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Broadway Books has published a new book by
Charles Murray,
What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation (191 pages, $22). In his first book since
The Bell Curve, the bestselling, controversial study of intelligence written with the late Richard Herrnstein, Mr. Murray expounds a view of politics and society based on the simple premises that human happiness requires freedom and that freedom requires limited government. The idea of limited government, Mr. Murray argues, is not a new or utopian proposal but rather the political creed championed by our Founding Fathers.
What It Means to Be a Libertarian is organized in three parts. The first sets forth both the vision of limited government at the heart of libertarian political philosophy and the principles on which it is based. Mr. Murray offers these essential principles of governance:
- In a free society, individuals may not initiate the use of force against any other individual or group.
- People in a free society may not be impeded from engaging in voluntary and informed transactions.
- Government exists primarily to enforce the fundamental rights of a free people.
The second, and longest, part of the book discusses contemporary public policy issues--including entitlements, education reform, the war on drugs, and environmental protection--and makes two general points. First, increased government involvement in areas of great concern has tended not to result in significant improvement and, in some cases, appears to have made matters worse. Second, a drastic reduction in the size and scope of government would not be a journey into unchartered waters but instead a return to the imperfect but more effective state of affairs that existed in America until recent decades.
The final section of the book asks whether America can reduce government to its pre-New Deal size. Mr. Murray concludes that the formidable forces operating in favor of such a downsizing--the growing alienation of ordinary citizens from government, their increasing willingness to forsake government benefits in return for greater autonomy, and their nagging realization that they have given over to bureaucracies far too many responsibilities that give meaning to life--are likely to prevail.
The book has been favorably reviewed. Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, though not a libertarian, promises that "you won't find a more provocative and enjoyable political volume anywhere," for example; he praises Mr. Murray for presenting "the premises of limited government with an honesty and forthrightness that even liberal critics are bound to admire."
