Libertarian Welfare Rights. An Inquiry into the Coherence of Some Common Libertarian Commitments

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Libertarian Welfare Rights?i

An Inquiry into the Coherence of Some Common Libertarian Commitments

I. Introduction

This paper argues that libertarians should endorse some welfare rights understood as rights that all states must guarantee to their subjects as a condition of legitimacy. For, it argues that libertarians, because they should be actual consent theorists, must agree to the following condition for state legitimacy: States must do what they can to ensure that their rights-respecting subjects secure the basic reasoning and planning capacities they need to consent to their rules. To secure these capacities, most people need some minimal amount of food, water, shelter, education, health care, social and emotional goods. So states have to ensure that these people secure these things (as long as they do not violate others' rights). This should be a striking conclusion as most libertarians notoriously reject welfarism and positive social and economic rights. They do not think legitimate states must ensure that any of their subjects secure food, water, shelter, education, health care, social or emotional goods.

It is, of course, easy to imagine ways that welfare rights can conflict with other libertarian commitments. So, although it is framed