Unfortunately, the 2008 platform survey was full of leading questions designed to produce results favoring a more marketing-oriented, watered-down, detail-free platform that shies away from controversy and offers less criticism of government. Thus the results which Aaron has forwarded should be taken with a large dose of salt. I suspect this flawed questionnaire, and the publication of its dubious results, may have also influenced the platform debate that year to which Aaron makes reference.
I have detailed below, in blue text following each survey question, some of the biases with the way the questions were phrased, along with some proposed replacement wording for most of the questions. Were we to send out such a survey again, I believe this alternate wording would produce some significantly different results. I'm not claiming my questions are free from bias either (I doubt it's possible to completely eliminate bias from such a survey), but they do not have the same biases of those that were sent out in 2008, and thus member responses to them could provide a useful contrast.
If we do conduct another survey of LP members' views on our platform, it should be done transparently. I don't believe LP members ever got to see the full results that were seen by those who sent out the survey. It is unfair for only those in charge of administering these surveys to be able to see which specific respondents express which views, and what comments they make along with their responses. I would still like to see the raw results of the 2008 platform survey and any other LP platform surveys that have been sent out.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
Colleagues,
Just a little bit of history to help guide us.
In 2006 a majority of delegates at that year’s convention were convinced that it was necessary to eliminate most all of the planks of the Libertarian Party Platform and start anew. When the 2008 Platform Committee was formed, it was tasked with rebuilding our platform from scratch. To facilitate the process, a survey was conducted of past delegates and those on the Libertarian Party email list. Over 5,000 people responded and those answers guided the 2008 Platform Committee’s proposals. There were party members who were skeptical of the survey’s results and some of them spearheaded a concerted campaign to restore the pre-2006 platform. However, the end result was that the 2008 Platform Committee’s proposals were overwhelmingly adopted by greater than the required 2/3 votes of delegates at the 2008 convention in Denver.
So, where does the 2014 Platform Committee go from here? Given that it takes a 2/3 vote to amend a platform plank, I would be inclined to give a lot of weight to what libertarians have stated in the past about what they value in a platform. Below are the actual survey questions and the percentage responses.
Aaron Starr
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2008 Libertarian Party Platform Questionnaire Results
Question
% All
% Likely
Number
Question/Answer Text
Responses
Delegates
1
Platforms serve both internal and external purposes. Which of the following more closely
represents your opinion about what should be the principal purpose of our party platform?
a) Our platform should be more of an externally-focused document to market our party to voters.
81
72
b) Our platform should be more of an internally-focused document to guide our candidates.
19
28
Bias: I don't know of any Libertarians who don't want more non-libertarians to be exposed to our ideas, so an "external focus" is naturally going to sound more appealing than an "internal focus" when these are presented as the alternatives. The question also falsely implies that an externally-focused platform must be a platform designed to "market" our party.
Suggested replacement question:
Some people favor more of an "educational" approach to advancing the libertarian cause, and others favor more of a "marketing" approach. Which of the following more closely represents your opinion about what should be the principal purpose of our party platform?
a) Our platform should say what we believe
b) Our platform should be a marketing tool
2
Our platform will be read by those who are familiar with our ideas and those who are not. Who do
you believe should be our principal target?
a) We should target individuals unfamiliar with (or even opposed to) our ideas so we can
educate them on the merits of libertarianism.
78
70
b) We should target individuals already sympathetic with our ideas to convince them to vote for
our candidates.
22
30
Bias: Both response options refer to "targeting" people -- i.e. they both presume a marketing approach. So essentially the choices given are either (a) market ourselves to people who don't like or are unfamiliar with our ideas, or (b) market ourselves to people who already like our ideas. Not much of a choice there!
Suggested replacement question:
Our platform will have both a short-term and a long-term impact. Which do you think should be our principal approach?
a) Take a short-term view and say what we think people will agree with now in order to get votes
b) Take a long-term view and stay ahead of the curve to lead public opinion in the right direction
3
Shorter documents are more likely to be read, while longer documents are more likely to be comprehensive.
