Libertarianism on Life Support: Who Signed the DNR?

This heterodox diagnostic study examines why libertarianism—despite the strong empirical record of Austrian economics and classical-liberal principles—has exercised only limited policy influence over the past two decades. Drawing on economic and human freedom indices, comparative institutional evidence (Singapore, Switzerland, post-communist reformers, East Africa, and the major Western jurisdictions), public-choice theory, and the recent Argentine experiment under Javier Milei, it argues that internal fragmentation, political homelessness, institutional capture, and the systematic discarding of libertarian language once parties assume power explain the persistent gap between intellectual strength and political marginality. Libertarianism remains on life support: empirically robust, organizationally weak, and dependent on future openings that reward results over rhetoric.