Dallas Accord

The Dallas Accord was an agreement made at the 1974 Libertarian National Convention to compromise between the anarcho-capitalist and minarchist factions by adopting a platform that did not explicitly say whether it was desirable for the state to exist.^[1]

The 1972 Statement of Principles, which said that "the sole function of government is the protection of the rights of each individual" and "government has only one legitimate function, the protection of individual rights," was protected in the original LP Constitution (now called the Bylaws) by requiring a 7/8 vote to change it. However, the rule provided a one-time exception, allowing a 2/3 vote to change the SoP at the 1974 convention.^[2]

The idea behind the Dallas Accord was to make the Libertarian Party of the United States a "big tent" that would welcome more ideologically diverse group 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..." It was agreed that the topic of anarchism would not even be on the table for discussion until a limited government were achieved.^[3]

The compromise lasted until the 2006 Libertarian National Convention, when the platform was changed (at the behest of the Libertarian Reform Caucus) to specifically state that government has a legitimate role in protecting rights, a development described as the "Portland Massacre".^[4] The number of anarchists in the Libertarian Party has fallen from 31% in 1988 to 13% in 1998.^[5]

References

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