If you had to select only one, which one of the following more closely represents your opinion about the
optimal length of our platform?
a) A short platform covering fewer issues
73
71
b) A long platform covering more issues
27
29
Bias: Creates the impression that our platform will get more attention if it is shorter, ignoring the possibility that a longer document can be used frequently as a reference tool without being "read" from start to finish.
Suggested replacement question:
A longer platform is more likely to contain enough detail to show members of the public who care about specific issues that we share their concerns, while a shorter platform is more likely to avoid detail that could alienate members of the public. If you had to select only one, which one of the following more closely represents your opinion about the level of detail in our platform?
a) A detailed platform addressing not just broad areas of public policy, but specific issues
b) A generalized platform addressing broad areas of public policy without going into detail
4
Our platform uses a combination of negative and positive phrasing, i.e. what we oppose and what we
champion. Which of the following more closely represents your opinion as to the language phrasing that
should be used mostly in our platform?
a) We should emphasize what we oppose in government and the harm it causes.
17
13
b) We should emphasize what we favor in a free society and the benefits this brings.
83
87
Bias: Casts the debate in terms of "positive" versus "negative" (who wants to side with being "negative"?), and falsely posits the question in terms of either/or.
Suggested replacement question:
Our platform contains language stating what we believe in, as well as language stating what we oppose. Which of the following most closely represents your opinion as to how our platform should be written?
a) We should emphasize what we favor in a free society and how it will help people
b) We should emphasize what current government policies we oppose and how they hurt people
c) We should emphasize both what we favor and what we oppose, ignoring neither one nor the other
5
We know that libertarianism is both morally right and improves the lives of the greatest number of people.
Which of the following more closely represents your opinion as to the language phrasing that should be
used mostly in our platform?
a) We should emphasize the moral justification for our views.
29
32
b) We should emphasize the utilitarian benefits of our positions to the reader.
71
68
Bias: Again the question falsely posits an either/or choice without giving a third option, and like question 3, one response option references utility to readers while the other does not.
Suggested replacement question:
There are both moral and utilitarian arguments for libertarianism. Which of the following most closely represents your opinion as to how our platform should be written?
a) We should focus on moral arguments that explain why aggression is wrong and freedom is right
b) We should focus on utilitarian arguments that explain how people and the planet will benefit from freedom
c) We should focus both on how freedom will benefit people and the planet, and on why freedom is right and aggression is wrong
6
Some people believe our existing platform language can be repaired through a series of amendments.
Others believe that we need to delete the old language and start anew. Which of the following more closely
represents your opinion about how to better fix our platform?
a) We should amend the existing language.
39
41
b) We should delete the old planks and start from a clean slate.
61
59
Bias: Implies that our existing language is broken (that it needs to be "repaired"), and holds out the appealing prospect of a "clean slate". I suspect that this question was meant to manufacture support for the long-held goal of some LP members who don't want strong libertarian language in our platform and seek to eliminate the Preamble and Statement of Principles.
Suggested replacement question:
Some people believe our current (post-2006) platform is an improvement over our platform as it existed prior to 2006 when over half of it was deleted, while others believe that the pre-2006 platform was better than what we have now. Which of the following more closely represents your opinion about how to better improve our platform?
a) Make modifications based on the platform as it exists now, after the 2006 deletions
b) First return to the pre-2006 platform, then make modifications using that as our starting point
7
Which of the following more closely represents your opinion about how we should address controversial
issues where there is not the bylaws-required 2/3 support among our delegates to state one position or
another in our platform?
a) The platform should be silent on such issues, only emphasizing areas of internal party agreement.
37
51
b) To generate 2/3 support and avoid being silent on such issues, compromise language for the
63
49
platform should be crafted that acknowledges there is more than one acceptable position.
