The website of a newly-created British Libertarian Party has gone live. The idea for a party has been kicked around for a while, particularly by DK, and it’s nice to see that libertarians can actually put into practice what they preach after so many false dawns before. Innovatively, the party sets its stall out as the outlet for the 17m non-voters, rather than those of us that currently support one of the established parties. We wait to see what effect the party has on the democratic process.

A libertarian will value democracy not in terms of an end in itself, as that would be committing the anthropomorphic fallacy of endowing non-humans with human qualities: the state as an end, with rights or considerations separate from those of the people it was created to serve. Instead, libertarians consider democracy important because it allows the pluralist environment within which spontaneous order can occur, and the best policies can emerge.

Although the UCL Libertarian Society is independent of all political parties, including this nascent one, the foundation of an explicitly libertarian party is a welcome addition to both democratic plurality and political debate. To engage in that debate with other libertarians, within and without the party, and help to shape the future of the Libertarian Party, visit their online forums.

If the party itself breaks through and takes the power out of the hands of the kleptocrats currently in charge and gives it back to the people, so much the better, but let’s not count our chickens on that one just yet.