Is there real-world evidence that libertarianism works?

[Sultan Of Swing]

Are there any libertarian countries in the world at the moment?

Have there ever been any in history? Could the USA of centuries ago be called libertarian?

I'm wondering if we have any idea whether libertarianism actually works well or not. Do we have any real-world data where libertarianism has been employed, and we know the crime rates, drug use rates, GDP, productivity, poverty levels, etc.?

 

[Nietzsche]

Are there any libertarian countries in the world at the moment?

Have there ever been any in history? Could the USA of centuries ago be called libertarian?

I'm wondering if we have any idea whether libertarianism actually works well or not. Do we have any real-world data where libertarianism has been employed, and we know the crime rates, drug use rates, GDP, productivity, poverty levels, etc.?

Are you talking about economic or political/social Libertarianism? I am aware this is the Libertarian forum, and while I am not a libertarian, I do have some knowledge that might give you a summary of political/economic to start;

Up until the late, late 1700s there were more or less two forms of economy in the developed(read as, European) world. Mercantilism & Protectionism. The latter is self-explantatory, where governments would use taxes to protect their own native-produced goods. In a very general sense, Mercantilism could be seen as Proto-Capitalism. It placed personal profit before the well-being of the state. It's not quite something we'd use today but it laid the groundwork for it.

Political/Social Libertarianism..not really ever been practiced until extremely recently, and a few examples found in Norse & Ancient Greek society. Legislating morality goes as far back as humans do.

 

[Laika]

(excuse tresspasing in DIR) Anarchist Catalonia (in Spain during the civil war) and Free Ukraine (in Russian civil war) are 'left-wing' libertarian experiments that were fairly successful in the short-term. no right-wing ones come to mind.

Edit: Somalia has technically been without a functioning government for ten years- but it is not by political design or a reflection of ideology. I know it's been name dropped by libertarians on and off but I don't know how seriously.

 

[Bunyip]

Are there any libertarian countries in the world at the moment?

Have there ever been any in history? Could the USA of centuries ago be called libertarian?

I'm wondering if we have any idea whether libertarianism actually works well or not. Do we have any real-world data where libertarianism has been employed, and we know the crime rates, drug use rates, GDP, productivity, poverty levels, etc.?

What do you mean by libertarianism in this context? And what do you mean by libertarianism 'working'?

 

[idea]

Singapore, Switzerland, ...Antarctica

 

[Sultan Of Swing]

What do you mean by libertarianism in this context? And what do you mean by libertarianism 'working'?

Libertarianism meaning a small limited state where the freedoms of all are respected, there are many shades of libertarianism so this can mean complete drug decriminalisation, not legislating on personal morality, while having a completely free market and most if not all things are privatised. No mass surveillance, no laws which infringe on freedom of speech, etc.

Libertarianism working would be a state which has these qualities and has low unemployment, low poverty, high economic growth, high productivity, high quality of life etc.

 

[Bunyip]

Libertarianism meaning a small limited state where the freedoms of all are respected, there are many shades of libertarianism so this can mean complete drug decriminalisation, not legislating on personal morality, while having a completely free market and most if not all things are privatised. No mass surveillance, no laws which infringe on freedom of speech, etc.

Libertarianism working would be a state which has these qualities and has low unemployment, low poverty, high economic growth, high productivity, high quality of life etc.

Oh, thankyou for elaborating. In that case, yes - Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark for example. There would be a difference in practice between libertarianism and nihilism.

 

[Valjean]

The Scandinavian countries would be considered socialist, as Americans understand the term. No idea how Switzerland or Iceland could be considered Libertarian; and Singapore -- the land of toilet police and forbidden chewing gum? Strikes me as the antithesis of Libertarianism.

No, Americans understand the term to mean an unregulated, Laissez-faire, privatized economy, with government's role confined to protecting our shores and enforcing contracts.
Somalia does come pretty close...