I agree that splitting up libertarianism into subcategories would likely yield some benefit. As I understand the “left vs. right” aspect of this question, the difference would mostly come down to what the person thinks about the state’s role in providing social insurance. Presumably all libertarians would support a high degree of economic and social liberty—basically letting people make decisions for themselves so long as those decisions are voluntary and they don’t hurt non-consenting parties. But where “left libertarians” would be more comfortable using taxes to provide some minimum level of welfare provisions, “right libertarians” would lean more toward minarchism and say that governments shouldn’t go beyond things like courts, police, and the military.
It’s entirely possible that others won’t share my intuition around these concepts, but I do think this framing helps explain some of the confusion that arises from pointing to particular countries as example. European countries like Denmark and Switzerland have higher taxation and more extensive welfare states than the U.S., but they score higher on pretty much every other measure of economic freedom. That would probably make them fairly amenable to left-libertarians, but not right-libertarians/minarchists. This post at Bleeding Heart Libertarians does a pretty good job of explaining the distinction.
Relatedly, I’d say that minarchism fits more closely with something like right-libertarianism than with anarchism. There seems to be a much bigger gulf between “the state should do this small handful of important things” and “there shouldn’t be a state” than between “the state should do this small handful of important things” and “the state should do this small handful of important things, and maybe a couple other ones too.”
I agree that splitting up libertarianism into subcategories would likely yield some benefit. As I understand the “left vs. right” aspect of this question, the difference would mostly come down to what the person thinks about the state’s role in providing social insurance. Presumably all libertarians would support a high degree of economic and social liberty—basically letting people make decisions for themselves so long as those decisions are voluntary and they don’t hurt non-consenting parties. But where “left libertarians” would be more comfortable using taxes to provide some minimum level of welfare provisions, “right libertarians” would lean more toward minarchism and say that governments shouldn’t go beyond things like courts, police, and the military.
It’s entirely possible that others won’t share my intuition around these concepts, but I do think this framing helps explain some of the confusion that arises from pointing to particular countries as example. European countries like Denmark and Switzerland have higher taxation and more extensive welfare states than the U.S., but they score higher on pretty much every other measure of economic freedom. That would probably make them fairly amenable to left-libertarians, but not right-libertarians/minarchists. This post at Bleeding Heart Libertarians does a pretty good job of explaining the distinction.
Relatedly, I’d say that minarchism fits more closely with something like right-libertarianism than with anarchism. There seems to be a much bigger gulf between “the state should do this small handful of important things” and “there shouldn’t be a state” than between “the state should do this small handful of important things” and “the state should do this small handful of important things, and maybe a couple other ones too.”