History of Libetarianism
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The term "libertarianism" in the above political sense has been in widespread use since the 1950s. Originally, in the 18th century, it referred to the philosophical doctrine of free will, as opposed to that of determinism. In that meaning libertarianism is opposed to necessitarianism (see Libertarian free will). Later, in the 19th century, the word was applied to political usage.
The term's political meaning is a result of some French anarchists' adopting libertaire as an alternative term for their ideas after the French government banned anarchism. It was first used in print in 1857 by French communist-anarchist Joseph Dejacque in a letter to individualist-anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon from New Orleans criticizing him for supporting private property in the product of labor and exchange markets. Dejacque also published a periodical in New York called "Le Libertaire" (The Libertarian) from 1858 to 1861. The English term "libertarian" was used in the 19th century and early 20th century in America to refer to one who espoused that country's native form of individualist anarchism — a type of anarchism that opposed communist and syndicalist anarchism, and supported private property and a market economy. But, for the most part, English-speaking anarchists choose to call themselves anarchists, individualist anarchists, anarchist-communists, or anarchist-syndicalists. Often, when distinguishing between the different uses of the term, the word libertarian is qualified as "left-libertarian" or "right-libertarian", with the latter endorsing laissez-faire capitalism.
In contrast, the Libertarian International Organization points out the term has usage to pre-Roman times as a class of self-governing person, surviving in Common Law as the concept of 'Freeman' immune from government question, regulation, draft or taxation and whose "Home is His Castle" substantially destroyed by the British Parliament's Corporation Acts of the 19th century, (Britannica, 10th Edition) which also influenced jurists in many countries. Libertarians were understood in Iberian usage to mean such freemen, as was the term "Liberal," especially those living in self-governing or anarchist communes; and groups in the 1600s in Western Europe such as the Levellers used the term.
Libertarianism originated in the tradition of liberalism, and often the terms are used interchangeably by Libertarians. Advocacy of free markets, free trade, limited government, and a focus on personal liberty unite the two philosophies. Raimondo Cubeddu of the Department of Political Science of the University of Pisa says "It is often difficult to distinguish between "Libertarianism" and "Classical Liberalism." Those two labels are used almost interchangeably by those who we may call libertarians of a "minarchist" persuasion: scholars who, following Locke and Nozick, believe a State is needed in order to achieve effective protection of property rights."
Purists, who favor absolute laissez-faire, advocate aggression insurance, large scale private security and arbitration, voluntary taxation, and other means of achieving civilized and natural systems of security and law governed by sovereign individuals and the "invisible hand". These are called free-market anarchists, Anarcho-capitalists, or radical capitalists.
The historical usage of the term "Classical Liberals" refers to both Americans and Europeans such as John Locke, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Herbert Spencer, Marquis de La Fayette (among many others) who were opposed to restrictions on individual liberty. Ideas involving the central tenets of libertarianism came from many of these thinkers. For example, Marquis de La Fayette drafted the 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man which asserted as one of its principles: "Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights." Herbert Spencer is noted for his espousal of the "law of equal liberty" which he states as: "every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man." Thomas Jefferson also held the standard libertarian maxim; he said that "rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others." He is also credited as saying that "the government that governs best, governs least." The original framers of the U.S. Constitution were aware of what they perceived as a danger of majority rule in oppressing freedom of the individual. For example, in Federalist No. 10 and elsewhere, James Madison advocates a republic as opposed to a democracy (where the latter refers to "absolute majority rule" rather than liberal democracy) because he feared that the majority would inevitably violate individual rights if it had the power to do so.. Libertarians, believing in the sovereignty of the individual, maintain that members of a majority group should not have any rights that an individual in the minority does not also have (and vice versa).
However, mainstream thought in America, and other locales, moved away from negative liberty and free market ideas and instead began to advocate Keynesian economic ideas. Rather than relegating government to a mere agent of defense, they began to recommend government intervention as a way to promote positive liberty. While the classic philosophy is called liberalism, the latter has also come to be called "liberalism". It is sometimes called Welfare Liberalism or New Liberalism to distinguish it from classical liberalism. As the term "liberal" began taking on this new meaning in several English-speaking countries, many of those who espoused the classical minimal-state philosophy began referring to themselves as "libertarians" to distinguish their doctrine.
Some, such as David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian U.S think tank, the Cato Institute, argue that the term classical liberalism should be reserved for early liberal thinkers for the sake of clarity and accuracy, and because of differences between many libertarian and classical liberal thinkers. Nevertheless, the Cato Institute's official stance is that classical liberalism and libertarianism are synonymous; they prefer the term "liberal" to describe themselves, but choose not to use it because of its confusing connotation in some English-speaking countries (most self-described liberals prefer a mixed economy rather than a free market economy). The Cato Institute dislikes adding "classical" because, in their view, "the word 'classical' connotes a backward-looking philosophy". Thus, they finally settle on "libertarian", as it avoids backward implications and confused definitions.
