The United States Libertarian Party

The United States Libertarian Party
Name
Institution
The United States Libertarian Party
Introduction
In modern day democracies, the issues of change and political stability are intimately related to the advancement of influential political party systems. Takeda (2015) explains that for at least two generations prior to the 1970 dogmatic regime saw the emergence of political systems that were built upon stabilized systems that embraced key social issues such as religion, ethnic boundaries, class, as well as center/ periphery ties. However, Schmidt et al. (2012) reveal that with the inception the post 1960 regime, radical changes were experienced in the political arena of the United States as a result of the alignments, realignments and de-alignment that imposed massive alterations in the previously known continuities.
The Libertarian Party of the United States of America is probably one of the most significant cohorts of new political parties. Seidman (2017) explain that just like the “left – libertarian” political parties evident in other advanced economies such as the Netherlands, France and Scandinavia, the United States’ Libertarian party has attracted higher levels of electoral support since 2000. The Libertarian Party was founded in December 1971 under the leadership of David Nolan with the aim of promoting political ideologies aimed at strengthening the country’s civil liberties, diminishing the scope of government and promoting nonjudgmental capitalism in the United States (Ceron, Curini and Iacus, 2015). According to Spring (2017), the formation of this political institution was fueled by the multiple administrative concerns experienced in the regime of President Nixon, the culmination of the gold standard and the political issues that surrounded the Vietnam War.
Schattschneider (2017) explain that the Libertarian Party of the United States is well known for its infamous critique of the logics adopted by governmental institutions to foster economic developments as well as the policies put in place to infuse compromises between labor and capital in industrial communities. According to Silver (2017), the party bases its ideologies on the premise that the country’s economic development needs not to be considered as a political agenda but as a right to the citizenry of the U.S. Further, the Libertarians’ political ideologies greatly oppose the current fashions of setting administrative policies which are considered to bear a restrictive effect on the democratic participation of centralized groups of interest, political leaders, and the welfare state that is considered to be immensely bureaucratic. As a consequence, the political ideologies of the Libertarians is tailored in such as a way that it is minimally confirmative to the traditional Republicans and the ideologies of the Democrats while upholding the inherent concerns of equality. The current study seeks to undertake a critical analysis of the U.S. Libertarian Party by underscoring the reasons that stirred its formation, the voter groups in support of the party, its activities, and effects since 1971.
Background
The Libertarian Party is the third largest political group in the United States. Navarro (2017) explain that the party was formed with the aim of protecting the US citizens from the detrimental economic effects that result from the tough regulatory frameworks adopted by historical administrative regimes. As a consequence, the Libertarians’ political stands are implemented with the end goal of favoring minimally controlled and laissez-faire economies. On the other hand, Szasz (2017) explain that The United States Libertarian Party fosters political campaigns aimed at fostering proper advocacy for strong civil liberties, little institutional regulation of the dominant cross border migrations, and the adoption of foreign policies that are non-interventional Havercroft and Murphy (2018). Seidman (2017) explain that the founding fathers of this political party were stimulated by the inherent need to adopt federal policies that put little pressure on the economic activities of other nations through institutionalization of laws that showed utmost respect to the freedoms of travel and trade for foreign states.
The United States Libertarian Party was formed in December 1971 at the residence of David Nolan located in Colorado Springs. According to Ceron, Curini and Iacus (2015), the formation of this political party was as a result of the flaws committed by President Nixon’s administration in the Vietnam War, the closure of the Gold Standard and conscription. To date the United States Libertarian Party recites its operational goal in is platform “As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others." Schmidt et al. (2012) explain that its Statement of Principles begins: "We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual… Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of individual liberty, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to agree to such new governance as to them shall seem most likely to protect their liberty”.
As a consequence, the party implements its operational strategies with the sole aim of promoting individual liberty in the economic affairs of the citizens through alienation of foreign interferences and the US militaristic interferences experienced in other economies. Navarro (2017) explain that Libertarians in the U.S. uphold the belief that the solution to the political problems faced by the United States is the country’s inherent commitment to the previous freedoms that earned it its current global position. The scholars reveal that the Colorado based founders of his political organization advocated for proper institutionalization of a free market economy and dedication to the hard earned civil liberties, a foreign regulatory regime that upholds peace, non-intervention and free trade as proposed by the country’s founding fathers.
Support
The Libertarian party is the third largest political organization in the United States. Following its formation in 1971, John Hospers was nominated as the first presidential candidate in 1972: a race in which the party only received a single electoral vote (Spring, 2017). Similarly, the political institution was given an automatic ballot status in 30 states in the presidential election of 2012. In the elections of 1994, 40 Libertarians were elected to hold political offices; an aspect that influenced an increase in the number of citizens who made the decision of registering as members of this political movement. Takeda (2015) explain that by the close of 2009, over 145 Libertarians were occupying elected political offices across the United States. Similarly, Havercroft and Murphy (2018) reveal that the Libertarian Party has gained higher levels of popularity in the context of state legislatures despite the fact that it has never had the opportunity of winning a seat in the Congress.
Structure and composition of the Libertarian Party
The composition of the Libertarian Party in the United States can be explained through adoption of three varied theoretical frameworks that are identified as: resource mobilization, structural change, and breakdown. According to Schmidt et al. (2012), the breakdown school of thought explain the process of mobilizing political parties based on the perspectives of responding to the existing societal strains and economic deprivation among the members of a country. Proponents of this framework base their arguments on the premise that political crises emerge in instances where societies breed popular loyalty as a result of the values, beliefs and norms put in place but fail to achieve the desired levels of political stability and legitimacy. Putting the United States’ Libertarian Party into perspective, the previous political regimes were made up of politicians who promised the populace that they would avail them with fiscal security through provision of the resources needed to foster upward mobility. However, the economic crises that were evident in the 1970s and the 1980s played an influential role in shuttering these expectations. Such a situation led to the emergence of the new wave of Libertarians. The Libertarian Party considers its platform as a suitable avenue of fostering its members’ individual freedom and liberty through provision of an avenue aimed at fostering higher degrees of personal and economic issues without foreign entanglements. Similarly, Schmidt et al. (2012) explain that the political composition of the Libertarian Party that embraces the breakdown school of thought opposes governmental policies that demean people of their security rights such as the gun control laws.
The structural change model is based on the proposition that any society can meet its underlying aspirations and demands through consideration of the avenues on which their legality is founded (Schattschneider, 2017). However, Szasz (2017) explain that since the political society is continuously involved in activities aimed at instilling economic transformations among its people, the accomplishments may lead to the generation of refined preferences that may not be satisfied with the existing institutions, an aspect that leads to the creation of new platforms of dissatisfaction. According to Schmidt et al. (2012), the desired societal transformations lead to the adoption of collective mobilizations surrounding the new founded political issues and lines of wrangles. On the other hand, Silver (2017) reveal that the breakdown approach tends to embrace the functionalist and Marxist viewpoints which demystify that capitalist society only adopt collective mobilization in instances where they experience economic crises. An analytical analysis of the composition of the Libertarian Party in the United States reveals that the political institution is made up of Americans who are in favor of an economic environment that is characterized with minimally regulated markets, liberalization of drug laws, opening immigration and fostering free trade. As a consequence, the Libertarian Party boasted of 138, 815 people in the United States th...