Liberalism (in the classical, JS Mill way) can be defined as a political movement that advocates for the limitation of what the power the State can have over our lives, that's why all modern democracies are called "liberal democracies", because not everything is allowed even if people vote for it. Libertarianism takes this further, it negates all (or most) legitimacy in the action of a State. This means that libertarians advocate for no (or very limited) democracy, because NO action of the state is legitimate, and must therefore not exist, no matter how many people want it.
Each libertarian is different, but they all agree that the power of the State is not legitimate (up to a certain point, and even then they don't usually believe in social contracts, blind choice analogy, etc. and other "bullshit", and it is out of pure pragmatism), and that includes not legitimating democracy.
Thanks for the explanation, it's not a concept I'm too familiar with otherwise. I'm from Europe and the impression I get is Libertarian (where people would label themselves) politics tends to be bundled more with social conservatism.
I'm from Europe too, and yeah it is very common to see conservative people calling themselves libertarians just because they want lower taxes, but are actually conservative socio democrats. If you are interested in libertarianism, I think On Liberty by JS Mill is a short (although a bit repetitive) read that can introduce you to classical liberalism, a must to understand if you want to learn about libertarianism.
Then, I can't tell you any good libertarian reads because there are just so many guys and the books they write are so thick, but so far what I have read about Huemer's "the problem with political authority" is pretty good, although heavy.
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u/Upbeat-Storage9349 8d ago
Explain the democracy bit, I don't know much about Libertarianism so don't know how it would actually work in a functioning society.