It was a pleasure to make a presentation to coordinators of South Asia Students for Liberty via Zoom on September 23, 2022. Regional Coordinator Md Tasnimul Hassan, based in India, hosted the event; I appreciate his invitation to speak.
Students for Liberty (SFL), founded in 2008, is now “the largest pro-liberty student organization in the world in terms of leaders, countries represented, and events.” Learn more about the organization here.
South Asia encompasses eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Each of these is represented in SFL.
The presentation, “Principles of Leadership and Liberty: Now and in the Future,” lightly edited, follows. I spoke for about twenty minutes and then enjoyed a discussion with the participants. I have provided respective lists of references from both the presentation and the discussion.
I. Introduction
I have good news.
You are needed. The struggle for liberty is eternal, and each of your countries needs freedom. Further, at any time in history, the crowd is usually wrong — and voices of truth and reason are required.
You have advantages that prior generations lacked:
• When I was in law school four decades ago, I did not know any other libertarians. Now, there are many more of us, and with the internet, we can all connect.
• Also, with the internet, we can all learn about almost any subject, including liberty, for free or virtually free.
• There are now more institutions working for freedom, including SFL, Atlas Network, and think tanks in most countries.
• You can have online events with people worldwide, with speakers from anywhere.
You have the opportunity to help make a freer, more prosperous, and more peaceful world.
And there is more good news — for your life after your formal education.
The world needs great leaders in every field, including business and non-profit organizations. And you can help promote liberty all your lives, regardless of your career.
I hope the ideas I am presenting today will be helpful to you. They are for your consideration; each of you will determine your own approach to leadership and liberty.
I will cover Principles of Leadership, Principles of Liberty, Advocacy of Liberty, and Promotion of Liberty in the Future.
II. Principles of Leadership
A. Introduction
Leadership success is based on fundamentals, and I will discuss just some of them. These principles apply to your current and future roles.
First, let us consider the definition of leadership.
Marshall Goldsmith supports this definition: “working with and through others to achieve objectives.” He notes, “Given this definition, anyone in a position whose achievement requires support from others can play the role of a leader.”
Ken Blanchard offers an aspirational view, defining leadership as,
[T]he capacity to influence others by unleashing their power and potential to impact the greater good. …. The key phrase in our new definition is ‘the greater good’—what is best for all involved.
I will add that influencing others by creating or sharing ideas is a form of leadership.
B. Eight Principles
1. To Be a Good Leader, Be a Good Person
Being a person of character is its own virtue and is a foundation for leadership. Being a good person will make you a better leader, and being a better leader will make you a better person.
Kevin Cashman of Korn Ferry quotes Terry Bacon: “Being recognized as a person of character enhances your capacity to lead and influence others because they trust your intentions, are more confident in your leadership, and see you as a person worth emulating.”
Cashman goes on to observe the importance of one character trait, courage: “[C]ourage gives us the strength to create the future.”
2. Develop a Good Personality
Traits of good personality flow from good character. Be strong, resilient, friendly, polite, considerate, respectful, kind, compassionate, responsible, and authentic.
Be likable, but not at the cost of effectiveness. The goal is to lead, not to be popular.
3. Have a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset is distinguished from a fixed mindset. With a growth mindset, we recognize our ability to grow our knowledge and skills, and we encourage those we lead to develop the same outlook. The mindset includes a commitment to lifelong learning.
In my view, we nevertheless should play to our strengths and those of the people we lead.
4. Be a Servant Leader
Leadership is service.
Servant leaders serve employees, who then serve customers or clients.
The concept of servant leadership is ancient, but Robert K. Greenleaf coined the term in 1970. He expresses the test of whether one is a servant leader:
Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?
Servant leadership, Ken Blanchard explains, includes two roles. First, the leader, through consultation, determines the vision; second, he or she serves the employees in its implementation.
Blanchard notes the benefits: “[L]eaders develop great relationships, achieve great results, and delight their customers.”
5. Be a Good Communicator
To lead well, you need to communicate well.
To have productive conversations, listening and asking helpful questions are fundamental skills. To encourage conversations, create a culture of psychological safety, welcoming ideas, feedback, and discussion of problems that need to be resolved.
