Libertarian Party (United States): History, Principles, and Organization

Party principles include a self-regulating free market economy, the right to bear arms and the abolition of the state welfare system. In addition, the party advocates free speech, freedom of assembly, free migration, legalisation of drugs and a foreign policy without military intervention.

By its own admission, the party advocates limiting state action to the framework laid down in the constitution. As in any party, there are internal debates about the programme, and not all party members support its full implementation.

Current policy positions include lowering taxes, ending the prohibition of certain illegal drugs, supporting marriage for gay couples, and supporting the rights of American gun owners.

The party states that its platform is a consistent request for principles of mutual respect for rights and that it is very interested in individual freedom, seeing it as a precondition for morality and stable societies. It rejects the view of politics as a one-dimensional left-right spectrum, in which there is a division between "left" and "right" and the Democrats represent the left and the Republicans the right.

Some political observers classify the Libertarian Party as right-wing (mainly because of its support for the bearing of arms and its view on taxes). Others see it as left-wing because it advocates a foreign policy without intervention and free migration. On the two-dimensional Political Compass, it is on the libertarian, economic-right.

The Libertarian Party was founded by David Nolan on December 11, 1971. This was preceded by a debate on the formation of a Libertarian Party. Participating in this debate were John Hospers, Ed Crane, Manual Klausner, Murray Rothbard, Roy Childs, Tonie Nathan, and Jim Dean. President Richard Nixon's rapidly implemented price controls led the Libertarian Party to believe that the Republicans and Democrats had moved away from the libertarian principles of America's founding fathers.

By the 1972 presidential election, the party had grown to over 80 members and had won admittance to the ballot in two states. Presidential candidates John Hospers and Tonie Nathan won slightly less than 3000 electoral votes. However, they received the first and only vote for a Libertarian Party in the Electoral College from Roger MacBride, a Republican from Virginia.

In the 1980 election, the party was able to run in every state, the District of Columbia, and Guam. It was the first time since the Socialist Party in the 1916 election that a third party had accomplished this. The candidacy of Ed Clark and David H. Koch cost several million dollars. The two candidates received over one percent of the electoral vote.

In 1983, internal strife ensued, leading former party leaders Ed Crane and David H. Koch to leave the party and many of its supporters to follow suit.

In the 1984 election, presidential candidate David Bergland was able to run in 36 states and received 0.25 percent of the electoral vote. In 1994, radio host Howard Stern ran for governor of New York. Although he had legitimately qualified for the election and was campaigning, many saw his ambitions for the office as nothing more than a publicity stunt.

In 1996 and 2000, Harry Browne ran for president. The candidate for Vice President was Jo Jorgensen, an entrepreneur from South Carolina. In these elections, the presidential candidate received between 0.5 and 0.75 percent of the electoral votes.

Prior to the 2004 election, three candidates contested for the party's presidential nomination. Michael Badnarik prevailed. Badnarik received 397,367 electoral votes. Despite Badnarik's relative obscurity and the limited funds available, this result was a success for the party.

For the 2012 presidential election, former New Mexico Republican Governor Gary E. Johnson was nominated as a candidate. He received about 1.2 million votes statewide (less than 1%).

At its party convention in Orlando, Florida, on May 29, 2016, the party again designated Gary E. Johnson as its candidate in the upcoming 2016 presidential election, who, with the approval of the party convention, chose former Massachusetts Republican Governor Bill Weld as his running mate, i.e., candidate for vice president.