`LEFT,' `RIGHT' LABELS DON'T APPLY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 5, 1993                   TAG: 9304050221
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
`LEFT,' `RIGHT' LABELS DON'T APPLY
DESCRIBING the Cato Institute as "far right," as one of your readers did (March 23 letter to the editor, "Cato Institute's motives are suspect"), is inaccurate. Cato is neither right nor left. On the contrary, it opposes the "command-and-control" solutions propounded by both right and left.
The institute looks instead for market-based solutions to problems. Some terms that more accurately describe the viewpoint from which Cato searches for solutions are "classical liberal," "market liberal" or "libertarian."
"Classical liberal" refers to the tradition liberalism of 18th and 19th centuries that had the defense of individual freedom as a core tenet. "Libertarian" is used because it emphasizes the anti-authoritarian nature of this political tradition. "Market liberal" notes the classical liberal tradition, but emphasizes the market-based solutions examined by Cato, because "liberal," in the American sense of the word, is so often associated with command-and-control, redistributionist policies.
It is unfortunate that the discussion of public policy takes place only along a left-right spectrum. On a one-dimensional spectrum, there's no place for an ideology opposed to the authoritarian tendencies seen too often on both left and right. More unfortunate is the tendency to classify an idea as "left" or "right" so it can then be discarded with a sneer, rather than with a well-reasoned argument.
JOHN KELL\ BLACKSBURG

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB