Dallas Accord: Difference between revisions

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The '''Dallas Accord''' comprised both implicit and explicit agreements  made at the 1974 [[Libertarian National Convention]] to compromise between the larger minarchist and smaller anarcho-capitalist factions in order to avoid a Party fracture by amending the Platform and the Statement of Principles to refrain from explicitly stating whether it was desirable for the state to exist.<ref>Mike Hihn, "The Dallas Accord, Minarchists, and why our members sign a pledge", Washington State Libertarian Party, August 2009.</ref><ref>Paul Gottfried, ''The conservative movement: Social movements past and present '', Twayne Publishers, 1993, p. 46.</ref><ref name=Antman>Less Antman, [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/orig9/antman1.html The Dallas Accord is Dead], [[Lew Rockwell.com]], May 12, 2008.</ref><ref>Caryn Ann Harlos, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPWT9Jb05V8 "Through Which Liberty Shall Prevail: The Statement of Principles of the Libertarian Party"], live at the 2017 Arizona Libertarian Party Convention.</ref>  The explicit agreement involved amending the Statement of Principles in order to expressly allow for anarchist thought within the Party and changing the role of any existing state from a positive duty to a negative one and officially adopting a position of agnosticism on the ultimate existence of the state.<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/statementofprinciples/photos/pb.540241642806441.-2207520000.1486498090./708512759312661/?type=3&theater Mark-Up of Changes Between 1972 and 1974 Statement of Principles]</ref>  The implicit agreement is claimed to have included an agreement for the Platform to follow suit and that all debates as to whether or not a state must or must not exist would be tabled until such time as a minimal state might be achieved.<ref name="Antman"/><ref>Carl Watner and Paul Bilzi, [http://voluntaryist.com/backissues/011.pdf "What's Next in the Pursuit of Liberty"], "The Voluntaryist", November 1984; see also [[Murray Rothbard]] [http://www.wendymcelroy.com/print.php?news.2520 reply letter] posted by then-The Voluntaryist editor [[Wendy McElroy]] at her web site.</ref>  At that time, the Platform underwent one change which added the word "existing" to the Trade and Economy plank as follows: "The only proper role of existing govemments in the economic realm is to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal frame- work in which voluntary trade is protected. All efforts by govemment to redistribute wealth, or to control or manage trade, are improper in a free society." <ref>[http://lpedia.org/wiki/1974_Libertarian_Party_Platform 1974 Libertarian Party Platform ]</ref>  Whether or not any portion of the implicit agreement was ever binding, or remains in effect, remains disputed, and Party members and candidates have certainly felt free to argue for their perspectives on the debate.<ref>Judge Gray, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWbQg0Y0wJA Anarchism v. Libertarianism]</ref><ref>Caryn Ann Harlos, [https://jrlp.podbean.com/e/johnny-rocket-launch-pad-episode-102-caryn-ann-harlos/ "Party-Archy," Johnny Rocket Launchpad]</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEutQklrkcE Anarchy v. Minarchy Debate at 2016 Libertarian Party Convention ]</ref> The official Libertarian Party website follows the Statement of Principles in stating, "We believe that government’s only responsibility, if any, should be protecting people from force and fraud."<ref>[https://www.lp.org/about/ "About the Libertarian Party"]</ref>


'''The Dallas Accord''' was a compromise between moderates and radicals at the [[1974]] [[Libertarian National Convention]].
During the following years the number of anarchists in the party dropped by about half and more conservative-oriented and members joined.<ref name=Antman/><ref name=Knapp>[[Thomas L. Knapp|Knapp, Thomas]], "[http://www.rationalreview.com/rationalreviewold/archive/tlknapp/tlknapp010303.html Time for a new Dallas Accord?]", ''Rational Review''.</ref> During the [[Libertarian National Convention#2006|2006 Libertarian National Convention]] delegates deleted a large portion of the very detailed Platform. They added the phrase "Government exists to protect the rights of every individual including life, liberty and property."<ref name=LPPlatform>[http://lp.org/platform Libertarian Party platform].</ref>  This development has been described as the "Portland Massacre". Some took this as meaning the Dallas Accord was dead.<ref name=Antman/> Delegates tried in 2008 to restore the Platform, without success. However, the only explicit agreement from the Dallas Accord, that of the amended [[Statement of Principles]], remains in effect as required by the [[Bylaws of the National Libertarian Party]].<ref>[https://www.lp.org/bylaws-and-convention-rules/ Libertarian Party Bylaws]</ref>


