Market Liberal Visions: The Libertarian Movement

Abstract

Libertarianism developed in the sixties as a movement committed to defining and building the Utopia implicit in the writings of the market liberal scholars. Although the movement included some graybeards, its membership came overwhelmingly from those under the age of 40. The movement had its center on the nation’s college campuses then experiencing dramatic growths in enrollment. This expansion reflected the post-war “baby-boom” which added 13 800 000 members to the 14–24 age-cohort between 1960 and 1970.¹ Liberals wanted to give this bumper crop much wider access to higher education. This would promote social mobility for members of the New Deal coalition, educate a workforce to meet the challenges of international competition, and, promote Vital Center liberalism’s vision of a “politically centrist, classless society.”²