------- The Libertarian Party is an American political party founded on Dec. 11, 1971. It is the largest continuing third party in the United States, claiming more than 200,000 registered voters and more than 600 people in public office,including mayors, county executives, county council members, school board members and other local officials. It has more people in office than all other third parties combined. ----------- The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects that group's particular brand of libertarianism, favouring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, and non-interventionism in foreign policy that respects freedom of trade and travel to all foreign countries.--------------Key tenets of the Libertarian Party platform include the following: * Adoption of laissez-faire principles which would reduce the state's role in the economy. This would include, among other things, markedly reduced taxation (including the eventual elimination of all taxation in its entirety), privatization of Social Security and welfare (for individuals as well as elimination of "corporate welfare"), markedly reduced regulation of business, rollbacks of labour regulations, and reduction of government interference in foreign trade. * Protection of property rights. * Minimal government bureaucracy. The Libertarian Party states that the government's responsibilities should be limited to the protection of individual rights from the initiation of force and fraud. * Strong civil liberties positions, including privacy protections, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and sexual freedom. * No government interference in reproductive rights, including access to abortion. * Support for the unrestricted right to the means of self-defence (such as gun rights, the right to carry mace or pepper spray, etc). * Abolition of laws against what are called victimless crimes (prostitution, driving without a seatbelt, use of controlled substances, fraternization, incest etc.). * Opposition to regulations on how businesses should run themselves (i.e. smoking bans). * Opposition to military conscription ("the draught "). * A foreign policy of free trade and non-interventionism. * Support for a fiscally responsible government including a hard currency (commodity-based money supply as opposed to fiat currency). ------------------------------------------Libertarians state that their platform follows from the consistent application of their guiding principle: "mutual respect for rights." They are therefore deeply supportive of the concept of individual liberty as a precondition for moral and stable societies. In their "Statement of Principles," they declare: "We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose." To this end, Libertarians want to reduce the size of government (eliminating many of its current functions entirely). Libertarians reject the view of politics as a one-dimensional spectrum, divided between Democrats representing the Left or Centre-left and Republicans representing the Right or Centre-right.