The historical situation of libertarianism

The French anarchist Joseph Déjacque first coined the term libertarianism in 1857. Many left-wing anarchists still use this word to call themselves (for example, in some non-English-speaking countries such as France and Italy, the word "liberal" is synonymous with "anarchism"), but this word has nothing to do with American socialism.

On the contrary, libertarianism is regarded as a form of classical liberalism, and today these two terms are often interchangeable. This concept was originally called "liberalism" simply, and it was an idea that came into being in Europe and America from the Enlightenment era, including political philosophers John Locke and Montesquieu, as well as moral and economist Adam Smith. By the end of18th century, these ideas had spread rapidly throughout the western world with the industrial revolution.

Locke developed a form of social contract through the concept of natural rights, which is called "rule with the consent of the ruled". The role of the legislature should be to protect people's natural rights in the civil rights law. Locke established the theory of labor property right on the concept of natural rights. Each individual "owns" himself in the natural state, and gets due reward by virtue of his own labor. From this concept of natural rights, an economic model based on personal property and transactions and using money as the transaction medium has emerged.

At about the same time, the French philosopher Montesquieu developed the concept of "having sovereignty" and "having administrative power", advocating the separation of political power and preventing the government from expanding administrative power at the expense of individual rights. He also admitted that this kind of decentralization can be realized in the * * * and the regime and the restricted monarchy, although he himself prefers the latter. However, his thoughts also influenced the founders of the United States, and were later adopted by most American governments, including political system and constitutional monarchy.

Adam Smith's moral philosophy emphasizes the government's non-intervention policy, so that individuals can freely play any "talent given to them by God" without being arbitrarily obstructed by the government. According to his economic theory, if anyone is prevented from exerting his greatest talents in any profession (which means opposing mercantilism and monopoly), the efficiency of labor behavior will be reduced. Adam Smith pointed out that "voluntary transactions based on reliable information always benefit both parties", and "voluntary" and "reliable information" refer to transactions without fraud.

In the American independence movement, the founders of the United States took the protection of people's freedom as the main purpose of government existence. Thomas Jefferson said: "According to our own wishes, legal free behavior should not be hindered without infringing on the equal rights of others." He once said a famous saying: "The best government is the one that manages the least."

Marquis lafayette introduced the American concept of freedom (although some people think that this is only a re-introduction to Europe) to design the French declaration of human rights and civil rights 1789:

"The right to freedom lies in engaging in all acts that are harmless to others; Therefore, only by ensuring that other people in society enjoy the same rights can everyone's exercise of their natural rights be restricted. "

John stewart Mill described Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism: "Every individual has sovereignty over his own body and will". Mill compared his so-called "tyranny of the majority" and thought that utilitarianism needs to meet the "non-aggression principle" in politics, so that everyone can get the greatest possible freedom-only by not infringing on others can everyone pursue his own happiness to the maximum extent. This view was also supported by the British philosopher herbert spencer. Spencer advocated the law of equality and freedom, claiming: "Everyone has the freedom to do what he wants without infringing on the equality and freedom of others."

Pierre-Joseph proudhon advocates an anarchist social contract, which does not belong to individuals and governments, but is more like an agreement between people; An agreement that will inevitably produce what we call society. " One of his famous sayings is "Anarchism is order". In his framework of reciprocity, he claimed that labor is the only legal form of property, "property itself is free", individuals or groups are excluded from property ownership, and "owning property is a kind of theft". However, he later abandoned his exclusive concept of property and admitted that personal property "can be used to balance state power and protect individual freedom."

At the beginning of the 20th century, many mainstream political parties in the world began to break away from the above concepts. American progressivism and many socialist movements in Europe focus on denying freedom and free markets in order to make more positive claims on rights. They advocate that the government should not only "protect people's rights", but also use the power of the government to enhance people's more active rights. This change can be taken as an example of franklin delano roosevelt's four freedoms. Two of the freedoms "freedom of speech" and "freedom of belief" are negative freedoms that restrict the government from infringing on individuals, but the other two are positive freedoms-the third freedom from poverty (that is, the government provides assistance at home and abroad) and the fourth freedom from fear (that is, implementing internationalist policies to force other countries to abide by peace).

Therefore, in English-speaking countries, the meaning of the word "liberalism" gradually equated with progressive policies from the 1960s, but many people still supported the original meaning of liberalism, and these schools advocating small government began to call themselves "classical liberalism" to distinguish their positions.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Nazism in Germany and the rise of Russian * * * productism became completely different social movements, while the latter was similar to the progressive movement in western countries and won the sympathy of many progressives. At this time, an economist school in Central Europe claimed to be the Austrian school and began to challenge these different forms of totalitarianism, claiming that these totalitarians supported their policies with collectivism and believed that any form of collectivism was absolutely free to oppose western traditional views. These scholars include ludwig von mises and Heyek, and walter block who advocated "taking the principle of non-aggression as the cornerstone of libertarianism". Austrian school has a great influence on the principles of economics and libertarianism. In the second half of the 20th century, the word "libertarianism" related to anarchism in the early days has now changed to address people similar to classical liberalism.