Portal:Libertarianism/AC

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Anarcho-capitalism (also known as free-market anarchism)[1] is an individualist anarchist[2] political philosophy that advocates the elimination of the state and the provision of security from aggression against person and property by the private sector in a free market. In an anarcho-capitalist society, law enforcement, courts, and all other security services would be provided by voluntarily-funded competitors rather than through compulsory taxation. Personal and economic activities would not be politically regulated, because the natural laws of the market – rather than politics – would order society.

Anarcho-capitalists argue for a society based in voluntary trade of private property (including money, consumer goods, land, and capital goods) and services in order to maximize individual liberty and prosperity, but also recognize charity and communal arrangements as part of the same voluntary ethic.[3] Though anarcho-capitalists are known for asserting a right to private (individualized or joint non-public) property, non-state community property can also exist in an anarcho-capitalist society.[4] For them, what is important is that it is acquired and transferred without help or hindrance from the compulsory state. Anarcho-capitalist libertarians believe that the only just, and/or most economically-beneficial, way to acquire property is through voluntary trade, gift, or labor-based original appropriation, rather than through aggression or fraud. Individualist anarchist[5] Murray Rothbard used the term anarcho-capitalism to distinguish his philosophy from anarchism that opposes private property,[6] as well as to distinguish it from other forms of individualist anarchism.[7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Robert P. Murphy. "What Are You Calling 'Anarchy'?".
  2. ^ Adams, Ian. 2002. Political Ideology Today. p. 135. Manchester University Press; Ostergaard, Geoffrey. 2003. Anarchism. In W. Outwaite (Ed.), The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought. p. 14. Blackwell Publishing
  3. ^ Hess, Karl. The Death of Politics. Interview in Playboy Magazine, March 1969
  4. ^ Holcombe, Randall G., Common Property in Anarcho-Capitalism, Journal of Libertarian Studies, Volume 19, No. 2 (Spring 2005):3–29.
  5. ^ Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282
  6. ^ libertarianism. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 30 July 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-234237
  7. ^ Murray Newton Rothbard Egalitarianism As A Revolt Against Nature And Other Essays: and other essays. Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2000. p.207