Posted by Ilya Somin:
Liberaltarianism Revisited:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_02_15-2009_02_21.shtml#1234853635
Libertarian blogger Will Wilkinson has [1]kicked off a renewed debate
over the potential of "liberaltarianism," the potential alliance
between libertarians and liberals that was much-discussed back in
2006. Will believes that the idea still has merit. Various
conservative and libertarian commentators, including [2]Jonah
Goldberg, [3]Matt Welch, [4]Ross Douthat, and [5]Virginia Postrel are
skeptical. I. My Reasons for Skepticism.
Back in 2006, I [6]argued that liberals and libertarians have stronger
philosophical affinities than libertarians and conservatives. But I
also doubted in that same post that a liberaltarian alliance was
feasible because most liberal intellectuals are loath to emphasize
those parts of their agenda that justify shrinking government and
liberal politicians are strongly beholden to interest groups with a
vested interest in expanding it.
Although I wish things were different, I think that my 2006 reasons
for skepticism are more valid today than they were back then. The
financial crisis/recession have persuaded most liberal intellectuals
that our current problems are the result of insufficient government
and have made it far more difficult to persuade them to take arguments
against massive expansions of government seriously (to say nothing of
arguments for its radical reduction). [7]I think that claims that the
financial crisis discredits libertarianism are seriously flawed. But
most liberals clearly believe otherwise.
With the exception of a few economists, virtually all liberal public
intellectuals that I know of either support Barack Obama's massive
stimulus plan or believe that it should be even larger than it is.
[8]Back in November, I made the not very original prediction that
President Obama's and the new Democratic Congress' plans for a massive
expansion of government would drive libertarians and conservatives
together in opposition:
With Barack Obama in the White House and the Democrats enjoying
large majorities in Congress at a time of economic crisis, it is
highly likely that they will push for a large expansion of
government even beyond that which recently occurred under Bush.
That prospect may bring libertarians and conservatives back
together. Many of the items on the likely Democratic legislative
agenda are anathema to both groups: a vast expansion of government
control of health care, new legal privileges for labor unions,
expanded regulation of a variety of industries, protectionism,
increased government spending on infrastructure and a variety of
other purposes, and bailouts for additional industries, such as
automakers.
Most of the above has either already come to pass, or is on the
president's legislative agenda for the near future. And, just as I
expected, libertarians and conservatives have reunited in opposition
to it. II. An Intellectual Movement?
In [9]his original post, Will Wilkinson conceded that liberaltarianism
is not a likely political alliance for the near future, but argued
that the movement still has great potential for bringing together
libertarian and liberal intellectuals around common values. As he puts
it:
I want to help create the possibility of a popular political
identity that takes the value of human liberty, in all its aspects,
really seriously. As I see it, this project involves an attempt to
reunify the separate strands of the American liberal tradition....
[around] an authentically liberal governing philosophy that
understands that limited government, free markets, a culture of
tolerance, and a sound social safety net are the best means to
better lives.
Will's "authentically liberal governing philosophy" sounds good to me.
The problem is that few if any liberal intellectuals are willing to
sign on, except by redefinining the terms in ways antithetical to what
most libertarians would want to do (e.g. - by "a sound safety net,"
they mean a vastly larger welfare state than even the most moderate
libertarians are likely to support; by "culture of tolerance," they
mean a variety of PC excesses, etc.).
Back in 2006, liberal intellectual interest in "liberaltarianism" was
driven largely by electoral calculations; they hoped that wooing
libertarians would help the Democrats defeat the Republicans. This
comes through very clearly in [10]Markos Moulitsos' 2006 defense of
the concept, which explicitly refuses to concede any ideological
ground to libertarians, but merely urges them to vote for the
Democrats as a lesser evil relative to the Republicans. A number of
prominent libertarian intellectuals - including Wilkinson and
[11]Brink Lindsey - then sought to forge a liberaltarian coalition
that went beyond a temporary political alliance of convenience. It is
striking that that not a single prominent liberal joined them.
Today, liberal intellectuals are, if anything, even less willing to
make concessions to libertarians than they were in 2006. On an
ideological level, the financial crisis has lowered the stock of
libertarianism in their eyes. In a strange way,[12] the Bush record of
massive expansions of government has also shifted the goalposts for
liberal Democrats. They seem to assume that what Bush did was "laissez
faire" (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary) and that the
current Democratic agenda represents a needed course relative to
failed free market policies rather than a continuation of Bush-era
trends of greatly increased government spending and regulation.
From a political viewpoint, liberals they think they have strong
enough congressional majorities and public support to be able to get
along without libertarians. Moulitsos and his allies no longer see any
need to trumpet their "libertarian democrat" credentials.
None of this means that libertarians shouldn't conduct a
"conversation" with liberals, as Will urges. For example, we should
continue to take their arguments seriously, and to press on on them
[13]the libertarian view that government has systematic flaws, and
that [14]the poor and disadvantaged - the traditional objects of
liberal concern - are often best served by limiting its power. We
should also remember the chief lesson of the Bush era: that a federal
government under united Republican is often no better than one
controlled by the Democrats. The Bush era also highlighted and
exacerbated our serious disagreements with many conservatives.
That said, we must be realistic. There is not going to be any viable
liberaltarianism in the near future. If the Democrats take some
political setbacks, and Obama's big government policies come to be
perceived as failures, liberals may become more open to the
"liberaltarian" idea - as some were as a result of Democratic setbacks
in the 1980s and 90s. Until then, liberals and libertarians can still
listen to each other and cooperate on a few selected issues where we
happen to agree. But not much more than that.
References
1.
http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/2009/02/11/missing-the-point-of-liberaltarianism/
2.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTBiZjE3NDEzY2NmZjAzYmE4NmM5NzllYWFjZjA2Y2M=
3.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTBiZjE3NDEzY2NmZjAzYmE4NmM5NzllYWFjZjA2Y2M=
4.
http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/02/the_future_of_liberaltarianism.php
5. http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/002965.html
6. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_12_03-2006_12_09.shtml#1165283023
7. http://volokh.com/posts/chain_1224544434.shtml
8. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_11_02-2008_11_08.shtml#1225948705
9.
http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/2009/02/11/missing-the-point-of-liberaltarianism/
10.
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/10/02/markos-moulitsas/the-case-for-the-libertarian-democrat/
11. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_12_03-2006_12_09.shtml#1165247590
12. http://volokh.com/posts/1232335004.shtml
13. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_01_25-2009_01_31.shtml#1233381066
14. http://volokh.com/posts/1233103237.shtml
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
