Outside of the US, are there any prominent (or somewhat-prominent) politicians/political parties that would meet the US definition of libertarian?
A quick (although not thorough) definition of libertarian would be: socially liberal, fiscally conservative. Favors small government: open borders, liberal drug laws, liberal gun laws; opposes publicly-funded education, opposes (most if not all forms of) government-funded social welfare, opposes war and/or military interventionism.
Just today, Justin Bourque was describe by Canadian authorities as having Libertarian leanings. There is a manhunt in progress for him in Moncton, New Brunswick, where three RCMP officers were shot and killed last night.
Not in Canada.
ETA: Sure, jtur88 some individuals may think like this, but no prominent politician or political party holds all these tenets.
Is there a prominent politician in the US who holds allnthose views?
I can accept your thread with your definition, but it might be more realistic to not define a Libertarian as someone who is against wars or “military interventionism” which I am sure also itself needs defined. Libertarians support just wars. Most I know supported a limited war in Afghanistan as just, since that nation knowingly hosted a large well-funded well-organized enemy that did us major harm. But most did not in turn support Iraq.
We believe that we should not be the world’s police force, at least not the way it currently works. We want to be a peaceful country that is capable of hitting back very hard only when we have first been punched.
But under either definition, no I can’t think of any political groups outside of the U.S.A. by either yours or my definition.
But I wouldn’t have been all that interested in looking, either.
Yes: Ron Paul, Rand Paul (to a degree), Andrew Napolitano (to a degree). And the Libertarian Party got 1% of the popular vote in the last general election. Yes, that’s not much, but it’s more than all other third parties combined.
Neither of the Pauls favor open borders. Rand notably voted against the recent immigration bill because the borders were not secured first.
Chester William David Brown (born May 16, 1960) is a Canadian cartoonist and, since 2008, the Libertarian Party of Canada’s candidate for the riding of Trinity—Spadina in Toronto, Canada. (From Wikipedia)
I stand corrected. No wonder I’ve never heard of them, looking at their election results.
23 candidates in 2011. 6,017 votes. 0.04% of the popular vote.
They both oppose abortion and open borders.
I don’t believe that either Libertarians (the Party) or individual libertarians believe in “open borders”.
Most libertarians believe the central government has only three roles: a judicial system to settle disputes between parties, a police force to protect citizens from criminals and a military to defend against foreign attacks. If there was an “open border”, the military would have a tough time defending the country.
The LP USA’s official position:
The final caveat leaves a great deal of wiggle-room.
And they both oppose SSM. Not “socially liberal”, except in a few instances.
IANAC, but I’ve always thought the Western Canada Concept had many elements of libertarianism (again, with the exception of the open borders thing). It’s been around a long time and seems to have a strong party organization in BC and AB at least.
Last time I checked a map, Canada was outside the U.S.
Not much Libertarian about Ted Cruz…
Ron Paul has said that abortion and SSM should not be federal issues, and can be legalized democratically at the state level.
I notice that the OP referred to the “US definition of Libertarian”, since, as I am fond of reminding people, the term began life meaning the same thing as anarchism, i.e. opposed to both the state and capitalism, and any forms of unjust, unexamined authority, power, and privilege. It’s the anti-authoritarian Left taken to its fullest conclusion. Now, in the US, Randroid types have hijacked the word, but some of us aren’t surrendering without a fight.
Libertarianism as we know it in the states is a pretty unique phenomenon. For most of its history, including in the states, the label referred to anarchists in the leftist sense.
Wouldn’t fiscally liberal (known as fiscally conservative in the states) and socially liberal be known more along the lines of classical liberalism globally? You’ll be hard pressed to find the unique American definition of libertarianism outside the States (and maybe small parties in Canada.)
Comment: I notice the poster above more or less made the same observation as I was typing, I apologize.
It is tempting to put Libertarians and Anarcho-capitalists is the same box. But in the U.S. many Libertarians are really just anti-Federalist or even Theocrats. They want the freedom to form local governments as they see fit, including those based on Biblical law. The freedom to take away freedom. Not all, but many…
To be honest, while the Libertarian Party has a clear platform and stance I find many libertarians not only lacking a coherent ideology but many are young contrarians that seem to gravitate to the label because of the desire for liberal drug laws. I don’t want to generalize and I’m sure I am off the mark but in people I’ve met that’s what I’ve seen.