Green libertarianism
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Green libertarianism (also known as eco-libertarianism) is a hybrid political philosophy that has developed in the United States.[1] Based upon a mixture of political third party values, such as the environmental platform from the Green Party and the civil liberties platform of the Libertarian Party, the green libertarian philosophy attempts to consolidate socially progressive values with economic liberalism.[2] Both parties concern economic maintenance in the long-term rather in the short term.[3]
A green libertarian would be an individual who adheres to libertarian political philosophy as well as to green ideology. While these are not traditionally seen going hand-in-hand, the two are not necessarily incompatible. For example, free market economics and environmentalism are combined in the concept of free market environmentalism. And there has recently been an interest in "how to bring green sensibilities into line with the free-market agenda of libertarians."[4]
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[edit] History
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The libertarian political philosophy, like the Greens, derives from Individualist and Communitarian Anarchism. They are both egalitarian and democratic. New England Transcendentalism (especially Thoreau and Bronson Alcott) and German Romanticism, the Pre-Raphaelites, and other "back to nature" movements combined with anti-war, anti-industrialism, and decentralizations movements are all part of this tradition.
The modern American Libertarian Party, like the Green Party, is an attempt to apply these ideas to the contemporary technocratic "national security state." In neither case have they been very successful, but there are many instances of Greens and Libertarians working together against the corruption and deceit of the two major parties.
Both Greens and libertarians have traditionally opposed the elitist corporate state (fascism), the Military-Industrial Complex, and centralized planning and state socialism. They have opposed the idea of "corporate personhood" and the idea of "state sovereignty" in which governments claim the right to maintain a monopoly on force and dictate the "terms of justice."
Thus, both Libertarians and Greens are essentially revolutionaries. They do not accept the idea that those "in authority" have any right to enforce their will or decisions on the rest of us. (See Murray Rothbard and his influential 1960s journal, Left and Right). Ralph Nader would be another example of an activist-theoretician who is both libertarian and Green.
The Green Party of the United States and the American Libertarian Party oppose all but defensive wars, and an interventionist foreign policy. Both support a maximum of individual liberty, and would reduce most government functions to the local level, with local control.
The "eco" in economics and ecology is the same. It is the earth, oikos, or some local part of it which we identify as an "economy" or an "eco-system." While Economics is concerned with the human part of this - how people use and conserve scarce resources in the most efficient and productive ways, Ecology is concerned with understanding whole natural systems and how they evolve and respond to outside forces or "inputs." Since people are an animal species and thus part of nature, Ecology also includes the effects of human actions and human populations on the rest of the environment.
Libertarian Greens believe that capitalism is fundamentally incompatible both with liberty and preserving the environment. They see capitalism as a form of fascism in which the owners of capital (land and other wealth) also own and control the state, the legal system, regulatory apparatus, etc - either directly or through the corporate media, rigged elections, and "manufactured consent" (see Noam Chomsky). In this view, capitalism is the opposite of "free trade" and "free markets," individual liberty, and representative government. Most Greens blame capitalism for the destruction of the environment.
[edit] "Natural Capitalism"
Originally, the ideals of libertarianism failed to "deal appropriately with environmental problems"[4] In 2000, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution mentioned that libertarianism and green politics could mix. By 2006, Green to Gold was published, which provided ideas on how companies can practice green libertarianism.[4]
[edit] Balance of ecology and economics
The biggest debate among green libertarians is how to balance ecology with economics. The green libertarian philosophy confronts conflict between the principles of environmental protection and economic free trade by stressing that the two can go hand-in-hand, only with corporate responsibility and accountability. According to some green libertarians, government intervention is required if big business is apathetic to environmental stability.
[edit] Limited government
Ideas of green libertarians are based on the assertion that the government itself is the biggest polluter.[5] Therefore, the government should be held accountable to all the same environmental regulations they place on businesses. The problem is that while one can sue private corporations for its damage to the environment, the government protects itself from the same suits. Therefore, green libertarians call for the abolition of sovereign immunity.
The green libertarian philosophy supports limited government. Green libertarians advocate cutting the size and scope of the federal government substantially to maximize civil liberties and encourage private charity. However, they would expand the understanding of the classic libertarian motto "your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins" to include pollution as force-initiation which may be regulated.
Although many libertarians are against government regulation of business in regard to the economy, they believe that restitution — rather than regulation — would be more effective at preventing pollution than the existing anti-pollution laws. In the current system, the government is immune, and corporations that pay fines pay them to the government rather than to the victims of the pollution.; a libertarian system would enable payment to the victims.
[edit] Environmental regulation
Pollution creates health hazards. Individuals have to pay themselves to maintain their health. Therefore, pollution is stealing. Since destabilization of the biosphere is initiation of force and the minimal state is justified, that minimal state must prevent and punish violations of the nonaggression principle. Therefore, environmental regulation in a minimal state is justified.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Joshua T. Eagan (1996-06-25). "Seeing Green: Presidential Perspective and Environmentalism". http://www.thepresidency.org/pubs/Fellows_2009/drafts_President_Policy.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
- ^ Ben Sharvy (1996-06-25). "Green-Libertarian Politics and Theory". http://efn.org/~bsharvy/ecolibparty.html. Retrieved on 2007-09-26.
- ^ Annalee Newitz (2007-05-30). "Green libertarians". http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=3728&catid=4. Retrieved on 2009-05-20.
- ^ a b c Annalee Newitz (2007-05-29). "Green Libertarianism: The New Reformist Movement?". AlterNet. http://alternet.org/columnists/story/52541/. Retrieved on 2007-09-26.
- ^ "Official Website of the Libertarian National Committee". 2007-05-29. http://www.lp.org/issues/environment. Retrieved on 2009-05-20.
[edit] External links
- Green-Libertarian Politics and Theory - Political Systems for a Small Planet, by Ben Sharvy. Retrieved August 21, 2008.
- Green Libertarianism: Ecology vs Economics?, by Jim Blair. Retrieved August 21, 2008.