Leaders convey ideas. They need to be good writers and speakers, and with a growth mindset, they can improve their abilities.
6. Develop the Skills of Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman explains that there are four domains of emotional intelligence: “self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management.”
Being skilled in emotional intelligence will make you a better leader and improve all the other aspects of your life.
Goleman observes, “What really matters for success, character, happiness and life long achievements is a definite set of emotional skills – your EQ — not just purely cognitive abilities that are measured by conventional IQ tests.”
7. Be a Critical Thinker
Being a critical thinker will make you a better leader and help you understand the issues that advocates of liberty analyze.
William R. Klemm states that “learning how to think critically makes you smart.”
And John Coleman observes, “At the heart of critical thinking is the ability to formulate deep, different, and effective questions.”
8. Lead by Example
Albert Schweitzer asserts, “Example is not the main thing. It is the only thing.”
III. Principles of Liberty
A. Introduction
Before I discuss principles, let us see where the countries of South Asia now stand.
The Human Freedom index is co-published by the Cato Institute and the Fraser Institute. It “encompasses personal, civil, and economic freedom.” The most recent edition, published in 2021, is based on 2019 data and covers 165 jurisdictions.
Here are the rankings:
– Afghanistan: N/A
– Bangladesh: 142
– Bhutan: 98
– India: 119
– Maldives: N/A. However, the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom (2022) ranks it 161st of 184 jurisdictions.
– Nepal: 84
– Pakistan: 145
– Sri Lanka: 112
Every country needs more freedom, and this is true of your countries.
B. Seven Principles
I will focus on some of the ideas I have found to be fundamental.
1. Natural Rights
Many of us who are libertarian believe in the concept of natural rights.
John Locke, in 1689, avers, “[B]eing all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”
The modern libertarian view of natural rights is that they represent a moral claim based on self-ownership. If you would like to present the idea of natural rights, you could ask people, “Who owns you?”
The implication of the existence of natural rights is that interactions should be voluntary, not coercive. Coercion is unjust.
2. Origin and Nature of the State
Understanding the origin and nature of the state helps us comprehend its reality. The reality serves us as we think about the state’s activities.
a. Definition
German sociologist Max Weber provides the canonical definition of the state: “a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. Note that ‘territory’ is one of the characteristics of the state.”
b. Origin
The origin of the state is conquest, not consent.
Tom G. Palmer explains (PDF),
State formation represents a transformation from ‘roving bandits’ to ‘stationary bandits.’ As the economist Mancur Olson wrote, ‘If the leader of a roving bandit gang who finds only slim pickings is strong enough to take hold of a given territory and to keep other bandits out, he can monopolize crime in that area—he can become a stationary bandit.’
German sociologist and political economist Franz Oppenheimer also found conquest to be the origin of the state. In The State, first published in Germany in 1908 and published in English in 1922, he writes,
“[T]his dominion had no other purpose than the economic exploitation of the vanquished by the victors.
No primitive state known to history originated in any other manner.”
c. Nature
In explaining the nature of the state, Oppenheimer described in his book the two means of acquiring wealth: “economic” and “political.” The state uses the political means, “the unrequited appropriation of the labor of others.”
d. Significance
States have evolved, but their nature remains the same. They call plunder taxation and coercion law.
And they continue to claim power over a specified territory, defined by borders they have drawn.
3. Austrian Economics
The lessons of Austrian economics, including the existence of spontaneous order and the futility of central planning, provide support for liberty.
In “Austrian School of Economics,” Peter Boettke introduces the topic and discusses “the main propositions about economics that so-called Austrians believe.” He concludes,
The implications of these ten propositions are rather radical. …. With regard to public policy, severe doubt would be raised about the ability of government officials to intervene optimally within the economic system, let alone to rationally manage the economy.
4. Public Choice Theory
The insights of the public choice school of economics also provide support for liberty.
William F. Shughart II explains, “Public choice applies the theories and methods of economics to the analysis of political behavior, an area that was once the exclusive province of political scientists and sociologists.”
This school of economics observes that people in government are humans, not angels. Thus, they respond to incentives.
The result is that politicians and bureaucrats tend to serve themselves and entrenched and special interests. Their primary motivation typically is to gain, maintain, and grow their own power. And as Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek warns, “the worst get on top.”
