Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 12:24:26 -0500 (EST) From: Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us> Subject: Re: M-TH: Re: Trust/state Libertarianism is professedly and openly anti-democratic. Hayek ans Mises hatred democracy. Hayek, a rather poor political theorist, advocated the theory of democratic elitism, basically, giving the people some limited right to select among which group of their betters should run the government every some years, and otherwise stay out of it. He thought that the people are hoi poloi, ignoramuses, irrational, always haring off after Communism, or Nazism, or the welfare state or some other ill-considered demagogic scheme. Nozick says that dictatorship by the many (which we call democracy) is still dictatorship. He fails to quote Marx on this, inexplicably. He says that freedom requires the ability and right to sell yourself into slavery if you want to. For Locke of course "the people" were property owners and the propertyless didn't get a franchise. The chief end of entering into government is to protect propertyy, after all, and they didn't have any. He sort of forgot that his own theory said that they owned themselves and their own labor, which one might regard as an important species of property or anyway worthy of protection. Less cantakerously, libertarians think that democracy is limited sharplyu by rightsa, and that property rights are a limit on what the people can muck with. They can't take away my property by force and gie it to you, the essence of redistribution as they see it. --Justin On Fri, 24 Jan 1997, Doug Henwood wrote: > Chris Sciabarra's recent postings on the state make me wonder about > another, related question: the anti-democratic aspects of libertarian > thought. Libertarians, of course, valorize individual freedom above all > (and I'll leave aside the freedom from/to controversy for simplicity's > sake). So if the majority of a society decides to do something - > redistributionist economic policy or a public investment program to take > two relevant examples - this would presumably violate the liberties of the > individual, and be therefore verboten in the libertarian utopia. This > becomes a formula for minority rule, and we all know which minority, the > rich. Libertarians profess to hate institutions of concentrated power, but > they never seem to turn their critical attentions onto money, which, as > Negri pungently put it, has one face, that of the boss. > > Doug > > -- > > Doug Henwood > Left Business Observer > 250 W 85 St > New York NY 10024-3217 USA > +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax > email: <dhenwood-AT-panix.com> > web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html> > > > > > --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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