But first, a point of order: since Absolute Austro-Libertarianism is quite a long title to type and re-type, in this blog we may simply refer to it as AL.
Absolute Austro-Libertarianism is composed of two parts:
- Libertarianism and
- Austrian Economics
There are literally hundredths of books describing both concepts, but luckily enough, we don’t need them. At their most basic (this is, where it counts) they are quite simple. Let’s get to it!
Libertarianism
Libertarianism is formally a Political Theory, which is minimalistic in nature. This means that only a very small number of axioms are necessary to define it completely.
Libertarian Theory believes that freedom is the most important element in any form of government. There is a lot of information out there and if you are interested you could start with Wikipedia Libertarianism. There are many flavours of Libertarians and you can also find a not-so-neat Libertarian classification in Wikipedia.
Absolute Libertarianism (us) goes a step further and believes that governments are not necessary at all to achieve maximum freedom, prosperity and security.
Austrian Economics
Austrian Economics is an economic theory, but an unusual one. Its main belief is that optimum economic conditions can only be achieved through absolutely free markets.
This theory is even more unusual because contrary to other economic theories, it does not describe how a government should manipulate the economy to obtain optimum conditions, but it describes why and how these optimum conditions are achieved by free markets.
In other words, it is not a theory that aspires to control or manage an economy but to describe the benefits of an un-managed economy and to point out the flaws in managed ones.
If you are interested in this topic, you can find tons of information about it in the Ludwig Von Misses website.
Absolute Austro-Libertarianism
Absolute Austro-Libertarianism is the amalgamation of both theories. It is to be noted that both theories are quite different animals, but they go together quite nicely. As a matter of fact, one can be considered a consequence of the other.
Think about it.
If there is no government and all commercial relationships between people are dictated by voluntary contracts (as the Absolute Libertarianism seeks), this naturally leads to an absolute free market since there are no governments to “manage” the economy.
Absolute Libertarianism naturally leads to Austrian Economics. It is for this reason that they go together so well.
Absolute Austro-Libertarianism believes that maximum prosperity can be achieved through voluntary relationships between people. This is, through agreements (formally called contracts). And that’s it! That's all that's needed.
Absolute Austro-Libertarianism provides a Master Contract which defines the basic axioms to achieve an Absolute Austro-Libertarianism state of affairs. We will expand this concept in later posts.
Now you know, but you also know that you don't know.
If you want to know more, you will have to keep reading.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
