Propertarianism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Propertarianism is the advocacy of the private individual being able to own transferable private property titles within a free market.[1] Specifically, like a term of anarchist economics, propertarianism recognizes all economically scarce goods as legitimate property. This includes "natural capital" such as land, but does not necessarily include non-scarce goods such as intellectual property (patents and copyrights). This view is criticized by those that base property on production or use, such as libertarian socialists, geoanarchists and mutualists.
Supporters of propertarianism include anarcho-capitalists, agorists, voluntaryists, some market anarchists (especially the Rothbardian offshoot), and some individualist anarchists.
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[edit] Etymology
The term was coined by Ursula K. Le Guin in her novel, The Dispossessed (1974), as the term by which the anarchist and non-propertarian society of Anarres described their neighbors; in this original sense, it applies to all societies which acknowledge any form of property, including the collective property of a state.
Some libertarian socialists use the term to refer to libertarians who support property rights in order to distinguish them from their own non-propertarian form of libertarianism. Capitalist libertarians sometimes use this label for themselves, as seen, for instance, in the novel The Probability Broach (1980), by L. Neil Smith, where the fictionalized version of the Libertarian Party is called the Propertarian Party.
[edit] Theory
Murray Rothbard and other natural rights theorists hold strongly to the central libertarian non-aggression axiom. Propertarian market anarchists such as agorists, anarcho-capitalists of the Rothbardian tradition, and voluntaryists consider property rights as natural rights deriving from the primary right of self-ownership.[2][3]
Classical liberal John Locke, argues that, as people mix their own labor with unowned resources, they make those resources their property. People can acquire new property by labor on unowned resources or trade for created goods.
Rothbardian market anarchists believe that property may only originate by being the product of labor, and may then only legitimately change hands by trade or gift. They argue that libertarianism can legitimately defend a non-proviso Lockean original appropriation.[2][3] They term this as "neo-Lockean".[4][3] Libertarians see this as consistent with their opposition to initiatory coercion, since only land that is unowned can be taken. If something is unowned, there is no one the original appropriator is initiating coercion against. And, they do not think mere claim creates ownership. Anarcho-capitalists accept voluntary forms of common ownership, which means property open to all individuals to access.[5]
Propertarianism can be "soft," asserting that private property is morally permissible, or it can be 'hard,' asserting that private property is the only valid form of property.
Anarcho-capitalists generally oppose intellectual property for both moral and pragmatic reasons.[6] Agorists oppose intellectual property as an unjustified restriction on the free market.[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Marcus, B.K.. "propertarianism". BlackCrayon.com Dictionary. BlackCrayon.com. http://www.blackcrayon.com/library/dictionary/?term=propertarianism. Retrieved on 2008-12-27.
- ^ a b Long, Roderick T. (2006). "Land-locked: A Critique of Carson on Property Rights". Journal of Libertarian Studies 20 (1): 87-95. http://mises.org/journals/jls/20_1/20_1_6.pdf.
- ^ a b c Bylund, Per. Man and Matter: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Justification of Ownership in Land from the Basis of Self-Ownership. http://www.perbylund.com/academics_polsci_msc.pdf.
- ^ Verhaegh, Marcus (2006). "Rothbard as a Political Philosopher". Journal of Libertarian Studies 20 (4): 3. http://mises.org/journals/jls/20_4/20_4_1.pdf.
- ^ Holcombe, Randall G. (2005). "Common Property in Anarcho-Capitalism". Journal of Libertarian Studies 19 (2): 3-29. http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/19_2/19_2_1.pdf.
- ^ Tucker, Jeffrey. A Book that Changes Everything. Ludwig von Mises Institute. 2009-01-16.
- ^ Copywrongs, by Samuel Konkin
[edit] External links
- Index of Propertarianism, Against Authority
- Propertarian market anarchism, Agorism.info
