March 9, 2004

Anarchos to Minarchists:
A Brief Taxonomy of Libertarians


There once was a time when the political dividing line ran from Left to Right. Now, we’re all just different flavors of libertarian. From reluctant minarchists to the anarcho-capitalists, libertarians are everywhere. The Internet, especially the blogosphere, is infested with them which makes it difficult to distinguish the Christian libertarian crowd from the Howard Roark wannabes.

Fortunately, the Libertarian Purity Test can help us create a taxonomy of libertarian pundits. Taking Steve Bainbridge's suggestion, I've tallied up some of the scores and put from around the blogosphere. For now I've chosen to use the test's own descriptions until I can come up with more accurate labels:

Pre-Libertarian (>15)
6 - Ampersand (Alas, A Blog)
6 - Roleary (Simple Man)
6 - Nick Troester (Anti-Climacus)
9 -- Bill Wallo (Walloworld)
12 - Jesse Taylor (Pandagon)
12 - Tgrish (Lean Left)

Soft-Core Libertarian (16-30)
16 – Joe Carter (the evangelical outpost)
20 - Benjamin Alan (Benjamin Alan)
21 - Amanda Butler (Crescat Sententia)
21 - Matthew Yglesias (Matthew Yglesias)
21 - Douglas Bass (Belief Seeking Understanding)
21 - Hugo Schwyzer (Hugo Schwyzer)
21 - Josh Chafetz (Oxblog)
24 – Steve Bainbridge (Professor Bainbridge)
29 - Brad Jones ( href="http://blog.infinitemonkeysblog.com/">Infinite Monkeys)

Libertarian (31-50)
31 - triticale (triticale)
32 - Susan B. (Lilac Rose)
33 - Lionoge (Lost Thoughts)
35 - Ed Brayton (Dispatches from the Culture War)
37 - Andrew Stuttaford (The Corner)
39 - Pejman Yousefzadeh (Pejmanesque)
39 - Bill Hobbs (HobbsOnline)
39 - Steve Verdon (Deinonychus antirrhopus)
40 - Richard Brookhiser (The Corner)
41 - Jonah Goldberg (The Corner)
41 - Eric Erickson (Confessions of a Political Junkie)
45 - Ivan (Ivan's weblog)
46 - Robert Prather (Insults Unpunished)
47 - Captain Scarlet (Silent Running)
50 - Chris Lawrence (Signifying Nothing)
50 - Nathan Hallford (Southern Appeal)

Medium-Core Libertarian (51-90)
54 - Kevin Baker (The Smallest Minority)
60 - Steve Hayward (The Corner)
61 - Josh Claybourn (Joshua Claybourn)
63 - Rice Grad (Southern Appeal)
64 - Jeff Doolittle (Jeff Doolittle)
65 - John Coleman (Ex Nihilo)
65 - Lana (live from the guillotine)
68 - Ironbear (Who Tends The Fires)
69 - Steve Dilliard (Southern Appeal)
69 - Sean Hackbarth (The American Mind)
71 - Robb Leatherwood (Infinite Monkeys)
72 - Charles Murray (The Corner)
73 - Ramesh Ponnuru (The Corner)
79 - Jonathan Adler (The Corner)
85 – Will Baude (Crescat Sententia)

Hard-Core Libertarian (91-130)
96 - Tim Sandefur (Freespace)
98 - Radney Balko (The Agitator)
101 - Jim Henley (Unqualified Offerings)
105 - Ravages (Selective Amnesia)
119 - Myria (It Can't Rain all the Time)
126 - Vox Day (Vox Popoli)
128 - Jacob Martin (Jacob Martin)
147 - Yazad (AnarCapLib)
160 - Micha Ghertner (Catallarchy)

Update: Tim Lambert is also collecting the data.


comments
John Coleman writes:

1

For someone sponsored by a libertarian fellowship this summer, I was surprised to be surpassed by Ramesh Ponnuru. I got a 65. I think my foreign policy views too often diverge from the mainstream libertarian ones. Also, I had no idea there was such dispute over the Federal Reserve, with which I am generally content. I guess I knew Friedman was dipleased with it.

posted on 03.09.2004 11:41 AM
Ed Brayton writes:

2

I scored a 35, for the record.

posted on 03.09.2004 11:55 AM
Ed Brayton writes:

3

Oh, and Tim Sandefur (http://sandefur.blogspot.com) got a 96

posted on 03.09.2004 11:56 AM
Nate writes:

4

50. Somewhat surprised.

posted on 03.09.2004 1:11 PM
Kevin Walmsley writes:

5

46 for me. Should we abolish the state and disband the military? Is all government inherently evil? Should we privatize the court system? Should we cut military spending by 75%?

