Ayn Rand (1905-1982), a Russian-born American, was a philosopher, novelist and neo-liberal conservative. She promoted rational self-interest, individual freedom and a pure laissez-faire capitalist economy, summarising her position as ‘the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.’ Educated in the USSR, her views were initially shaped by her loathing of the Russian communist regime because the Soviet authorities had confiscated her father’s prosperous pharmacy business, which left her family impoverished for a time. In 1926, Rand moved to the USA for good and, after working as a Hollywood screenwriter, she became an author in the 1930s. Her neo-liberal ideas were developed in novels such as We the Living (1936), Anthem (1938), The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) and in non-fiction works including The Virtue of Selfishness(1964) and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966). In the 1950s, Rand, together with a number of supporters, established the Class of ’43 (also known, rather ironically, as the Collective), a discussion forum designed to disseminate her ideas. An early member of this group was Alan Greenspan, who later chaired the US Federal Reserve. Rand’s neo-liberal views were also promoted in the Objectivist newsletter (1962-71). By the 1960s, the growing popularity of her novels established Rand as a conservative public intellectual in the US, enabling her to address audiences on television and at universities.

What were Rand’s key ideas?

As a neo-liberal conservative thinker, Rand is associated with the three interlinked concepts of objectivism (based on rational and ethical egoism), economic freedom and anti-statism/collectivism.

1. Objectivism

Objectivism was Rand’s most important contribution to political thought and was conceived as a set of principles that could be applied to all aspects of human existence. At its core, objectivism reflects Rand’s conviction that human life is founded fundamentally on reason and rationality. Her objectivist arguments drew heavily on rational and ethical egoism to claim that the rational pursuit of self-interest and self-fulfilment was morally right. Rational egoism argues that humans are rational beings because they are driven by self-interest and self-responsibility, view their lives and happiness as ends in themselves and do not wish to dominate (or be dominated by) others. Ethical egoism inverts conventional thinking by arguing that the human pursuit of self-interest is morally right because it is an authentic or natural act. From this perspective, altruism is immoral because it creates an ‘artificial’ sense of obligation and expectation and does not accord with an individual’s rational self-interest.Rand’s justification for this position, which she called ‘the virtue of selfishness’ relied on three arguments, namely (1) human knowledge is based only on reason and for humans to be free they must live according to reason (2) humans can only live according to reason if they are permitted to pursue their own self-interest (3) external interference (e.g. from other people or the state) hinders a person’s ability to pursue their own self-interest. For Rand, any attempt to control or regulate an individual’s actions corrupted the capacity of that person to work freely as a productive member of society, mainly by undermining their practical use of reason. Objectivism also applied to social and cultural affairs, prompting her to defend the individual’s right to choose on issues such as homosexuality and abortion at a time when both were illegal, and widely considered immoral, in the USA. Underpinning Rand’s objectivism was an atomistic vision of human nature and society where people seek autonomy and ‘space’ rather than any sense of connection or community in order to develop as rational beings, experience ‘true’ freedom and achieve self-realisation.

2. Economic freedom

Objectivism, according to Rand, was completely connected to the idea of economic freedom. Taking up the mantle of a self-proclaimed ‘radical for capitalism’, Rand asserted that the unhindered expression of human rationality was fully attuned to the free market, based on a ‘a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire’ economy. Such a system, she contended, was morally superior to other forms of economic organization because it (1) completely respected the individual’s pursuit of rational self-interest (2) was fully consistent with the nonaggression principle (see below) (3) was the only economic model based on ‘objective reason’, and (4) provided the competitive mechanism to create the elites required to governsocieties. Under unrestricted laissez-faire capitalism, she maintained, free individuals can use their time, money, and other resources as they choose, and interact and trade voluntarily with others to their mutual advantage. In short, capitalism was ‘the only system that stood for a man’s right to own his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself.’ For these reasons, Rand urged libertarian conservatives to ‘fight for capitalism, not as a practical issue, not as an economic issue, but, with the most righteous pride, as a moral issue’. Her critics have argued that, in reality, unregulated free market capitalism leads to (1) economic and political power becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of an elite, and (2) individuals having less control over their own lives. Rand dismissed these concerns, asserting that, since pure laissez-faire capitalism was founded on the rule of law, property rights, freedom of contract, and government impartiality, economic freedom would promote competition and opportunity and safeguard against the concentration of power.

3. Anti-statism/collectivism

Rand’s emphasis on objectivism, negative liberty and unfettered laissez-faire capitalism led her to reject virtually all forms of state intervention or collective action. In her view, statism and collectivism prevented the individual from existing as an independent rational being,capable of determining their own actions. Rand, for example, opposed government welfare and wealth redistribution programmes on the grounds that (1) the state relies on the implicit threat of force (arrest, fines, imprisonment) to ensure that people contribute to such schemes through taxation (2) individuals have the right to possess property and income free from state encroachment and should maintain themselves by their own efforts (3) voluntary provision, not state-imposed obligation, should provide a social safety net based on an individual’s free choice to donate money to charity (4) state welfarism was based on the mistaken assumption that the redistribution of wealth was ethically superior to the free market. Consequently, the state’s attempt to ‘deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.’ Indeed, for Rand, all forms of collectivism (including religion, socialism, communism, fascism and democracy) undermined individual liberty and were based on fraudulent claims of the ‘common good’ that justified ‘every tyranny ever established over men.’ Rand referred to opposition to such external coercion of the individual as the ‘nonaggression principle’ which, put simply, meant that ‘no man has the right to initiate the use of physical force against others.’ Having said this, it is important to recognize that Rand was not an individualist anarchist (and explicitly rejected anarchism) because she accepted the need for a small or minimal state to guarantee free markets and provide protection against criminals and foreign invasion.

Impact of Rand’s ideas

Rand developed her ideas at a time when mainstream political thinking was focused on Keynesian economics, state intervention, progressive taxation and welfarism so, initially, her neo-liberal stance gained little traction. Moreover, her unconventional approach of conveying her ideas in novels rather than formal works of political analysis meant that her writings were largely ignored or rejected by academic experts. Nevertheless, the rise of the New Right in the 1970s made Rand’s arguments more relevant because they provided an accessible case for ‘rolling back’ the state, introducing tax cuts and privatizing sectors of the economy. From then on, Rand became an influential figure among conservatives and libertarians, particularly in the US, where the early Libertarian Party, some senior members of the Reagan administrations and the Tea Party movement endorsed her views. Furthermore, Rand’s ideas provided the stimulus for the formation of US libertarian think tanks such as the Cato Institute and, in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute was established to publicise and discuss her work. Its mission was to ‘create a culture whose guiding principles are reason, rational self-interest, individualism and laissez-faire capitalism – a culture in which individuals are free to pursue their own happiness.’ As of 2017, she had sold over 30 million copies of her books, all of which were still in print, and she continued to sell about 1 million annually.