Left-Rothbardianism

Left-Rothbardianism is a term used by agorists and other left-libertarians that identify themselves with the market anarchist strands of Murray Rothbard's thought. It is counterpoised with more conservative libertarian elements of minarchism and conservativism to give themselves a separate category in accordance with the broader libertarian movement. In the past this tendency used to be called "neolibertarianism".

It is ambiguous whether there is such a thing as a right-Rothbardian perspective as Rothbard himself placed libertarianism on the far left of the political spectrum. The use of the term left-Rothbardian merely serves to differentiate those that would call themselves market anarchists in the steps of Rothbard and those that would call themselves minarchists and conservative libertarians with influence from Rothbard.

Left-Rothbardianism also differentiates from pure anarcho-capitalism in the context of the cultural influence it has. Whereas left-Rothbardians will accept a broader array of left-libertarians into their general movement, anarcho-capitalists tend to shun anyone that does not accept big business proponents often mixed in with free market rhetoric.

As a general rule of thumb, left-Rothbardians tend to rely more on Rothbard's work from his period of alliance with the New Left in the late 1960's. Strictly speaking, though, that period of his work was not particularly different as actual ideology so much as simply being more left-oriented in rhetorical emphasis.

Properly understood, all agorists are left-Rothbardians, but not all left-Rothbardians are necessarily agorists. One can be a left-Rothbardian while not accepting Konkin's theory of revolution (New Libertarian Manifesto) and further development of radical libertarian class theory into Agorist Class Theory.

Some members of the US libertarian movement, including Samuel Edward Konkin III and Roderick T. Long, are recognized left-Rothbardians. These individuals depart from other forms of libertarianism by opposing intellectual property, by advocating strong alliances with the Left on issues such as the anti-war movement, and by supporting labor unions

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu