Freedoms and fundamental values

• Freedoms: strong in both the societal and economic spheres. On the societal level, libertarians defend maximal individual freedom, encompassing the decriminalization of certain substances, freedom of educational choice, and the non-interference of the state in citizens' private lives. On the economic level, this extends to the freedom to undertake, to hire, to set wages, and above all the right to spend one's money as one sees fit and to trade without restriction or surveillance.
• Cardinal values: legitimate private property, individual freedom, consent, responsibility. These values are intimately linked and entirely inseparable from one another.
• Philosophy and principles: Libertarianism is first and foremost a philosophy of law. The fundamental idea, found as early as the seventeenth century in John Locke, is that every individual possesses inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property. These rights are not granted by government but are intrinsic to the human being. Self-ownership is the concept that each individual is the rightful owner of his or her own body and life. As Bastiat wrote, man is first the owner of himself, then the owner of the things he has acquired. The principle of laissez-faire is not the absence of norms; it is a fundamental norm that must be defended, including by force.
• Politics: The principle of non-aggression postulates that a person is free to act as he or she wishes so long as no acts of violence are committed against the life, liberty, or property of another. This formulation recalls the golden rule found in all civilizations and religions: do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you. Libertarians refuse to grant the state special permission to commit acts that most people would consider immoral if committed by individuals. In short, there is a single moral code that applies to everyone, with no exceptions. This naturally produces a deep suspicion of power, particularly state power, which can legally exercise coercion, including through the monopoly of monetary control. Taxation is qualified as theft or extortion, because it consists of seizing another's property without consent, in violation of the non-aggression principle.
• Economics: Freedom of enterprise and exchange flows directly from self-ownership and from ownership of the fruits of one's labor. Freedom produces a spontaneous order, more just and more efficient because it results from individual action and responsibility. The free market stands in opposition to corporatism (a system in which the state collaborates with organized groups to regulate the economy, creating monopolies and regulatory protections). the free market is the natural process by which individuals interact peacefully, without relying on the force of law to obtain advantages.

Historical evolution

Types of libertarians

1. Minarchists consider that the powers of the state should be strictly limited to the defense of individual liberties. It is a minimal state regime (the "night-watchman state"), where power is legitimate only to ensure the core functions of police, justice, and territorial defense. Ron Paul is a prominent figure of this tendency: a physician and U.S. congressman who represented Texas for decades, he consistently voted against any bill that strayed from the Constitution, opposed all forms of foreign interventionism, and championed the denationalization of money, an idea advocated by Friedrich Hayek. Paul argues that the Federal Reserve is responsible for inflation and economic cycles through the manipulation of fiat money, and he has seen in Bitcoin a form of sound money that could replace the gold standard.

1. Anarcho-capitalists consider that state functions should be privatized and managed entirely by the market. This is not a society without rules, authority, or laws, but a society in which rules would be established through voluntary adhesion and consent. There could be governments and state-like functions, but there would be no monopoly; competing enterprises would offer their services to clients. Key thinkers include Murray Rothbard (For a New Liberty, 1973), David Friedman (Milton Friedman's son, who takes a more pragmatic, utilitarian approach arguing that the market can provide all services more efficiently, including law and order), and Hans-Hermann Hoppe (a disciple of Rothbard who develops an approach based on argumentation ethics).

Libertarian thought in quotations