;

libertarianism



  • Quinn Slobodian: Can Democracy be Safe from the Market?

    A new history of capitalist policy initiatives focuses on the "zone," a territory of radical deregulation where capital is free from constraint by democracy. A reviewer asks whether there can be a zone where democracy is insulated against the market. 



  • Excerpt: How Apartheid South Africa Tried to Create a Libertarian Utopia

    by Quinn Slobodian

    As pressure grew to end Apartheid, South African libertarians experimented with a deregulated zone that would be "Africa's Switzerland." It failed to become a model market utopia, but with sweatshops, environmental hazard, and stunted democracy, it was an eerie predictor of 21st century societies. 



  • Ken Burns Got "Prohibition" Wrong

    by Mark Lawrence Schrad

    Burns largely accepts an individualistic and libertarian narrative of prohibition as a misbegotten campaign of moral scolds, missing the reformist, egalitarian, and humane demands of the movement and the exploitative nature of the "liquor traffic" it sought to disrupt. 



  • Why Mislead Readers about Milton Friedman and Segregation?

    by Nancy MacLean

    "One would think that today the facts about the long struggle of southern white leaders to preserve segregation are so well known that simple fact-checking would suffice to rule out attempts to whitewash their efforts."



  • The History of Freedom Is a History of Whiteness

    by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

    "A conversation with Tyler Stovall about his recent book White Freedom and whether or not the legacy of liberty can break away from racial exclusion and domination."



  • In Fights Over Face Masks, Echoes of the American Seatbelt Wars

    The fight over seatbelt laws in the United States was fraught with trying to strike a balance between individual and public interests. Those concerns have also been reflected in similar matters of health and safety, including vaccinations, helmet laws — and masks.



  • The Town That Went Feral (review)

    by Patrick Blanchfield

    In a United States wracked by virus, mounting climate change, and ruthless corporate pillaging and governmental deregulation, the lessons from one tiny New Hampshire town are stark indeed. Plus, bears.



  • The Libertarian Ideas That Wrecked the Fed

    by Bruce Bartlett

    Friedman’s ardent libertarian faith was central to his monetarist thinking; like all libertarians, he was always extremely wary of anything that would cause the size of government to grow.



  • Is Freedom White?

    by Jefferson Cowie

    In American mythology, there exists a gauzy past when white citizens were left alone to do as they pleased with their land and their labor (even if it was land stolen and labor enslaved). In the legend, those days of freedom and equality were, and still are, perpetually under assault. 



  • No, There Isn’t A Constitutional Right To Not Wear Masks

    by Helena Rosenblatt

    Libertarian arguments against compulsory mask-wearing to fight COVID-19 claim the mantle of individual liberty but ignore the way that liberal theory has focused on both rights and duties as the core of the social contract.