5. Freedom Is Indivisible
Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises repeatedly declares that freedom is indivisible, including in his essay “Liberty and Property” (1958).
Sheldon Richman argues,
Living a human life consists in the pursuit of a variety of values, some material, some not. Thus dividing freedom into spheres is both arbitrary and ultimately destructive. There is no economic freedom and non-economic freedom. There is only freedom.
In discussing the index published in the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World: 2022 Annual Report, I recently wrote on social media, “A system that generally tolerates economic freedom but heavily restricts personal freedom, as we see, for instance, in Singapore, is unacceptable.”
6. Cosmopolitanism
Tom G. Palmer explains,
The term cosmopolitanism is derived from the Greek word used to denote a ‘citizen of the world’ (kosmopolitês). ….
The central libertarian claim that all human beings—indeed, all rational agents—have equal fundamental rights is rooted in the ancient tradition of cosmopolitan thought.
In 1927, Mises writes,
The ultimate ideal envisioned by liberalism is the perfect cooperation of all mankind, taking place peacefully and without friction. Liberal thinking always has the whole of humanity in view and not just parts. …. Its thinking is cosmopolitan and ecumenical: it takes in all men and the whole world. Liberalism is, in this sense, humanism; and the liberal, a citizen of the world, a cosmopolite.
7. Freedom Is its Own Virtue
Liberty is intrinsically valuable. While it leads to positive results, it is an end, not merely a means.
IV. Advocacy of Liberty
Offer a bold vision, one that will excite people.
Offer ideas for consideration. People persuade themselves; arguing can be counterproductive.
Encourage a spirit of liberty. That spirit is necessary, as Herbert Spencer observes, for people to resist the theft of freedom.
V. Promotion of Liberty in the Future
There are many ways you will be able to promote liberty during your careers.
First, you can be a volunteer with SFL or other organizations.
Second, you can lead by example by being an entrepreneur, encouraging a culture of free enterprise.
Third, you can contribute funds to organizations working for liberty.
Fourth, if publicly expressing your views is acceptable given your employment, you can:
• Write articles, letters to the editor, comments on articles, or social media posts.
• Create videos.
• Do public speaking.
• Organize groups of like-minded people from the public.
And finally, if you are an entrepreneur or a leader of an organization, you can do what few others do — take a public, principled stand:
• Speak out for freedom.
• Reject the demands of anti-freedom activists.
• Accept responsibility instead of demanding subsidies and protectionism.
• Organize a group of people in your field who share your views.
VI. Conclusion
Do not wait to be a great leader in the future. Be a great leader now!
……..
Note
The information in the section “Origin and Nature of the State” is primarily based on Tom G. Palmer’s July 30, 2012, presentation for Cato University, “Origins of State and Government,” and his article in the Fall 2012 Cato’s Letter with the same title. The latter is included in the References section below, and the citation for the former is here:
“Origins of States and Government” (7-30-2012). Tom G. Palmer.
“PART OF CATO INSTITUTE: 2012 CATO UNIVERSITY ECONOMIC & POLITICAL FORUM”
C-Span
https://www.c-span.org/video/?307323-2/origins-states-government
References
The references encompass the materials linked in the text, in the same order.
Leadership
“5 WAYS TO BECOME A BETTER LEADER” (Undated).
https://marshallgoldsmith.com/articles/5-ways-to-become-a-better-leader/
Leading at a Higher Level (Third edition, 2018). Ken Blanchard. Publisher: Pearson.
https://www.pearson.com/en-us/subject-catalog/p/leading-at-a-higher-level-blanchard-on-leadership-and-creating-high-performing-organizations/P200000000136/9780134857534
“Leading With Character” (10-18-2019). Kevin Cashman.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevincashman/2019/10/18/leading-with-character/?sh=5249e9022a40
“What Does It Mean to Have a Growth Mindset?” (5-8-2018).
https://bigthink.com/plus/what-does-it-mean-to-have-a-growth-mindset/
“What is Servant Leadership?” (Undated)
https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/
“Let’s Clear Up Some Misunderstandings about Servant Leadership” (2-7-2018). Ken Blanchard).
