Neoclassical liberalism, also referred to as Arizona School liberalismNeoclassical liberal philosophers such as David Schmidtz, Jerry Gaus, John Tomasi, Kevin Vallier, Matt Zwolinski and
Jason Brennan
Jason F. Brennan (born 1979) is an American philosopher and business professor. He is currently the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at George ...
all have a connection to the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
political philosophy
Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...
that focuses on the compatibility of support for civil liberties and
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
s on the one hand and a concern for
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...
and the well-being of the worst-off on the other. Adherents of neoclassical liberalism broadly hold that an agenda focused upon
individual liberty
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
will be of most benefit to the economically weak and
socially disadvantaged
Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...
.
History
The first known use of the term "Arizona School" was by Andrew Sabl, introducing David Schmidtz at a UCLA Department Colloquium in 2012. Upon being pressed to define "Arizona School" Sabl said the school is broadly libertarian but that its most distinguishing characteristic is that it produces political philosophy that aims to be observation-based and empirically accountable.
The first recorded use of the term ''bleeding-heart libertarian'' seems to have been in a 1996 essay by Roderick T. Long. It was subsequently used in a
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...
post by Stefan Sharkansky and later picked up and elaborated on by
Arnold Kling
Arnold Kling (born 1954) is an American economist, scholar, and blogger known for his writings on EconLog, an economics blog, along with Bryan Caplan and David R. Henderson. Kling also has his own blog, askblog, which carries the motto: "takin ...
in an article for ''
TCS Daily
''TCS Daily'' was an online magazine with commentary and analysis on current news from a free-market perspective. It was active between 2000 and 2010.
History and profile
''TCS'' is an initialism that now stands for "Technology, Commerce, Society" ...
''. Since then, the term has been used sporadically by a number of libertarian writers including Anthony Gregory and
Bryan Caplan
Bryan Douglas Caplan (born April 8, 1971) is an American economist and author. Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University, research fellow at the Mercatus Center, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and former contributor ...
.
In March 2011, a group of academic philosophers, political theorists and economists created the Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog. Regular contributors to the blog included
Fernando Tesón
Fernando Tesón is an Argentine-American legal scholar who is known for his contributions to the philosophy of law (especially, the law of humanitarian intervention) and to neoclassical liberal theory. He is the Tobias Simon Eminent Scholar at F ...
,
Gary Chartier
Gary William Chartier (born 1966) Gary Chartier is a legal scholar, philosopher, political theorist, and theologian. His work addresses anarchism and ethics. Chartier is a professor and serves as associate dean of La Sierra University's busines ...
,
Jason Brennan
Jason F. Brennan (born 1979) is an American philosopher and business professor. He is currently the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at George ...
Critics of the bleeding-heart libertarian movement include economist
David D. Friedman
David Director Friedman (born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and anarcho-capitalist theorist. Although he studied chemistry and physics and not law or economics, he is known for his textbook writings on m ...
, for whom bleeding-heart libertarians "insist that social justice ought to be part of libertarianism but are unwilling to tell us what it means."
See also
*
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, econo ...
*
Gary Chartier
Gary William Chartier (born 1966) Gary Chartier is a legal scholar, philosopher, political theorist, and theologian. His work addresses anarchism and ethics. Chartier is a professor and serves as associate dean of La Sierra University's busines ...
*
Compassionate conservatism
Compassionate conservatism is an American political philosophy that stresses using conservative techniques and concepts in order to improve the general welfare of society. The philosophy supports the implementation of policies designed to help the ...
Fred Foldvary
Fred Emanuel Foldvary (May 11, 1946 – June 5, 2021) was a lecturer in economics at San Jose State University, California, and a research fellow at The Independent Institute. He previously taught at Santa Clara University and other colleges. He w ...
* ''
Free Market Fairness
''Free Market Fairness'' is a 2012 book of political philosophy written by John Tomasi, former Professor of Political Philosophy at Brown University. Tomasi presents the concept of "free market fairness" or "market democracy," a middle ground bet ...
''
*
Geolibertarianism
Geolibertarianism is a political and economic ideology that integrates libertarianism with Georgism. It favors a taxation system based (as in Georgism) on income derived from land and natural resources instead of on labor, coupled with a mini ...
*
Left-wing market anarchism
Free-market anarchism, or market anarchism, also known as free-market anti-capitalism and free-market socialism, is the branch of anarchism that advocates a free-market economic system based on voluntary interactions without the involvement of ...
*
Left-libertarianism
Left-libertarianism,Bookchin, Murray; Biehl, Janet (1997). ''The Murray Bookchin Reader''. New York: Cassell. p. 170.Goodway, David (2006). '' Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to ...
*
Libertarian paternalism
Libertarian paternalism is the idea that it is both possible and legitimate for private and public institutions to affect behavior while also respecting freedom of choice, as well as the implementation of that idea. The term was coined by behav ...
*
Lockean proviso
The Lockean proviso is a feature of John Locke's labor theory of property which states that whilst individuals have a right to homestead private property from nature by working on it, they can do so only "at least where there is enough, and as ...
Michael Otsuka
Michael H. Otsuka (born 1964) is an American left-libertarian political philosopher and Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Rutgers University.
Career
Otsuka earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in politics from Balliol College, Oxf ...
*
Poverty reduction
Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation, is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty.
Measures, like those promoted by Henry George in his economics cl ...
*
Radical centrism
Radical centrism (also called the radical center, the radical centre or the radical middle) is a concept that arose in Western nations in the late 20th century.
The '' radical'' in the term refers to a willingness on the part of most radical ce ...
Hillel Steiner
Hillel Isaac Steiner (; born 1942) is a Canadian political philosopher and is Emeritus Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Manchester. He was elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy in 1999.
Work
Steiner's writings ar ...
Notes
References
* Jeffrey Edward Green (2016), ''The Shadow of Unfairness: A Plebeian Theory of Liberal Democracy'', Oxford University Press.
* Jason Brennan, Bas van der Vossen, David Schmidtz, eds. (2017), ''The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism'', Routledge: "Libertarianism and the Welfare State" by Matt Zwolinski.
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...