This question strikes me as generally fair, but rather than referring to there being "more than one acceptable position", it would be better to refer to there being "disagreement among Libertarians on how to best apply libertarian principles", so that we don't imply any position can be "acceptable" no matter how divorced from libertarian principles it might be, if it has enough support.
8
Which of the following more closely represents your opinion about how much implementation detail should be
included in our platform planks?
a) We should include very little to no implementation detail. State only the general principles and
leave it to our candidates to address how to implement them.
68
77
b) We should provide comprehensive details on how to implement each plank.
32
23
Bias: The question suggests that if we are to offer ideas on how to implement platform planks, those details would have to be "comprehensive", and our candidates would have to follow those particular prescriptions (in practice we don't require our candidates to adhere to even the broad outline of our platform, although whether we should do so could be a worthwhile survey question.)
Suggested replacement question:
Some people feel our platform should present only our goals, while others feel we should also offer details on how to get from here to there. Which of the following more closely represents your opinion?
a) We should include only general libertarian principles with very little to no implementation detail
b) We should include not only general libertarian principles, but also our best ideas on how to implement them
9
Some topics are included in a platform because they satisfy an internal party constituency. Some topics
are included in a platform because they will appeal to voters. Which of the following more closely represents
your opinion about the types of topics that should be emphasized in the platform?
a) We should emphasize topics that are appealing to voters.
87
83
b) We should emphasize topics that appeal to internal party constituencies.
13
17
Bias: Like questions 1 and 2, this question falsely posits the debate as a question of external appeal vs. internal appeal.
Suggested replacement question:
There is a debate over how our platform should present libertarian ideas. Which of the following more closely represents your opinion about how the Libertarian Party platform should present those ideas?
a) Our platform should discuss libertarian ideas forthrightly and not be afraid to say things we think might be unpopular
b) Our platform should discuss only the elements of libertarianism that we think will appeal to current voters
10
Which of the following more closely represents your opinion as to how far-reaching plank language should be?
a) We should be destination oriented, describing how we want society to ultimately appear.
34
38
b) We should be directionally oriented, emphasizing what Libertarian officeholders can reasonably
66
62
achieve over the next few years.
Bias: Again there is a false duality, suggesting that if we describe our goals, we cannot emphasize the steps that can be taken in the direction of achieving those goals over the next few years.
Suggested replacement question:
In 1974, Libertarian delegates at the party's national convention in Dallas informally adopted the so-called Dallas Accord, affirming that the party would specify neither minarchism (limited government) nor anarchism (no external government) as our ultimate goal. But some say our platform does contain language that presumes we ultimately seek a world of minarchy, while others say it contains language that presumes we ultimately seek a world of anarchy.
a) We should bury the Dallas Accord and explicitly acknowledge anarchy in our platform as the system that best reflects the Non-Aggression Principle
b) We should bury the Dallas Accord and explicitly acknowledge in our platform that limited government is part of the ideal libertarian society
c) We should reaffirm our commitment to the Dallas Accord and explicitly embrace neither anarchy nor minarchy as our ultimate goal
11
Which of the following more closely represents your opinion as to how we should handle subjects for which
mainstream Libertarian thought is at odds with what most voters want?
a) We should be silent on those issues.
18
24
b) We should state our positions on those issues.
82
76
This may be the least problematic question in the survey in terms of fairness. However I would rephrase it more optimistically by referring to subjects "on which most voters are still at odds with mainstream Libertarian thought", so that we frame them as being at odds with freedom rather than us being at odds with statism.
The above questionnaire was mailed to the 982 individuals who attended the LP national conventions in Atlanta (2004) or Portland (2006) as
delegates. It was also emailed out to approximately 80,000 individuals on the national party's e-mail list. The 5047 responses to the
questionnaire are summarized in two ways above: % of all respondents, and % of respondents who indicated they are likely to be delegates
to the 2008 convention in Denver.