. In a third sense it has recently come to be applied to a position combining individual self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources; most proponents of this position are not anarchists.^[7]

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy distinguishes left-libertarianism from right-libertarianism, arguing:

Libertarianism is often thought of as 'right-wing' doctrine. This, however, is mistaken for at least two reasons. First, on social—rather than economic—issues, libertarianism tends to be 'left-wing'. It opposes laws that restrict consensual and private sexual relationships between adults (e.g., gay sex, non-marital sex, and deviant sex), laws that restrict drug use, laws that impose religious views or practices on individuals, and compulsory military service. Second, in addition to the better-known version of libertarianism—right-libertarianism—there is also a version known as 'left-libertarianism'. Both endorse full self-ownership, but they differ with respect to the powers agents have to appropriate unappropriated natural resources (land, air, water, etc.).^[18]

Terminology

As a term, left-libertarianism is used by some political analysts, academics, and media sources, especially in the United States, to contrast it with the libertarian philosophy, which is supportive of free-market capitalism and strong private property rights, in addition to supporting limited government and self-ownership which is common to both libertarian types.^[19]

Peter Vallentyne describes left-libertarianism as the type of libertarianism holding that "unappropriated natural resources belong to everyone in some egalitarian manner."^[18] He maintains that left-libertarianism most often refers to the political position that holds natural resources are originally common property.^[20]

Followers of Samuel Edward Konkin III, who characterized agorism as a form of left-libertarianism^[21] and strategic branch of left-wing market anarchism,^[22] use the terminology as outlined by Roderick T. Long, who describes left-libertarianism as "an integration, or I'd argue, a reintegration of libertarianism with concerns that are traditionally thought of as being concerns of the left. That includes concerns for worker empowerment, worry about plutocracy, concerns about feminism and various kinds of social equality."^[23]

Anthony Gregory maintains that libertarianism "can refer to any number of varying and at times mutually exclusive political orientations." Gregory describes left-libertarianism as maintaining an interest in personal freedom, having sympathy for egalitarianism and opposing social hierarchy, preferring a liberal lifestyle, opposing big business, and having a New Left opposition to imperialism and war.^[24] Although some American libertarians may reject the political spectrum,^[25] others have written about libertarianism's left-wing opposition to authoritarian rule and argued that libertarianism is fundamentally a left-wing position.^[26] Rothbard himself previously made the same point, rejecting the association of statism with the left.^[27]

Philosophy

While all libertarians begin with a conception of personal autonomy from which they argue in favor of civil liberties and a reduction or elimination of the state, left-libertarianism encompasses those libertarian beliefs that claim the Earth's natural resources belong to everyone in an egalitarian manner, either unowned or owned collectively.^{[5][7][10][12][13]}

Traditionally, left-libertarian schools are communist and market abolitionist, advocating the eventual replacement of money with labor vouchers or decentralized planning.^[11] Contemporary left-libertarians such as Hillel Steiner, Peter Vallentyne, Philippe Van Parijs, Michael Otsuka, and David Ellerman believe the appropriation of land must leave "enough and as good" for others or be taxed by society to compensate for the exclusionary effects of private property.^[8][12]

State

There are a number of different left-libertarian positions on the state, which can range from advocating for the complete abolition of the state, to advocating for a more decentralized and limited government with social ownership of the economy.^[17] According to Sheldon Richman of the Independent Institute, other left-libertarians "prefer that corporate privileges be repealed before the regulatory restrictions on how those privileges may be exercised."^[26]

Property rights

Left-libertarians generally uphold self-ownership and oppose strong private property rights, instead supporting the egalitarian distribution of natural resources.^[4] Other left-libertarians believe that neither claiming nor mixing one's labor with natural resources is enough to generate full private property rights^[28][29] and maintain that natural resources ought to be held in an egalitarian manner, either unowned or owned collectively.^[18]

Political scientist Peter Mclaverty notes it has been argued that socialist values are incompatible with the concept of self-ownership when this concept is considered "the core feature of libertarianism" and socialism is defined as holding "that we are social beings, that society should be organised, and individuals should act, so as to promote the common good, that we should strive to achieve social equality and promote democracy, community and solidarity."^[30] However, political philosopher Nicholas Vrousalis has also argued that "property rights [...] do not pass judgment as to what rights individuals have to their own person [...] [and] to the external world" and that "the nineteenth-century egalitarian libertarians were not misguided in thinking that a thoroughly libertarian form of communism is possible at the level of principle."^[31]

