Libertarians are individualists. But
since individualist has many senses, that
statement isn’t terribly informative. Does it mean that
libertarians are social nonconformists on principle? Not at all,
writes Sheldon Richman. Some few libertarians may aspire to be, but
most would see that as undesirable because it would obstruct their
most important objectives. Virtually all libertarians observe the
common customs of their societies, just as they conform to language
conventions if for no other reason than they wish to be understood.
Libertarians are individualists in other respects, however,
Richman continues. They are methodological individualists, which
means that when they think about social and economic processes,
they begin with the fact that only individuals act.
