A social libertarian is a person who believes in social
liberty, i.
e., individual independence and communal autonomy from overarching
government or state control.
A social libertarian typically rejects the concentration of decision-making authority into distant, oligarchical, centralized bureaucracies - federal or monolithic - favoring instead the diffusion and localization of that decision-making authority.
Social libertarians support a political, social, and economic environment which allows voluntary accession to associations, but also permits a person to choose to remain free of restraint by
society, except in cases in which an individual'
s claim of freedom interferes with another individual's right to be free from unwarranted, aggressive coercion or harm.
Social libertarians regard free-market capitalism and democratic, communalistic
socialism as equally conducive economic means towards the ends of generalistic liberation from tyranny.
Murray Bookchin'
s support of decentralized, non-hierarchical communal autonomy, coupled with a belief in individual
liberty, indicates that he and his adherents are social libertarians.