A Populist-Libertarian Manifesto

Below, I propose a collection of principles that might be good candidates for the platform of a pro-freedom, pro-limited government party. I encourage readers to cross-post this manifesto on Substack and share it on social media as a way to get a conversation going on the way forward for freedom-loving citizens.

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Events of the past few years have convinced a growing body of citizens - yes, a minority, yet a growing minority - that the “democratic” political systems we inhabit in the West are rotten, and their political caretakers are mostly self-serving careerists who have much more interest in getting elected than promoting the conditions of a free and flourishing society.

From the shameless stoking of public fears with misleading Covid test data, to the unethical imposition of vaccine mandates, to increasingly aggressive policing of vague notions of “hate speech,” to the relentless censorship of scientific and political speech by social media platforms, we have faced a dark winter of political authoritarianism.

Unfortunately, that winter will not thaw until free-spirited citizens wake up to the gravity of our dilemma, and political entrepreneurs channel public discontent into effective pro-freedom political movements.

The political balance is tilting to the right in Europe, but mainstream “right” parties, in many cases, are unwilling to defend our liberties. Consider the fact that the largest party sitting in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party, supposedly a “centre-right” coalition, has been slavishly pushing through laws that give the European Commission and member-States worrying levels of control over speech on digital platforms (Digital Services Act) and now, with the digital identity “wallet,” have planted the seeds of a powerful surveillance regime.

It is not all that difficult to unite forces, momentarily, against tyranny. We have seen impressive protests across the world against “public health” tyranny, for example.

But it is much harder to unite forces behind a constructive and enduring political movement. This requires agreement on the sort of political vision we want to promote, a shared plan of action, and individuals with some modicum of intelligence, charisma, and ethical integrity, who can give such a movement a public face.

My modest contribution, for now, is to propose a collection of principles that might be good candidates for the platform of a pro-freedom, pro-limited government party. I’ll call our imaginary party a “populist-libertarian” party, for convenience.

The label is not perfect, but it contains two elements that I think a pro-freedom party must have in order to be successful: first, to stand up to a rotten establishment on behalf of ordinary people, and make this a recurring leitmotiv (hence, “populist”); and second, to appeal to a constituency of voters for whom the language of liberty and the idea of personal and community empowerment is likely to resonate (hence, “libertarian”).

With these prefatory remarks out of the way, let’s make a draft manifesto. Consider this a conversation-starter intended to feed a larger conversation among citizens and political entrepreneurs. Feel free to add your comments below, whether you agree with every part of it or not. The point is not to “sign up” to it but to promote a positive conversation that moves beyond moral and political recrimination and condemnation of “the system.”

So here goes a first draft of a populist-libertarian election manifesto:

👉 Successful societies are built on rule of law and personal and corporate freedom and responsibility, not social engineering or Big Brother States.

👉 Constitutional democracies are societies with limited government; governments that disregard their limits forfeit their right to be obeyed.

👉 Political power and public administration must be gradually decentralised to empower local citizens to have more say over how their society is governed, and how their taxes are spent.

👉 Civil liberties and human rights must be resilient against terrorist threats, climate threats, and public health threats, whether real or projected. They include the right to life, freedom of expression, assembly, and religion, the right to own property and engage in trade, and the right to form and run cultural and educational associations free from undue interference by the State. Enough with the technocratic excuses for authoritarianism.

👉 The criminal justice system must reliably impose punishments that genuinely disincentivise criminal behaviour and do justice to the victims of crime, especially violent crime.

👉 Laws affecting the taxation and regulation of businesses must support and incentivise economic entrepreneurship, especially among small and medium businesses.

👉 Parents should be free to educate their own children according to their own preferred ethos, irrespective of the political ideology of the Minister for Education.

👉 The tax system should encourage, not discourage citizens to have children and raise families, an essential precondition for social reproduction.

👉 Government should defend and support an open and free media and information system, in which citizens and corporate bodies can speak their mind without fear of political and scientific censorship.

👉 Immigration and refugee policy must be implemented in full consultation with local stakeholders and it must not be allowed to outpace the processing capacity of the immigration service and the supply of housing and public services.

👉 Immigration rules, including deportation orders, must be strictly and swiftly enforced. Otherwise, people are rewarded for cheating the system.

👉 The social security and health systems of the West are not sustainable in their present form, partly due to the decline in birth rates. Social security, health insurance and pension schemes should be obligatory, to reduce the risk of free-riding behaviour, but they should be individualised and privatised to the extent practicable, so that individual citizens can save for their own retirement and insure themselves and their families against unemployment and sickness.

👉 A safety net should remain for citizens who fall through the cracks of a privatised social security and pension system.