Economics

Other left-libertarians make a libertarian reading of progressive and social-democratic economics to advocate a universal basic income. Building on Michael Otsuka's conception of "robust libertarian self-ownership", Karl Widerquist argues that a universal basic income must be large enough to maintain individual independence regardless of the market value of resources because people in contemporary society have been denied direct access to enough resources with which they could otherwise maintain their existence in the absence of interference by people who control access to resources.^[32]

Schools of thought

Classical liberalism

Main article: Classical liberalism

Contemporary left-libertarian scholars such as David Ellerman, Michael Otsuka, Hillel Steiner, Peter Vallentyne, and Philippe Van Parijs root an economic egalitarianism in the classical liberal concepts of self-ownership and appropriation. They hold that it is illegitimate for anyone to claim private ownership of natural resources to the detriment of others, a condition John Locke explicated in Two Treatises of Government.^[33] Most left-libertarians of this tradition support some form of economic rent redistribution on the grounds that each individual is entitled to an equal share of natural resources^[34] and argue for the desirability of state social welfare programs.^[35][36]

Individuals in this left-libertarian tradition include Henry George, Locke, Thomas Paine, William Ogilvie of Pittensear, Herbert Spencer, and more recently, Baruch Brody, Ellerman, James O. Grunebaum, Otsuka, Steiner, Vallentyne and Van Parijs, among others.^[8][37] Hippolyte de Colins,^[38] George,^[38] François Huet,^[38] William Ogilvie of Pittensear,^[37] Paine,^[38] and Léon Walras^[38] are left-libertarians also seen as being within the left-liberal tradition of socialism.^[37]

Philosophical anarchist William Godwin, classical economists such as David Ricardo,^[39] Thomas Robert Malthus, Nassau William Senior, Robert Torrens, and the Mills, the early writings of Herbert Spencer,^[40] socialists such as Thomas Hodgskin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, social reformer Henry George^[40] and the Ricardian/Smithian socialists,^[41][42] among others, "provided the basis for the further development of the left libertarian perspective."^[43]

Green politics

Main article: Green politics

Bookchin was one of the main influences behind the formation of the Alliance 90/The Greens, the first green party to win seats in state and national parliaments. Modern green parties attempt to apply these ideas to a more pragmatic system of democratic governance as opposed to contemporary individualist or socialist libertarianism. The green movement, especially its more left-wing factions, is often described by political scientists as left-libertarian.^{[44][45][46][47]}

Political scientists see European political parties such as Ecolo and Groen in Belgium, Alliance 90/The Greens in Germany, or the Green Progressive Accord and GroenLinks in the Netherlands as coming out of the New Left and emphasizing spontaneous self-organisation, participatory democracy, decentralization and voluntarism, being contrasted to the bureaucratic or statist approach.^[47] Similarly, political scientist Ariadne Vromen has described the Australian Greens as having a "clear left-libertarian ideological base."^[48]

Libertarian socialism

Main article: Libertarian socialism

 

Noam Chomsky, a noted left-libertarian of the libertarian socialist school

Libertarian socialism is a left-libertarian tendency^[49][50] within the socialist movement that rejects the state socialist notion of socialism as centralized state ownership and statist control of the economy.^{[51][failed verification]}

Market-oriented left-libertarianism

 

 

Benjamin Tucker (left) and Lysander Spooner (right), who have greatly influenced the development of left-wing libertarianism in the United States

American Individualist anarchists are opposed to property that gives privilege and is exploitative.^[52] Certain American left-wing market anarchists who come from the left-Rothbardian school such as Roderick T. Long and Sheldon Richman, cite Murray Rothbard's homestead principle with approval to support worker cooperatives.^[53]

Also referred to as left-wing market anarchists,^[54] according to Sheldon Richman in The American Conservative, these proponents of this market-oriented left-libertarian approach strongly affirm the classical liberal ideas of self-ownership and free markets, while maintaining that, taken to their logical conclusions, these ideas support strongly anti-corporatist, anti-hierarchical, pro-labor positions in economics; anti-imperialism in foreign policy; and thoroughly liberal or radical views regarding such cultural issues as gender, sexuality and race.^[26] Members of this school typically urge the abolition of the state, arguing that vast disparities in wealth and social influence result from the use of force—especially state power—to steal and engross land and acquire and maintain special privileges. They judge that in a stateless society the kinds of privileges secured by the state will be absent and injustices perpetrated or tolerated by the state can be rectified, concluding that with state interference eliminated it will be possible to achieve "socialist ends by market means."^[55]