I'd like explanations from people who answered the above questions in the affirmative.

posted on 03.09.2004 1:54 PM
Taxman writes:

6

51, and my friends(?) and family do try to stop me from giving my opinion!

posted on 03.09.2004 2:10 PM
Myria writes:

8

119

You will be unassimilated...

Myria

posted on 03.09.2004 4:15 PM
David writes:

9

101!!

posted on 03.09.2004 4:55 PM
Linoge writes:

10

33, interestingly enough.

posted on 03.09.2004 5:09 PM
Mike writes:

11

My first try which I didn't take seriously was 79, I took it again seriously out of boredom and got a 88.

So Joe, where did you actually score in favor of individual rights?

posted on 03.09.2004 7:47 PM
tgirsch writes:

12

Tom Girsch, Lean Left, 12

posted on 03.09.2004 8:49 PM
susan b. writes:

13

My score is 32.

posted on 03.09.2004 9:08 PM
Douglas writes:

14

Douglas Bass, Belief Seeking Understanding, 21

posted on 03.09.2004 10:25 PM
Benjamin Alan writes:

15

20 for me.

posted on 03.09.2004 10:33 PM
Lana writes:

16

Lana at live from the guillotine - 65 and I have been asked to shut up more than once.;)

posted on 03.10.2004 1:30 AM
Ironbear writes:

17

Scored 68 on it, which doesn't surprise me: I've been a moderatly strong libertarian/mild conservative since around 1980 or so. Not liekly to ever increase tiwards anarcho-capitalist... I believe the state has some legitimate function, even as a neccessary evil.

It just needs to be limited severely to about 30% of it's present size. ;)

posted on 03.10.2004 6:00 AM
Ironbear writes:

18

*pleah* Must proof next time. My speeling goes all to hell when I'm sleepy...

posted on 03.10.2004 6:02 AM
Jacob Martin writes:

19

128 for me.

posted on 03.10.2004 6:07 AM
16 writes:

20

Six

posted on 03.10.2004 10:40 AM
Kevin Baker writes:

21

I scored a 54, which is about what I expected on that spectrum.

posted on 03.10.2004 10:48 AM
Hugo writes:

22

21 for me. I was surprised it was that high.

posted on 03.10.2004 12:21 PM
Captain Scarlet writes:

23

47.

posted on 03.10.2004 12:46 PM
Steve writes:

24

I scored a whopping 39.

posted on 03.10.2004 12:57 PM
triticale writes:

25

31, which is about what I expected. All those arbitrary 50%s in the second part should be somewhats. I'm decidedly libertarian, but not at all pure about it. In particular I am what they would label an interventionist.

As a moderate user of recreational drugs over the last 35 years I have no doubt that sudden across the board legalization would not be a good thing. A culture of moderation will not be an easy thing to develop, but a climate of cautious decriminalization is the better environment in which to do so.

posted on 03.10.2004 4:23 PM
Jeremy Pierce writes:

26

I got a 21.

posted on 03.10.2004 5:52 PM
Joel Fuhrmann writes:

27

48 for me. (Right Left Whatever)

posted on 03.10.2004 7:22 PM
Ravages writes:

28

I got a 105. But then, I didnt answer a few questions that don't apply to me.

posted on 03.10.2004 11:02 PM
ivan writes:

29

My score: 45

posted on 03.11.2004 4:24 AM
Eric Rasmusen writes:

30

I came in as a 43. The test makes libertarians even of us garden-variety conservatives.

Eric Rasmusen


http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/0.rasmusen.htm

posted on 03.11.2004 2:32 PM
PinkDreamPoppies writes:

31

PinkDreamPoppies; Alas, a Blog co-blogger; 19 when being generous in my readings of the question, 8 when being much less generous.

posted on 03.12.2004 2:02 AM
arbitraryaardvark writes:

32

160.

posted on 03.12.2004 4:56 AM
Trish Wilson writes:

33

35

These libertarian tests always surprise me because I guess I'm more libertarian than I think I am.

posted on 03.12.2004 8:03 AM
Dan Alban writes:

34

160, pretty much as expected. Sounds dogmatic, but there were obviously some answers that I'm less confident in than others. That's not really going to be reflected in a binary scoring system, however.

posted on 03.12.2004 10:26 AM
Chris writes:

35

25, soft core at best

posted on 03.15.2004 7:49 PM
ValueDads writes:

36

72 and often told to shut-up

posted on 03.25.2004 12:09 PM
A Boring Person writes:

37

I am an semi active Libertarian with the New Jersey with a score of only 83.

The author of the site believes that there
in anarchism, not Libertarianism.

posted on 07.01.2004 3:40 PM