Libertarians aren’t wrong about ‘much else’, after all

by Shreekant Gupta

Girish Shahane wrote an article for Scroll.in titled ‘Libertarians are right about the need to privatise Air India ‒ but wrong about much else’. Mr Shahane’s article disappoints. It is naive and presents a caricature of libertarian philosophy. The writer’s bias is clear from the start. That is his prerogative. But to create a straw man and attack it does not make for sound (or for good) reading.

1. Mr Shahane presents a monolithic view of libertarianism, an extreme version at that. In fact, there are competing schools of libertarianism ranging from libertarian socialism to neo-classical liberalism. In his haste to lampoon the philosophy, he ignores such nuances.
2. He distorts Locke’s idea of self-ownership to argue it legitimised colonial expansion. It was the latter in fact that disregarded the idea of self-ownership of the natives.
3. His caricature of a ‘libertarian paradise’ where “every bit of land and water on earth has been opened up for purchase and sale, and now lies in private hands” is a straw man. It is entirely possible for individual right owners to pool their rights to create common property to a rival/depletable good and for these to managed sustainably through the evolution of social norms of trust, reciprocity and cooperation (Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize for showing this).
4. Mr Shahane seeks to expose “fatal flaws” of the three aspects of libertarianism. These include libertarian “attitude to natural resources and the environment.” Here it is his critique that is fatally flawed and laughably naive. His example of a tribe in eastern India that is dispossessed of a sacred mountain where bauxite has been found (and the property right vests with the tribe), is contradictory: “(I)t is bad enough that the state appoints itself custodian of the land, and locals are now beholden to corrupt forest officers..” Mr Shahane this is socialism or at worst crony capitalism and NOT libertarianism! The problem is abandoning libertarianism, i.e., the right of indigenous people over forests, mountains and minerals.