According to libertarian Sheldon Richman, left-libertarians "favor worker solidarity vis-à-vis bosses, support poor people's squatting on government or abandoned property, and prefer that corporate privileges be repealed before the regulatory restrictions on how those privileges may be exercised." Richman says left-libertarians see Walmart as a symbol of corporate favoritism, being "supported by highway subsidies and eminent domain", viewing "the fictive personhood of the limited-liability corporation with suspicion" and doubting that "Third World sweatshops would be the 'best alternative' in the absence of government manipulation." Richman also says left-libertarians also tend to "eschew electoral politics, having little confidence in strategies that work through the government [and] prefer to develop alternative institutions and methods of working around the state."^[26]

In the 21st century, left-libertarianism has come to encapsulate forms of free-market anti-capitalism,^[7][26] such as the agorism of Samuel Edward Konkin III^[7] and mutualism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Benjamin Tucker.^[7][26]

Steiner–Vallentyne school

Contemporary left-libertarian scholars such as David Ellerman,^[56][57] Michael Otsuka,^[58] Hillel Steiner,^[59] Peter Vallentyne^[60] and Philippe Van Parijs^[61] root an economic egalitarianism in the classical liberal concepts of self-ownership and land appropriation, combined with geoist or physiocratic views regarding the ownership of land and natural resources (e.g. those of Henry George and John Locke).^[62][18][63]

Scholars representing this school of left-libertarianism often understand their position in contrast to right-libertarians, who maintain that there are no fair share constraints on use or appropriation that individuals have the power to appropriate unowned things by claiming them (usually by mixing their labor with them) and deny any other conditions or considerations are relevant and that there is no justification for the state to redistribute resources to the needy or to overcome market failures. A number of left-libertarians of this school argue for the desirability of some state social welfare programs.^[64][36] Left-libertarians of the Carson–Long left-libertarianism school typically endorse the labor-based property rights that Steiner–Vallentyne left-libertarians reject, but they hold that implementing such rights would have radical rather than conservative consequences.^[65]

Left-libertarians of the Steiner–Vallentyne type hold that it is illegitimate for anyone to claim private ownership of natural resources to the detriment of others.^[8][66] These left-libertarians support some form of income redistribution on the grounds of a claim by each individual to be entitled to an equal share of natural resources.^[67][68] Unappropriated natural resources are either unowned or owned in common and private appropriation is only legitimate if everyone can appropriate an equal amount or if private appropriation is taxed to compensate those who are excluded from natural resources.^[68]

See also

• Cellular democracy
• Civil libertarianism
• Cultural liberalism
• Cultural radicalism
• Drug liberalization
• Grassroots democracy
• Individualist feminism
• Left-libertarians (category)
• Libertarian Democrat
• Libertarian municipalism
• Libertarian paternalism
• Libertarian transhumanism
• Lockean proviso
• Market socialism
• Neoclassical liberalism
• Outline of libertarianism
• Radical movement
• Refusal of work