The result was that the [[1974 Libertarian Party Platform]] was not to state explicitely whether or not the state was recognized as legitimately existing. The intent of the compromise was to make the [[Libertarian Party]] a suitable home for both [[minarchism|minarchists]] (''i.e.'' libertarians who advocate a small but existing government, or what [[Robert Nozick]] would call the "night-watchman state") and [[anarcho-capitalism|anarcho-capitalists]] (''i.e.'' libertarians who believe the [[free market]] can effectively replace all government functions). In other words, the Libertarian Party was to serve as a "big tent" party wherein both radical and moderate libertarians could work together to further their shared goal of decreasing the size, cost, and scope of government.
The purpose of the Dallas Accord was to make the Libertarian Party a "[[big tent]]" that would welcome more ideologically diverse groups of people interested in reducing the size of government. Therefore, the 1974 platform focused on statements arguing for getting government out of various activities, and used phrases such as "where governments exist they must not violate the rights of any individual" It was agreed that the topic of anarchism would not even be on the table for discussion until a limited government were achieved.<ref name="Antman"/><ref>Carl Watner and Paul Bilzi, [www.voluntaryist.com/backissues/011.pdf "What's Next in the Pursuit of Liberty"], "The Voluntaryist", November 1984; see also [[Murray Rothbard]] [http://www.wendymcelroy.com/print.php?news.2520 reply letter] posted by then-The Voluntaryist editor [[Wendy McElroy]] at her web site.</ref>
 
Anarchists do continue to work in the party and run for office,<ref name=Knapp/> and the activity of the anarchists in the Party is on the upswing with the formalization of the  [[LPRadicals]]. [[anarchism|Anarchist]] philosophies of no government still are supported by planks of the party Platform, one of which describes the "right to alter or abolish government" and another which states that "Our silence about any other particular government law, regulation, ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory agency, activity, or machination should not be construed to imply approval." <ref>[https://www.lp.org/platform/ 2016 Libertarian Party Platform]</ref> Further, a Preamble added to the Platform in 1984 paved the way for Platform planks to be transitory by explicitly stating with regards to the Platform planks that “These specific policies are not our goal, however. Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands”, leaving the Statement of Principles to be determinative statement of Party goals.<ref>[http://lpedia.org/wiki/1984_Libertarian_Party_Platform 1984 Libertarian Party Platform]</ref> 
 
The current Criminal Justice Plank states that "[t]he prescribed role of government is to protect the rights of every individual including the right to life, liberty and property” which is used as further argument that the Dallas Accord has been abrogated. Party anarchists assert that since the Platform may not contradict the Statement of Principles as amended in 1974, as well the Platform’s overtly stated transitory nature, such a statement does not entail the necessity of the state, merely the limitation of its role when it does exist.    Others argue that the Party’s Statement of Principles gives support for "the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others," and "the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation" with the implication that a state would be required; however, the original language of the Statement of Principles from 1972 in which those items would be enforced by “laws” was struck by the amendments made in 1974 so opponents of this view would say this is not a valid conclusion.<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/statementofprinciples/photos/pb.540241642806441.-2207520000.1486498090./708512759312661/?type=3&theater Mark-Up of Changes Between 1972 and 1974 Statement of Principles]</ref> The edits to the [[Statement of Principles]] made in conjunction with the [[1974 Libertarian National Convention]] remain unchanged.


Some claim that full adherence to this compromise lasted for decades, ending in Portland in [[2006 Libertarian Party Platform|2006]] with the inclusion of the following language: "Government exists to protect the rights of every individual including life, liberty and property." This alteration was mostly the result of the efforts of the [[Libertarian Reform Caucus]], an organisation which also cut the length of the platform down to one-eighth the length it was in [[2004 Libertarian Party Platform|2004]].Others note that it is impossible to abrogate this agreement as the [[Statement of Principles]] has language acknowledging that governments may not exist and that the Platform including is descriptive, not proscriptive, with anarchists seeing it as transitional in according with the Platform Preamble which acknowledges that the Platform statements are not the goal which remains a "world set free in our lifetimes."