Thick Libertarianism and the Federation of Liberty

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Excellent post from Micha Ghertner:

Thick libertarianism is that much more important when you adopt a “Federation of Liberty” over a “Union of Liberty” approach, to use Kukathas’ language, or when you adopt a pluralist over a rationalist approach, to use Levy’s. The only way to convince other cultures that liberty is worth preserving is by engaging them in that argument, and rooting out those aspects of their culture that are inimical to freedom. Removing benevolent imperialism from the libertarian tool-kit makes the tool of peaceful but critical persuasion all the more necessary.

Micha also makes this great point… One can admit that a social practice is unjustly liberty-limiting and be opposed to coercive intervention in exactly the same way that one can admit that a state violates the rights of its people and be opposed to coercive intervention.

5 thoughts on “Thick Libertarianism and the Federation of Liberty”

  1. WW, while moral suasion and high-minded discussion are great, I suggest the easier way to destroy unjust anti-liberty social practices is simply to offer access to global capitalism. My impression is that it's the fastest method of social and culture change, and one that overall enhances liberty and well-being.

  3. So what's up with Russia, then? Is that not close enough to real capitalism to count? Or it is close enough, and it is helping?

    If we employ a second-best argument to say that, at the margin, “pushing for more capitalism” will lead to more Russias as well as more Singapores, is that a good enough mix for this to be the right policy?

    I don't actually know much about Russia except that it's got some large corruption problems and it is sometimes referred to as “capitalist” often with scare quotes.