References

Notes

1. Bookchin, Murray; Biehl, Janet (1997). The Murray Bookchin Reader. New York: Cassell. p. 170.
2. Goodway, David (2006-01-01). Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward. Liverpool University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-84631-025-6. '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 libertarian tradition.
3. Marshall, Peter (2008). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. London: Harper Perennial. p. 641. "The word 'libertarian' has long been associated with anarchism, and has been used repeatedly throughout this work. The term originally denoted a person who upheld the doctrine of the freedom of the will; in this sense, Godwin was not a 'libertarian', but a 'necessitarian'. It came however to be applied to anyone who approved of liberty in general. In anarchist circles, it was first used by Joseph Déjacque as the title of his anarchist journal Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social published in New York in 1858. At the end of the last century, the anarchist Sebastien Faure took up the word, to stress the difference between anarchists and authoritarian socialists."
4. Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilbur R. (ed.). The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia. Sage Publications. p. 1006. ISBN 9781412988766. [S]ocialist libertarians view any concentration of power into the hands of a few (whether politically or economically) as antithetical to freedom and thus advocate for the simultaneous abolition of both government and capitalism.
5. Spitz, Jean-Fabien (March 2006). "Left-wing libertarianism: equality based on self-ownership". Raisons Politiques. 23 (3). Retrieved 28 November 2019.
6. Grunberg, Gérard; Schweisguth, Etienne; Boy, Daniel; Mayer, Nonna, eds. (1993). "Social Libertarianism and Economic Liberalism". The French Voter Decides. University of Michigan Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0472104383.
7. Long, Roderick T. (2012). "Anarchism 9. Terminological Note". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy. Routledge Philosophy Companions Ser. (1st ed.). Taylor & Francis Group. p. 227. ISBN 9780415874564.
8. Kymlicka, Will (2005). "libertarianism, left-". In Honderich, Ted. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. New York City: Oxford University Press. p. 516. "'Left-libertarianism' is a new term for an old conception of justice, dating back to Grotius. It combines the libertarian assumption that each person possesses a natural right of self-ownership over his person with the egalitarian premiss that natural resources should be shared equally. Right-wing libertarians argue that the right of self-ownership entails the right to appropriate unequal parts of the external world, such as unequal amounts of land. According to left-libertarians, however, the world's natural resources were initially unowned, or belonged equally to all, and it is illegitimate for anyone to claim exclusive private ownership of these resources to the detriment of others. Such private appropriation is legitimate only if everyone can appropriate an equal amount, or if those who appropriate more are taxed to compensate those who are thereby excluded from what was once common property. Historic proponents of this view include Thomas Paine, Herbert Spencer, and Henry George. Recent exponents include Philippe Van Parijs and Hillel Steiner." ISBN 978-0199264797.
9. Bookchin, Murray; Biehl, Janet (1997). The Murray Bookchin Reader. London: Cassell. p. 170. ISBN 0304338737.
10. Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilbur R. The social history of crime and punishment in America. London: SAGE Publications. p. 1007. ISBN 1412988764. "Left-libertarians disagree with right-libertarians with respect to property rights, arguing instead that individuals have no inherent right to natural resources. Namely, these resources must be treated as collective property that is made available on an egalitarian basis".
11. Carson, Kevin. "An Introduction to Left-Libertarianism". Center for a Stateless Society. Retrieved 2023-01-01.
12. Vallentyne, Peter (March 2009). "Libertarianism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University. Retrieved 5 March 2010. Libertarianism is committed to full self-ownership. A distinction can be made, however, between right-libertarianism and left-libertarianism, depending on the stance taken on how natural resources can be owned.
13. Narveson, Jan; Trenchard, David (2008). "Left Libertarianism". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; Cato Institute. pp. 288–289. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n174. ISBN 978-1412965804. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024. Left libertarians regard each of us as full self-owners. However, they differ from what we generally understand by the term libertarian in denying the right to private property. We own ourselves, but we do not own nature, at least not as individuals. Left libertarians embrace the view that all natural resources, land, oil, gold, and so on should be held collectively. To the extent that individuals make use of these commonly owned goods, they must do so only with the permission of society, a permission granted only under the proviso that a certain payment for their use be made to society at large.
