An Open Manifesto

In Marxist narrative of history, capitalism eventually gives way to a dictatorship of the proletariat. This dictatorship puts socialism into place and eventually whithers away once the world has transitioned to pure communism. Of course the problems with this are obvious and the fact that nary a single one of the many communist governments that have come to power have ever voluntarily “whithered” away.

Libertarians face a similar paradox. On the one hand they see democracy has the most legitimate form of power, but they hold that power, in order to be legitimate must be limited to certain functions, i.e. the parameters laid out in the constitution. They are having a debate about this right now over at Cato-Unbound.

The problem is that, like the Marxists, libertarians don’t have an explanation for how power limits itself, or how a people limit the power of the government IF the majority of citizens don’t want said limitations. If majoritarianism is the only pseudo-legitimate way for government to exercise its power, what are the circumstances that allow for the limitations of that majority?

It cannot be that the majority limits itself. While this would be ideal, it is entirely idealistic. A strong judicial review process, favored by Randy Barnett, can only really be a effective to the extent that the majority legitimizes them through either (a) democratic appointment or (b) the election of an executive willing to enforce the court opinions.

Explanation about the proper limitations of power ignore the nature of power, which is self-serving. It would seem that either we are (a) stuck with majoritarianism and have to find a way to deal with it, or (b) we have to advocate non-democratic, and therefore potentially violent alternatives.

Since (b) is completely unacceptable, at least in the absence of total despotism, it seems we are stuck embracing majoritarianism at some level, even though this cuts against the very core of the libertarian disposition. I hope that I am wrong, but libertarians have yet to convince me otherwise.