What Kind of Libertarian Are You?

So asks this Reason post, discussing five types of libertarian identified by Tyler Cowen. The five types are:

1. Cato-influenced;
2. Rothbardian anarchism;
3. Mises Institute nationalism;
4. Jeff Friedman and Critical Review; and
5. Hayek libertarianism.

“Cato-influenced” is defined as “orthodox” libertarianism, “defined by the troika of free markets, non-interventionism, and civil liberties.  It is based on individual rights but does not insist on anarchism.  A ruling principle is that libertarians should not endorse state interventions.” Of course, Mises Instituters tend to adhere to these principles (and to be Rothbardians, often anarchists; and not “nationalists”). As Wirkman Virkkala notes:

Cowen apparently desired to carry water in the culture war between George Mason economists and the scholars and enthusiasts associated with the Mises Institute. His characterization of a “Mises Institute Nationalism” borders on bizarre, though I see why he would make the attempt. The fact that so many of these folks are themselves anarchists means that whatever “nationalism” they promote must be a different sort. I took from this short description that Cowen doesn’t like Hans-Herman Hoppe. Yeah, thanks for sharing. This description of a strand of libertarianism is less coherent than the previous.

The list is odd, indeed. Mises Institute people are not nationalists and generally are Rothbardians, so really 3 should collapse into 2. Hayek was not really a libertarian. ¹ And it’s not clear that Jeffrey Friedman is either; he’s some kind of “postlibertarian.” ²

As for Cato: Look, I’m glad Cato is generally on our side. But the implication that Cato is “orthodox” libertarian, compared to the Mises Institute’s “nationalism” is guffaw-inducing. Of course, no group’s members have perfectly uniform views, but consider the following cases that seem to stray from the troika of basic libertarian principles of free markets, non-interventionism, and civil liberties, where various Catoites:

• have opposed tax cuts (see also Re: Cato Opposes Tax Cuts (Again));
• don’t want libertarians to advocate the aboliton of all medical licensing because people will think we are “moonbats”;
• think we need inflation to counter irrational exuberance;
• defend the Iraq war (not all of them, thank goodness);
• praise socialist-welfarist John Rawls;
• defend (archive) federal surveillance and the “Police America Act”;
• prefer Hamilton to Jefferson;
• are tepid in criticizing state-imposed intellectual property (and many of them support IP);
• oppose free trade (drug reimportation) because it would undercut the state-granted anti-competitive patent monopoly privilege; ³
• support centralized federal supervision of states;
• praise “sensible gun regulations“;
• sought $3.5M in DC taxpayers’ money for reimbursement for helping to foist a national rule on the entire country that redefines the natural right to bear arms as a limited State-conferred privilege, clearing the way for all manner of gun regulations;
• flirt with the idea of carbon taxes;
• support NAFTA’s managed trade system;
• laud Ben Bernanke’s performance as Fed Chairman and distractingly focus on the importance of the “independence” of the Fed;
• want to run the TSA (and see Bob Poole on the TSA);
• opposed Ossetian independence from Russian in the name of “territorial integrity”;
• consort with Russian dictators.
• Support (2, 3) the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• [Update] flirted with the universal basic income: “advocates of free markets and welfare reform should not dismiss the idea out of hand. The current welfare state is a clear failure. A universal basic income may or may not provide a better alternative, but it’s almost certain we will hear a great deal about in the next few years.”
• Update: Supports the state’s censorship regime. See Brownstone Institute, A Close Look at the Amici Briefs in Murthy v. Missouri
• Calls for printing more fiat money: “It Is Time for the Fed to Cut Rates,” Jai Kedia (July 15, 2024)
• COVID Update:
  • • endorse mandatory covid vaccines (tweet) (Robert A. “Levy”)
    • Ilya Somin debate
    • Birx reconsidered
    • Government in a pandemic (Thomas A. Firey)
    • Mocking the Great Barrington Declaration (“Andy” “Craig”)
    • And see Will “Wilkinson”, of the “Niskanen” Center, The Useful Libertarian Idiocy of The Great Barrington Declaration
    • according to Charles Frohman: “Reason’s Science editor, Ron Bailey, for example, joined a couple lawyers at Cato in even justifying vaccine MANDATES – the requirement to risk death for the herd. One of their top people, Katherine Mangu-Ward, once said in some video long ago to “just take the damn vaccine”.
    • Re Bailey: see “Should Vaccines Be Mandatory? A libertarian debate on immunization and government,” by Matt Welch, Ronald Bailey, Jeffrey A. Singer, and Sandy Reider
    • “The COVID vaccines were a triumph of globalization” (tweet)
    • David Boaz, Taco: Cato Scholars on Vaccine Policies (Aug. 13, 2021)
    • Jeff Tucker names other names in the libertarian pro-lockdown sphere here
  • Support the government imposed moratoriums on evictions, in violation of property rights of landlords
  • Now opposes Trump’s Schedule F anti-deepstate reforms
    • “Reforming the bureaucracy and rewriting statutes and regulations is hard work, requiring careful policymaking and consensus‐​building. It is not the product of gimmicks like Schedule F and databases of inexperienced people. That’s why a Trump remake of the federal bureaucracy would prove disastrous—especially for people who truly want to see the bureaucracy downsized.”
    • A little birdie told me this cat, “Thomas A. Firey,” also endorsed lockdowns and forced shots

It’s almost a compliment to be called a nationalist by someone who holds up this as the libertarian ideal.

***

Lew’s reply was:

”

re: What Kind of Libertarian Are You?

Posted by Lew Rockwell on July 9, 2009 03:00 PM

Stephan, these detailed taxonomies are just sand in the eyes. There are only two kinds of libertarian, much as some would like to obscure it: Rothbardian and non-Rothbardian. But even that can be a distraction in our everyday work. As Murray noted — minarchist or anarchist, constitutionalist or monarchist — there is really only one consideration: Do you hate the state?

”

[LRC]

Update: On Cato Unbound, an article arguing for military conscription.

And now we have them arguing for a minimum basic income.

1. Walter Block,  Hayek’s Road to Serfdom . [↩]
2. See Postlibertarianism is not libertarianism: Rejoinder to Nove; After libertarianism: Rejoinder to Narveson, McCloskey, Flew, and Machan; and What’s Wrong With Libertarianism. [↩]
3. Drug Reimportation [↩]