14. Marshall, Peter (2008). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. London: Harper Perennial. p. 565. "The problem with the term 'libertarian' is that it is now also used by the Right. [...] In its moderate form, right libertarianism embraces laissez-faire liberals like Robert Nozick who call for a minimal State, and in its extreme form, anarcho-capitalists like Murray Rothbard and David Friedman who entirely repudiate the role of the State and look to the market as a means of ensuring social order".
15. Hussain, Syed B. (2004). Encyclopedia of Capitalism. Vol. II : H-R. New York: Facts on File Inc. p. 492. ISBN 0816052247. In the modern world, political ideologies are largely defined by their attitude towards capitalism. Marxists want to overthrow it, liberals to curtail it extensively, conservatives to curtail it moderately. Those who maintain that capitalism is a excellent economic system, unfairly maligned, with little or no need for corrective government policy, are generally known as libertarians.
16. Widerquist, Karl. "Libertarianism: left, right, and socialist". widerquist.com.
17. Marshall, Peter (2009) [1991]. Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism (POLS ed.). Oakland, California: PM Press. p. 641. "Left libertarianism can therefore range from the decentralist who wishes to limit and devolve State power, to the syndicalist who wants to abolish it altogether. It can even encompass the Fabians and the social democrats who wish to socialize the economy but who still see a limited role for the State." ISBN 978-1604860641.
18. Vallentyne, Peter (2014). "Libertarianism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 2023-01-01.
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20. Vallentyne, Peter (2001). "Self-ownership". In Becker, Lawrence C.; Becker, Charlotte B. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Ethics. Taylor & Francis. p. 1562. ISBN 978-0-415-93675-0.
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24. Gregory, Anthony (21 December 2006). "Left, Right, Moderate and Radical". LewRockwell.com. 25 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine. 25 December 2014.
25. Raimondo, Justin (2000). An Enemy of the State. Chapter 4: "Beyond left and right". Prometheus Books. p. 159.
26. Richman, Sheldon (2011-02-03). "Libertarian Left". The American Conservative. Retrieved 2023-01-01.
27. Rothbard, Murray (Spring 1965). "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty". Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought. 1 (1): 4–22.
28. Carlson (2012). p. 1007. "[Left-libertarians] disagree with right-libertarians with respect to property rights, arguing instead that individuals have no inherent right to natural resources. Namely, these resources must be treated as collective property that is made available on an egalitarian basis."
29. Narveson, Jan; Trenchard, David (2008). "Left Libertarianism". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 288–289. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n174. ISBN 978-1412965804. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024. [Left libertarians] regard each of us as full self-owners. Left libertarians embrace the view that all natural resources, land, oil, gold, trees, and so on should be held collectively. To the extent that individuals make use of these commonly owned goods, they must do so only with the permission of society, a permission granted only under the provision that a certain payment for their use be made to society at large.
30. Mclaverty, Peter (2005). "Socialism and libertarianism". Journal of Political Ideologies. 10 (2): 185–198. doi:10.1080/13569310500097349. S2CID 144693867.
31. Vrousalis, Nicholas (April 2011). "Libertarian Socialism: A Better Reconciliation between Self-Ownership and Equality". Social Theory and Practice. 37 (2): 221–226. doi:10.5840/soctheorpract201137213. JSTOR 23558541. SSRN 1703457.
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33. Kymlicka, Will (2005). "libertarianism, left-". In Honderich, Ted. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press. "[Left-libertarians maintain that] the world's natural resources were initially unowned, or belonged equally to all, and it is illegitimate for anyone to claim exclusive private ownership of these resources to the detriment of others. Such private appropriation is legitimate only if everyone can appropriate an equal amount, or if those who appropriate more are taxed to compensate those who are thereby excluded from what was once common property."
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47. Neumayer, Eric (June 2003). "Are left-wing party strength and corporatism good for the environment? Evidence from panel analysis of air pollution in OECD countries". Ecological Economics. 45 (2): 203–220. doi:10.1016/S0921-8009(03)00012-0. ISSN 0921-8009.
48. Vromen, Ariadne (2005). "Who are the Australian Greens? Surveying the membership". Ethnographic Praxis in Industry. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
49. Bookchin, Murray (1999). Biehl, Janet (ed.). The Murray Bookchin Reader. Black Rose Books. p. 170. ISBN 1-55164-119-4. LCCN 98-71026. The most creative feature of traditional anarchism is its commitment to four basic tenets: a confederation of decentralized municipalities; an unwavering opposition to statism; a belief in direct democracy; and a vision of a libertarian communist society. The most important issue that left-libertarianism -libertarian socialism no less than anarchism- faces today is: What will it do with these four powerful tenets? How will we give them social form and content? In what ways and by what means will we render them relevant to our time and bring them to the service of an organized popular movement for empowerment and freedom?
