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.

Update: And the flaws of Objectivists:

Dunno, maybe. He seems a nice guy in person but under the surface all these Randroids are they same.
They want to prance around and preach condescendingly to us about things we already know and act like Rand discovered common sense–and the facts is they are mini-statists and…

— Stephan Kinsella (@NSKinsella) December 6, 2025

Tweet:

Dunno, maybe. He seems a nice guy in person but under the surface all these Randroids are they same. They want to prance around and preach condescendingly to us about things we already know and act like Rand discovered common sense–and the facts is they are mini-statists and support IP and have a very confused understanding of property rights. They use stupid, hoary metaphors and idiosyncratic terms and definitions that sound cultish; they run around talking about “Miss Rand” and “achieving value,” whatever the hell that means. They support taxation https://stephankinsella.com/2016/05/david-kelley-on-the-necessity-of-government/ https://stephankinsella.com/2025/07/the-power-to-tax-power-to-outlaw-competition/, they support one-world government https://stephankinsella.com/2009/09/objectivism-bidinotto-and-anarchy/ https://stephankinsella.com/2009/09/rand-objectivism-and-one-world-government/, they support legislation if it is the only way to get IP https://c4sif.org/2022/08/letter-on-intellectual-property-rights-ios-journal-june-1995/, they support fascist IP and IP terrorism https://c4sif.org/2022/04/on-the-fountainhead-as-ip-terrorism-i-designed-cortlandt-i-gave-it-to-you-i-destroyed-it/, they support war and nuking Arabs and others https://stephankinsella.com/2007/12/centralist-pro-war-objectivists-on-paul/ https://ari.aynrand.org/issues/foreign-policy/self-defense-and-free-trade/war-nuclear-weapons-and-innocents/ , they think retarded babies should be aborted https://stephankinsella.com/2009/07/objectivist-hate-fest/ https://stephankinsella.com/2009/12/randian-dislikes-me/, they think it was fine to murder and steal from Indians https://stephankinsella.com/2024/12/rand-on-the-injuns-and-property-rights/, they worship the centralized-statist Constitution, they hate charity, children, fun, humor https://stephankinsella.com/2009/07/peikoff-on-copyright-michael-jackson/. They are pathetic, cartoonish children https://stephankinsella.com/2010/01/objectivism-schism-form-letter/. They should be grateful we principled anti-state libertarians even deign to speak with them despite all this, but they are too puffed up and weird to have humility. I refuse to pretend they are not what they are and they can’t stand that. The saving grace of the retarded Galambosians was they took their IP views so seriously that almost none of their stupid views are available online.

c4sif.org/tag/galambos/ https://stephankinsella.com/tag/galambos/ Too bad the Randians don’t take their IP views as seriously and let their embarrassing crap slowly fade away like rotting carcasses turning into dirt or dinosaurs and peat moss turning into oil.

***

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 [↩]