capitalism

Responsibility 425
do see governmental corruption as a danger, they reject the
notion that corruption is an inevitable consequence of
wealth or commerce.
The twilight years of classical republicanism were spent
in attempting to counter this relatively new idea, which lies
at the heart of 18th- and 19th-century classical liberalism.
Understood in this light, the political thought of Jean-
Jacques Rousseau was not a radically new contrarian position,
but rather a throwback to some old ideas about the
nature of commerce in a political community. Libertarians
find Rousseau’s account of liberty unconvincing, in part,
for just this reason.
Other areas of classical republican thought are objectionable
to libertarians as well, most obviously the notion of the
need for self-sacrifice in the interests of the state. The idea
of a citizen militia has had a darker side as well—namely,
conscription. To most modern libertarians, conscription
makes a “mercenary” army seem perfectly honorable,
whereas classical republicans would not have agreed.
Self-sacrifice in the interests of the state is problematic
for theoretical reasons as well. Social contract theory holds
that we citizens create, alter, or abolish states to preserve our
own security and liberty, and that we create states to serve
us, not the other way around. Meanwhile, individualist libertarianism
draws somewhat different borders around the
entire question. Objectivism, for example, mistrusts selfsacrifice
for philosophical reasons, yet Ayn Rand held that a
man who voluntarily dies fighting for his own freedom is
not sacrificing himself because he is working for freedom,
and this may just be one of his own highest values.
One question in the history of classical republican
scholarship is of particular interest to libertarians—namely,
the degree to which classical republicanism influenced the
founding of the United States. When the United States was
founded, classical republicanism still had powerful defenders,
but a new appreciation for money and commerce also
was gaining a foothold, and America was already a notably
commercial republic. Additionally, theories of individual
rights, social contract theory, and the somewhat amorphous
political thought of Montesquieu clearly played important
roles in America’s founding.
Yet the founding reflects elements of classical republican
thought as well. We observe it when Franklin famously
answered that the Constitutional Convention had given
Americans “a republic, if you can keep it.” It also can be
seen in how Jefferson envisioned a nation of small freehold
farmers. Voting rights were denied to the residents of the
capital city lest they become too powerful. It was a singularly
classical republican gesture when Washington
returned—with evident pride—to his farm, first after fighting
in the American Revolution and then after two terms as
president.
JTK
See also English Civil Wars; Enlightenment; Rousseau, Jean-
Jacques; Sidney, Algernon; Whiggism
Further Readings
Hamowy, Ronald. “Cato’s Letters, John Locke, and the Republican
Paradigm.” John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government: New
Interpretations. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1992.
Machiavelli Niccolò. Chief Works, and Others. Allan Gilbert, trans.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1965.
Pocock, J. G. A. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political
Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1975.
———. Virtue, Commerce, and History: Essays on Political
Thought and History, Chiefly in the Eighteenth Century.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Sidney, Algernon. Discourses Concerning Government. Thomas G.
West, ed. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Classics, 1990.
Skinner, Quentin. Liberty before Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998.
RESPONSIBILITY
Most of us believe that people normally possess free will,
the fundamental capacity to choose their actions. It also is
commonly held that people are responsible for acquiring
the skills necessary to earn a living that would allow them
to take care of themselves and their families. We believe
further that most people are responsible for the direction
their lives take and should receive the benefits of their
industry and bear the costs of their decisions and mistakes.
To use a cliché, we believe that the world does not owe anyone
a living.
It is a central tenet of libertarianism that the values
of personal freedom and responsibility are indivisible. A
corollary to that proposition is the view that respect for one
of those values implies and requires a respect for the other.
The notion of limited government defended by Madison
and Jefferson arguably takes for granted the indivisibility of
freedom and responsibility. Friedrich Hayek, a Nobel
laureate in economics, explained in his 1960 work, The
Constitution of Liberty, “a free society will not function or
maintain itself unless its members regard it as right that
each individual occupy the position that results from his
action and accept it as due to his own action.”
Modern American culture is commonly criticized
because many of its members appear to have increasingly
lost a sense of personal responsibility. The causes for this
decline may be difficult to isolate, but symptoms of the
decline are easily recognizable. Throughout the 20th century,
but especially since the 1960s, Americans have come
to expect more from government and demand less from
themselves. That trend is evident not only in the growth of