What Is a Libertarian? Beliefs, Types and Famous Libertarians

What a libertarian is

A libertarian is a person whose politics start from one question: is anyone being forced? If the answer is yes, libertarians want a very good reason. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy sums up the view this way:

"Libertarians take individual freedom as the paramount political value." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Libertarianism")

From there, libertarians argue that force is justified to stop people from violating the rights of others, but not to make people serve someone else's good, or even their own. That is why libertarians tend to oppose both economic controls, such as high taxes and heavy regulation, and personal controls, such as drug laws and censorship.

This guide focuses on libertarians as people: what they believe, how they differ from one another and how to tell if you are one. For the ideology itself, see the libertarianism page. For a side by side with American liberals, read libertarian vs liberal.

Two core ideas

Self-ownership

Many libertarians start from self-ownership: each person has rights over their own body and labor similar to the rights people hold over private property. You may use your body and your time as you choose, as long as you respect the same right in others. The Stanford Encyclopedia notes that the philosopher Robert Nozick made this idea central to modern libertarian thought in Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974).

Non-aggression

The second idea is the non-aggression principle. Murray Rothbard put it most directly in For a New Liberty (1973):

"The libertarian creed rests upon one central axiom: that no man or group of men may aggress against the person or property of anyone else." (Murray Rothbard, For a New Liberty)

Rothbard defined aggression as starting, or threatening, physical violence against someone or their property. Defensive force is allowed. Starting force is not. Libertarians who follow this line conclude that "victimless crimes" should not be crimes, and that many things governments do, from conscription to some forms of taxation, count as aggression.

Not every libertarian builds on non-aggression. Some, often called consequentialist libertarians, argue for small government mainly because it produces more prosperity and peace. Economists such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek made that kind of case, based on how markets use knowledge and create wealth.

What libertarians believe

Libertarians disagree on details, but these positions are common. In their own best terms:

• Free markets. Voluntary exchange creates wealth and lifts people out of poverty better than central planning.
• Low taxes and light regulation. People should keep what they earn, and businesses should compete without needing permission from officials.
• Civil liberties. Free speech, privacy, freedom of religion and due process are core rights, not favors from the state.
• Personal choice. Adults should be free to make their own decisions about drugs, relationships and lifestyle, as long as they do not harm others.
• Gun rights. The right to self-defense includes the right to own the means of defense.
• Free trade and, for many, open immigration. People should be free to buy, sell and move across borders.
• Peace abroad. Most libertarians favor a cautious, noninterventionist foreign policy and distrust wars that expand state power.

Types of libertarians

"Libertarian" is a family name, and the family argues a lot.

Minarchists

Minarchism accepts a minimal state limited to police, courts and national defense, often called the night watchman state. This is the most common view among libertarian voters and the one Nozick defended. See libertarianism vs minarchism.

Anarcho-capitalists

Anarcho-capitalism goes further and argues that even law and security could be supplied by competing private firms. Rothbard is the best known figure. Compare it in anarcho-capitalism vs libertarianism.

Classical liberals

Some people with libertarian leanings prefer the older label classical liberalism. They support markets and limited government but accept a broader role for the state, such as a basic safety net. Hayek, who wrote an essay titled "Why I Am Not a Conservative," is often placed here. A recent strand, sometimes called "bleeding heart" libertarianism, argues that free markets should be judged partly by how well they serve the poor.

Left-libertarians

The Stanford Encyclopedia describes left-libertarianism as accepting self-ownership while holding that natural resources belong to everyone in some egalitarian way. A separate, more radical left-libertarian tradition draws on 19th-century individualist anarchists and is critical of big business. See left-libertarianism vs libertarianism.

Geolibertarians

Geolibertarians combine libertarian views with the ideas of Henry George: people own what they make, but land value belongs to the community, so a tax on land is the fairest way to fund government. Read more under georgism and georgism vs libertarianism.

Paleolibertarians

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Rothbard and some allies promoted paleolibertarianism, pairing a stateless economic vision with culturally traditional values and alliances with the paleoconservative right. Other libertarians rejected that turn, and the debate over culture still divides the movement.

