Continuing the series of posts examining how libertarian-leaning folks should vote (assuming they think it’s worth voting at all), Reason has published essays on the libertarian case for Obama (Mike Godwin), Romney (Robert Poole) and Gary Johnson (Nick Gillespie). Some may also be interested in this post by law professor Brad Smith explaining why he […]
Archive | Libertarianism
Libertarians and the Presidential Election
Reason has an interesting symposium on the presidential election in which various libertarian writers and political commentators give their presidential picks. In sharp contrast with Reason’s symposium during the 2008 election, there is almost no support for Obama. While many libertarians endorsed Obama four years ago, very few are willing to do so today. I […]
Review of Atlas Shrugged II
My wife and I recently saw Atlas Shrugged, Part II. Overall, I thought it was much better than Part I, which I assessed here. The acting was significantly better, and the movie did a better job of conveying the message of Ayn Rand’s book. There are still some problems in translating a 1950s novel into […]
Gary Johnson’s Libertarian Candidacy
In my post comparing Romney and Obama from a libertarian perspective, I promised to take up Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson in a future post. This is it. From a policy perspective, Johnson is extremely appealing to libertarians. Last year, I wrote that “Johnson is about as good on the issues as any remotely mainstream […]
A Libertarian Perspective on Romney vs. Obama
In recent weeks, libertarians have been debating whether there’s any good reason for us to support Romney over Obama, or vice versa. In contrast to 2008, when many libertarians endorsed Obama, few if any are making the case for him this year. There is near-universal agreement among libertarian commentators that Obama’s presidency has done more […]
The Libertarian Personality
This recent Wall Street Journal article summarizes an important study of libertarians by famed political psychologist Jonathan Haidt and several other scholars: An individual’s personality shapes his or her political ideology at least as much as circumstances, background and influences. That is the gist of a recent strand of psychological research identified especially with the […]
Assessing Gary Johnson’s Environmental Views
At LegalPlanet, Dan Farber takes a look at the environmental policy positions of Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson.
The Tea Party and Libertarianism
In this recent Cato Institute paper, Emily Ekins and David Kirby make an impressive case that the Tea Party movement is “functionally libertarian” force within the GOP. They collect extensive survey data showing that about half of self-identified Tea Party supporters are libertarian rather than social conservative (they support individual freedom on the social as […]
Richard Epstein on Hayek
NYU law professor Richard Epstein has an excellent short summary of F.A. Hayek’s thought and its continuing relevance today. Along the way, Epstein explodes various claims that Hayek’s thought had little intellectual merit and little influence until Tea Partiers and Republicans like Paul Ryan popularized it over the last few years. In reality, as I […]
The Top Ten Libertarian Supreme Court Decisions
By Ilya Somin on August 2, 2012 6:17 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Libertarianism
Damon Root of Reason has an interesting article giving his list of the “Top Ten Libertarian Supreme Court Decisions”: It’s no secret the U.S. Supreme Court has often been a disappointment to libertarians…. But that doesn’t mean the High Court always gets it wrong. Here, in no particular order, are 10 Supreme Court decisions still […]
Milton Friedman’s 100th Birthday
Today is Milton Friedman’s 100th birthday. Friedman was the greatest libertarian economist of the last century, and one of the greatest economists of all time, regardless of viewpoint. In my view, what separated Friedman from most other great economists, and also most other leading libertarian thinkers, was his ability to speak to both expert and […]
Koch v. Cato Settlement Details
The legal battle between the Koch brothers and the Cato Institute is officially over. The Cato Institute has issued a press release detailing the settlement. The key points of the settlement are as follows: 1) The shareholder agreement upon which the Koch brothers claimed majority ownership of the Cato Institute is dissolved. 2) The Cato […]
Libertarianism and Science Fiction
Many leading science fiction and fantasy writers have been libertarians, or at least significantly influenced by libertarian ideas. The late Ray Bradbury, who passed away last week, was one well-known example. In this short article published in Prometheus, the journal of the Libertarian Futurist Society, I try to explain why science fiction is so much […]
The Kochs Respond to the Washingtonian Article on the Cato v. Koch Conflict
Charles and David Koch have posted a response to the recent Washingtonian article on the origins of the Kochs’ lawsuit seeking to take control of the Cato Institute. Since I did a post on the original article, it’s only fair that I link to the response as well. That said, neither the original article nor […]
The Washingtonian on the Cato vs. Koch Conflict
The Washingtonian just published a detailed article on the Koch brothers lawsuit seeking to take control of the Cato Institute: Since its founding in 1977, Cato has evolved from a band of roguish scholars to a first-tier Washington think tank that cuts across party lines to further its libertarian agenda…. its work has helped make […]