https://howwelead.org/2018/02/07/lets-clear-up-some-misunderstandings-about-servant-leadership/
“4 Emotional Intelligence Skills for Trying Times” (Undated). Daniel Goleman.
https://www.kornferry.com/insights/briefings-for-the-boardroom/4-emotional-intelligence-skills-for-trying-times
“The Importance of Emotional Intelligence (Incl. Quotes)” (2-6-2019). Elaine Houston.
https://positivepsychology.com/importance-of-emotional-intelligence/
“How to Learn Critical Thinking:
Learning how to think critically makes you smart.” (10-29-2017). William R. Klemm Ph.D.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/memory-medic/201710/how-learn-critical-thinking
“Critical Thinking Is About Asking Better Questions” (4-22-2022). John Coleman.
https://hbr.org/2022/04/critical-thinking-is-about-asking-better-questions
“Example is not the main thing. It is the only thing.”
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer
Liberty
Human Freedom Index (2021)
https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index/2021
“John Locke on the rights to life, liberty, and property of ourselves and others (1689)”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/497
“Politics as a Vocation” (1918). Lecture by Max Weber.
https://open.oregonstate.education/sociologicaltheory/chapter/politics-as-a-vocation/
“The Origins of State and Government” (PDF) (Fall 2012). Tom G. Palmer.
Cato’s Letter
Volume 10, Number 4
https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/catosletterv10n4.pdf
The State (1919). Franz Oppenheimer.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/oppenheimer-the-state
“Franz Oppenheimer on the origin of the state in conquest and subjection by one group over another (1907)”
http://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/550
“Austrian School of Economics” (Undated). Peter J. Boettke.
https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AustrianSchoolofEconomics.html
“Hayek Was Right: The Worst Do Get to the Top:
The Docile and Gullible Will Accept A Ready-Made System of Values” (2-1-1998). Lawrence W. Reed.
https://fee.org/articles/hayek-was-right-the-worst-do-get-to-the-top/
“Public Choice” (Undated). William F. Shughart II.
https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html
“Ludwig von Mises, ‘Liberty and Property’ (1958)”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/ludwig-von-mises-liberty-and-property-1958
“There’s No Such Thing as Economic Freedom:
There is only freedom.” (6-8-2012). Sheldon Richman.
https://fee.org/articles/theres-no-such-thing-as-economic-freedom/
“Mises on cosmopolitan cooperation and peace (1927)”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/mises-on-cosmopolitan-cooperation-and-peace-1927
Economic Freedom of the World: 2022 Annual Report (9-8-2022).
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/economic-freedom
“From Optimism to Pessimism: The Case of Herbert Spencer, Part 5:
George H. Smith discusses some of Spencer’s concerns about the intellectual and moral obstacles to achieving a free society.” (8-7-2012).
https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/optimism-pessimism-case-herbert-spencer-part-5
Additional Resources
The following materials relate to the subjects explored in the discussion with the participants in the event.
Private Governance
Book Review
Private Governance:
Creating Order in Economic and Social Life (2015). Edward Peter Stringham.
(Summer 2016). Reviewed by Gerard Casey.
https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=1160
“Edward Stringham | ‘Private Governance’ Book Panel” (9-3-2015). (Video)
https://ppe.mercatus.org/video/edward-stringham-private-governance-book-panel
“San Francisco’s Private Police Force:
The City by the Bay has a second, private police force…with a better record than the government cops.” (August/September 2015). Edward Stringham.
https://reason.com/2015/07/21/san-franciscos-private-police/
State and Society
“Quotation of the Day…” (7-18-2019).
https://cafehayek.com/2019/07/quotation-of-the-day-2857.html
“from page 46 of the 2000 Liberty Fund edition of Geoffrey Brennan’s and James M. Buchanan’s 1985 volume, The Reason of Rules.”
See the observation by Donald J. Boudreaux.
Water Markets
Book Review
Tapping Water Markets (2012). Terry L. Anderson, et al.
(Fall 2015). Reviewed by Randy Simmons.
https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=1079
Communal Management of Resources
“Essential Women of Liberty: Elinor Ostrom”
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/essential-women-of-liberty-elinor-ostrom
