Liberalism

Liberty and Private Property

Many have claimed that the relation between liberty and private property is instrumental; that is, private property is necessary in order to protect other and more basic rights. For example, it is claimed that owning property enables the independence necessary to be able to oppose the state, or that owners of private property develop the independent characters necessary for such opposition. Others— especially libertarians—have claimed that the connection between private property and liberty is stronger and that a right to private property follows directly from a right to liberty. The idea of self-ownership, introduced by Locke and other early liberals and nowadays advocated especially by libertarians, emphasizes that people own themselves (their minds, their bodies, and their abilities) and also own all natural resources with which they have somehow mixed their labor— given some proviso that there is, in Locke's words, “enough and as good” left for others. Exactly what the last point implies is widely debated, because what it means to leave “enough and as good” for others in a world in which natural resources are scarce is highly controversial. There is also wide disagreement on whether resources so far not claimed are owned by nobody or owned jointly by everyone and whether an agent who makes some resource his or hers is required to compensate those thereby excluded from using that resource.

The Nature of Liberty

The other main issue that divides liberals on the legitimacy of restrictions to liberty—and, especially, what restrictions to private property are necessary to protect the right to liberty—is the nature of liberty itself. Liberals tend to understand liberty in one of two ways: as negative or as positive freedom.

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