The Top 30 Libertarian Blogs


Here is a list of the 30 most influential liberty-oriented blogs. The list is sorted on the second column, which is the Alexa 3-month average reach per million users. The third column is the Technorati count of the number of blogs that link in. The more influential a blog is, the less generally liberty-oriented it has to be to make the list. Reynolds, Sullivan, and Becker/Posner aren't very self-consciously libertarian, but their influence is vast enough to compensate.  Antiwar.com is more singleissuetarian than libertarian, and the site mentions Chomsky over 500 times, but its libertarian roots are undeniable. For EconLog, I attempt to break out the blog's Alexa reach from the reach of EconLib as a whole.

Glenn Reynolds: Instapundit 306 6945 "The Blogfather" is a liberventionist who ignores the LP as "trivial" and "a net negative"
Raimondo & Garris: antiwar.com
244 3005
2 Rothbardians have flitted among 4 parties, backing Buchanan 2000 & Nader 2004
Andrew Sullivan: The Daily Dish
205 3106 Time hired the gay Catholic New Republic ex-editor who coined "South Park Republican"
Lew Rockwell 198 2950 Culturally conservative anarcho-capitalist paleolibertarians who disdain the LP
Reason 120 1280 60K-circulation techno-optimistic libertarian magazine bemused by the LP
Neil Boortz
112
1148
The libertarian-leaning conservative talk radio personality
Volokh Conspiracy 84 2705 Law school profs who say the LP makes major parties less libertarian at the margin
Marginal Revolution 68
1606 Brilliant GMU economists/philosophers/aesthetes ignore the LP
Homeland Stupidity
56
1073
A libertarian look at technology and privacy
Hammer of Truth 34
721 Most important LP-friendly blog; Stephen Gordon is now LP Comm Director
Jane Galt: Asymmetrical Information 31
800 Libertarianish economics-literate journalism; McArdle hired away by The Economist
Daniel Drezner
28
1101
Tufts PoliSci prof gets 58/160 on the libertarian purity test
Radley Balko: The Agitator
23
797
Cato Institute policy analyst says "the LP is bad for libertarianism"
Vodkapundit
20
1021
Liberventionist who criticizes "doctrinaire libertarianism"
Samizdata
20
1006
Broad US/UK/Australian perspective from liberventionists who call the LP "turgid"
Jon Henke et al: QandO 19
1016 Interventionist neolibertarian Republicans who have given up on the LP
Strike the Root 19
245 "A libertarian / market anarchist perspective" that says the LP isn't radical enough
EconLog 13?
459 2 brilliant economists, including anarcho-capitalist theorist Bryan Caplan
Becker-Posner Blog 10
2040 U of Chicago: the economics Nobel laureate and the brilliant federal appellate judge
Catallarchy
10
455
Founding liberventionist Brian Doss says the LP's job is to discipline the GOP
Virginia Postrel: Dynamist 9
539 Former Reason editor, NY Times columnist, and Future And Its Enemies author
Cato At Liberty
7
521
Official Cato Institute blog
Cafe Hayek 7
460
2 more brilliant GMU economists who focus on ideas, not politics
Vox Populi
6
309
"the Christian Libertarian commentator from WorldNetDaily"
Technology Liberation Front
5
279
Libertarian perspectives on technology
Rational Review
4
79
Tom Knapp's web journal seeks a radical LP for this "revolutionary era"
Cato Unbound
3
387
Monthly big-idea essay and reaction essays by big thinkers
Positive Liberty
2
226
Intelligent libertarians embarrassed by the LP's anarchist silliness
Kn@ppster 2
208 ZAPsolutist anarchist Knapp is hedging his LP bet with a new protest party
Coyote Blog
2
203
Capitalist libertarian thinks the LP is too kooky
Will Wilkinson: Fly Bottle
2
198
Ex-GMU Cato Institute policy analyst
Free Liberal 2
87
"non-partisan left-libertarian journal of politics and economics"
David Friedman: Ideas
1
180
Milton Friedman's son is the world's leading utilitarian anarcho-capitalist theorist

The Top Libertarian Web Sites

Here is a list of the 13 liberty-oriented institutions with the most web traffic. The list is sorted on the second column, which is the Alexa 3-month average reach per million users. The third column is the Technorati count of the number of blogs that link in. For sites where Technorati does not aggregate multiple inbound links from the same blog, I divide total inbound links by three, which in this context seems to be the usual ratio of unique links to unique linking blogs.

Ludwig von Mises Institute 76
1481
The leading American institute for Austrian economics
Cato Institute
62
2380
Arguably the most important force for freedom since its 1983 schism with the LP
Libertarian Party 38
700?
The only American political party advocating personal and economic liberty
Library of Economics and Liberty 27
903
No bricks or mortar, but a potent academic-oriented web presence
Future of Freedom Foundation 23
300?
Advocates the "free markets and limited government that made our nation great"
Advocates For Self-Government 23
150?
Pushes its Nolan Chart quiz and lists libertarian celebrities
Ayn Rand Institute
14
600?
Official institute for Rand's Objectivist philosophy
Independent Institute 13
491
Second only to Cato as a libertarian think tank; GMU's Tabarrok directs research
Reason Foundation 9
263
Libertarian think tank specializing in privatization, environment, and California
Adam Smith Institute
5
418

Institute for Humane Studies
5
150?
Founded 1961, moved from Menlo Park to GMU in 1985, focuses on scholarships
International Society For Individual Liberty
4
700?
Students for Individual Liberty (1969) merged with Libertarian International in 1989
Downsize DC 4
130?
The late Harry Browne's group for petitioning Washington

Honorable mention: the Electronic Frontier Foundation has libertarian sympathies and a huge web reach of 183, but is not a pure libertarian play.