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This page is about the typology common in the United States. For full coverage of libertarianism, see Libertarianism.

According to polls, approximately 1/4 of Americans self-identify as libertarians. While this group is not typically ideologically driven, the term "libertarian" is commonly used to describe the form of Libertarianism widely practiced in the US, and is the common meaning of the term libertarianism in the US. This form is often named "liberalism" elsewhere such as in Europe where "liberalism" has a different common meaning than in the US. In some academic circles this form is called "right-libertarianism" as a complement to Left-libertarianism, with acceptance of capitalism, as defined by that group, being the distinguishing feature .

Libertarian is a typology used to describe a political position that advocates small government and is culturally liberal and economically right-wing in a two dimensional political spectrum. The other major typologies are liberal, conservative and populist. Libertarians often support legalization of victimless crimes, such as the use of marijuana, while opposing high levels of taxation and government spending on health, welfare and education. The term libertarian was adopted in the United States where the word liberal had become associated with a version that supports extensive government spending on social policies. Libertarian also refers to an anarchist ideology that developed in the 19th century and to a version that developed in the United States that is avowedly pro-capitalist.

Libertarians advocate civil liberties, natural law, laissez-faire capitalism and a major reversal of the modern welfare state. Libertarians strongly support private property rights and defend market distribution of natural resources and private property. "The best-known versions of libertarianism are libertarian theories that hold that agents have a very strong moral power to acquire full private property rights in external things.

Libertarian political thought is characterized by the strict priority given to liberty, with the need to maximize the realm of individual freedom and minimize the scope of public authority. Libertarians typically see the state as the principal threat to liberty. There is a complex debate within this tradition between those like Robert Nozick, who advocate a 'minimal state', and those like Rothbard who want to do away with the state altogether and allow all transactions to be governed by the market alone. Libertarian philosophy is also rooted in the ideas of individual rights and laissez-faire economics. The Libertarian theory of individual rights generally stresses that the individual is the owner of his person and that people have an absolute entitlement to the property that his labor produces. Economically, libertarians emphasize the self-regulating nature and mechanisms of the market, viewing government intervention and attempts to redistribute wealth as invariably unnecessary and counter-productive. Although all libertarians oppose government intervention, there is a division between those who adhere to the anarcho-capitalism position, who view the state as an unnecessary evil; and minarchists who recognize the necessary need for a minimal state, often referred to as a night-watchman state.

While influenced by classical liberal thought, with some viewing the modern libertarian movement as an outgrowth or as a variant of it, there are significant differences. Edwin van de Haar argues that "confusingly, in the United States the term libertarianism is sometimes also used for or by classical liberals. But this erroneously masks the differences between them". Classical liberalism refuses to give priority to liberty over order and therefore does not exhibit the hostility to the state which is the defining feature of libertarianism. Subsequently, libertarians believe classical liberals favor too much state involvement, arguing that they do not have enough respect for individual property rights and lack sufficient trust in the workings of the free market and its spontaneous order leading to support of a much larger state. Libertarians also disagree with classical liberals as being too supportive of central banks and monetarist policies.