50. Sullivan, Mark A. (July 2003). "Why the Georgist Movement Has Not Succeeded: A Personal Response to the Question Raised by Warren J. Samuels". The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. Blackwell Publishing. 62 (3): 612. doi:10.1111/1536-7150.00232. JSTOR 3487815. In this, Tucker and George, the Anarchist and the Single Taxer, were in agreement-their respective positions can be seen as variations of libertarian socialism or, to borrow a label from Peter Valentyne and Hillel Steiner, Left-Libertarianism.
51. Long, Roderick T. (Summer 1998). "Toward a libertarian theory of class". Social Philosophy and Policy. 15 (2): 305. "Unlike other socialists, they tend to see (to various different degrees, depending on the thinker) to be skeptical of centralized state intervention as the solution to capitalist exploitation [...]."
52. McKay, Iain, ed. (2012) [2008]. "Appendix: Anarchism and 'anarcho'-capitalism". An Anarchist FAQ. Vol. I/II. Stirling: AK Press. ISBN 978-1849351225.
53. Carson, Kevin. "The Left-Rothbardians, Part I: Rothbard". Center for a Stateless Society. Retrieved 2023-01-01. What most people ordinarily identify as the stereotypical "libertarian" privatization proposal, unfortunately, goes something like this: sell it to a giant corporation on terms that are most advantageous to the corporation. Rothbard proposed, instead, was to treat state property as unowned, and allowing it to be homesteaded by those actually occupying it and mixing their labor with it. This would mean transforming government utilities, schools and other services into consumer cooperatives and placing them under the direct control of their present clientele. It would mean handing over state industry to workers' syndicates and transforming it into worker-owned cooperatives.
54. Chartier, Gary; Johnson, Charles W. (2011). Markets Not Capitalism. Brooklyn: Minor Compositions/Autonomedia. pp. 1–16.
55. Chartier, Gary (2009). Socialist Ends, Market Means: Five Essays. Tulsa: Tulsa Alliance of the Libertarian Left.
56. Ellerman, David (1992). Property and Contract in Economics: The Case for Economic Democracy. Cambridge MA: Blackwell.
57. Ellerman, David (1990). The Democratic Worker-Owned Firm. London: Unwin Hyman.
58. *Otsuka, Michael (2005). Libertarianism Without Inequality. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199280186.
59. Steiner, Hillel (1994). An Essay on Rights. Oxford: Blackwell.
60. (2000). Left Libertarianism and Its Critics: The Contemporary Debate. In Vallentyne, Peter; and Steiner, Hillel. London:Palgrave.
61. Van Parijs, Philippe (2009). Marxism Recycled. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
62. Vallentyne, Peter (2007). "Libertarianism and the State". Liberalism: Old and New. In Paul, Ellen Frankel; Miller Jr., Fred; Paul, Jeffrey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 199.
63. Casal, Paula (2011). "Global Taxes on Natural Resources" (PDF). Journal of Moral Philosophy. 8 (3): 307–327. doi:10.1163/174552411x591339. Retrieved 14 March 2014. It can also invoke geoism, a philosophical tradition encompassing the views of John Locke and Henry George [...].
64. Van Parijs, Phillippe (1998). Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? Oxford:Clarendon-Oxford University Press.
65. Vallentyne, Peter; Steiner, Hillel (2000). The Origins of Left-Libertarianism. Basingstoke: Palgrave. ISBN 978-0312235918.
66. Kymlicka, Will (2005). "libertarianism, left-". The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. In Honderich, Ted. New York: Oxford University Press. "[Left-libertarians maintain that] the world's natural resources were initially unowned, or belonged equally to all, and it is illegitimate for anyone to claim exclusive private ownership of these resources to the detriment of others. Such private appropriation is legitimate only if everyone can appropriate an equal amount, or if those who appropriate more are taxed to compensate those who are thereby excluded from what was once common property."
67. Vallentyne, Peter; Steiner, Hillel (2000). Left-Libertarianism and Its Critics. Basingstoke: Palgrave. p. 1. ISBN 978-0312236991. OCLC 1057919438.
68. Mack, Eric; Gaus, Gerald F. (2004). "Classical Liberalism and Libertarianism: The Liberty Tradition". In Gaus, Gerald F.; Kukathas, Chandran (eds.). Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-7619-6787-3.

Further reading

• Rothbard, Murray N. (2007). Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought (Complete, 1965–1968). Auburn, AL: Mises Institute. ISBN 978-1610160407.
• Vallentyne, Peter; Steiner, Hillel; Otsuka, Michael (2005). (PDF). Philosophy & Public Affairs. 33 (2): 201–215. doi:10.1111/j.1088-4963.2005.00030.x. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2008.
• Vallentyne, Peter (2000). (full text; final draft). In Vallentyne, Peter; Steiner, Hillel (eds.). Left Libertarianism and Its Critics: The Contemporary Debate. Palgrave Publishers Ltd. pp. 1–20.

External links

•   Media related to Left-libertarianism at Wikimedia Commons
•   Quotations related to Left-libertarianism at Wikiquote