Thus the libertarian is, of necessity, a pluralist. He tolerates different communities with laws of entirely different types. He knows that one cannot homogenize the differences among men or among the differing environments in which man finds himself. Conversely, the coercionist is, of necessity, a social monist and will not tolerate social differences. It is interesting that the libertarians and conservatives, the social pluralists, are the ones who are likely to encourage social experiment by allowing community differences, which might actually lead to progress in the understanding of the relations among men.
Libertarians realize that there is no perfect social system.
There never will be a final answer as to how everyone should behave and, because of this realization, they refuse to coerce others to hold to their beliefs. This minor cavil does not detract from the outstanding contribution to the philosophical meaning of freedom which Berlin makes. One of the essential ideas behind the founding of this country was that it was to be a federal republic, that is, a nation in which the individual governmental units of the federation agree concerning the general principles of government but retain the right to enact the laws of their choosing, insofar as the details of governmental action are concerned. At the time of the original publication, Mr. Kizer was a psychologist and business consultant in Portsmouth, Ohio. Reprinted with permission from The Freeman, a publication of The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., September 1976, Vol. 26, No.9.