Famous historical libertarians and influences

Libertarians claim a long line of thinkers. A few names come up again and again:

• Ludwig von Mises, the Austrian economist whose Human Action (1949) argued that socialism cannot calculate prices rationally.
• Friedrich Hayek, whose The Road to Serfdom (1944) warned that central planning leads to the loss of freedom.
• Milton Friedman, whose Capitalism and Freedom (1962) made the case for school vouchers, a volunteer army and floating exchange rates.
• Ayn Rand, novelist and founder of Objectivism. She inspired many libertarians but publicly rejected the movement, disowning what she called the "hippies of the right." See libertarianism vs objectivism.
• Murray Rothbard, economist and the leading voice of anarcho-capitalism.
• Robert Nozick, the Harvard philosopher who gave the minimal state its best known academic defense.
• Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, a conservative rather than a strict libertarian, whose small-government message helped launch many libertarian activists. His line "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" became a movement slogan.

Libertarians also look further back, to John Locke on natural rights and John Stuart Mill on the harm principle.

The Libertarian Party

In the United States, libertarians also have a party. The Libertarian Party was founded in 1971 and calls itself the third-largest political party in the United States. Its platform calls for ending the income tax, ending laws against victimless crimes such as drug use, and replacing Social Security with a voluntary system.

The party and the movement are not the same thing. Many libertarians vote Republican, some vote Democratic, and many are independents. Plenty of libertarian scholars and writers have no party role at all.

How many Americans are libertarian

Fewer than you might think, and more than you might think, depending on how you ask.

In a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, 11% of Americans said the term libertarian describes them well and also correctly picked its definition. Men were about twice as likely as women to fit that profile (15% vs 7%), and independents and Republicans were more likely than Democrats.

But Pew also found that "few of them hold consistent libertarian opinions on the role of government, foreign policy and social issues." Self-described libertarians were somewhat more likely than the public to say business regulation and aid to the poor do more harm than good, and more likely to support legal marijuana, yet many still took non-libertarian positions on other questions. Labels and views do not always match.

Criticisms of libertarianism

From the left

Critics on the left argue that formal freedom means little without the resources to use it. A person with no savings and no healthcare is legally free to start a business but not practically free. The philosopher G. A. Cohen, the Stanford Encyclopedia notes, accepted the idea of self-ownership but argued it actually supports the charge that capitalism exploits workers. Others, following John Rawls, argue that fair institutions must benefit the least advantaged.

From the right

Traditional conservatives argue that libertarianism treats society as a collection of individuals and neglects the family, church and community ties that make freedom possible. Russell Kirk put it sharply in his 1981 essay "Libertarians: The Chirping Sectaries," arguing that libertarianism and conservatism rest on opposed views of human nature and moral order. National conservatives add that open borders and free trade can harm workers and national cohesion.

From philosophers

Some political philosophers question the foundations. Neo-Kantian critics, the Stanford Encyclopedia explains, argue that property rights cannot be settled fairly without a state to define and enforce them. Others question whether mixing labor with land really creates ownership, a doubt that goes back to David Hume.

Libertarians reply that markets and voluntary charity have a better record of reducing poverty than governments, that community thrives best when it is chosen rather than imposed, and that every expansion of state power can be used by people you disagree with.

How to tell if you are a libertarian

You might be a libertarian if most of these sound right to you:

• You think the government should stay out of both your wallet and your bedroom.
• You are more worried about government overreach than about corporate power.
• You support legalizing drugs and also cutting taxes.
• You distrust foreign wars and domestic surveillance alike.
• You would rather solve problems through markets, charity and voluntary groups than new laws.

If you agree with the personal freedom points but want a strong safety net, you may be closer to a liberal or a left-libertarian. If you agree on economics but want the law to uphold traditional values, you may lean conservative or fusionist.

Find where you fit

The fastest check is our How Libertarian Are You? quiz, which takes about two minutes. For a fuller picture, take the Political Compass Test, which places you on an economic axis and an authority axis so you can see whether you land in the libertarian right, the libertarian left or somewhere else. The 12 Axes Political Test goes further and matches you with ideologies including minarchism, anarcho-capitalism and left-libertarianism. Our guide to authoritarian vs libertarian politics explains the vertical axis in detail.