Anarcho-capitalism Anarcho-capitalism advocates the elimination of
centralized states in favor of
capitalism, contracts,
free markets,
individual sovereignty,
private property, the right-libertarian interpretation of
self-ownership and
voluntaryism. In the absence of
statute, anarcho-capitalists hold that society tends to contractually self-regulate and civilize through participation in the free market which they describe as a
voluntary society. In an anarcho-capitalist society, courts,
law enforcement and all other security services would be provided by privately funded competitors rather than through taxation and money would be privately and competitively provided in an
open market. Under anarcho-capitalism, personal and economic activities would be regulated by
private law rather than through politics. Anarcho-capitalists support
wage labour and believe that neither protection of person and property nor victim compensation requires a state.
Autarchism promotes the principles of
individualism, the moral ideology of individual liberty and self-reliance whilst rejecting compulsory government and supporting the elimination of government in favor of ruling oneself to the exclusion of rule by others. The most well-known version of anarcho-capitalism was formulated in the mid-20th century by Austrian School economist and
paleolibertarian Murray Rothbard. Widely regarded as its founder, Rothbard combined the free-market approach from the Austrian School with the human rights views and a rejection of the state from 19th-century
American individualist anarchists and
mutualists such as
Lysander Spooner and
Benjamin Tucker, although rejecting their
anti-capitalism and
socialist economics, along with the
labor theory of value and the normative implications they derived from it. In Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism, exemplified in
For a New Liberty, there would first be the implementation of a mutually agreed-upon libertarian "legal code which would be generally accepted and which the courts would pledge themselves to follow". This legal code would recognize contracts, individual sovereignty, private property, self-ownership, and tort law as part of the
principle of non-aggression In the tradition following
David D. Friedman, exemplified in
The Machinery of Freedom, anarcho-capitalists do not rely upon the idea of
natural law or
natural rights (
deontological libertarianism) and follow
consequentialist libertarianism, presenting economic justifications for a
free-market capitalist society. While some authors consider anarcho-capitalism a form of
individualist anarchism, many others disagree with this as individualist anarchism is largely socialistic. Many anarchist activists and scholars deny that anarcho-capitalism is a form of anarchism, or that capitalism is compatible with anarchism, regarding it instead as right-libertarian. and oppose
capital concentration, interest, monopoly, private ownership of productive property such as the
means of production (
capital,
land and the
means of labor),
profit,
rent,
usury and
wage slavery which are viewed as inherent to capitalism. Anarchism's emphasis on anti-capitalism,
egalitarianism and for the extension of community and individuality sets it apart from anarcho-capitalism and other types of right-libertarianism.
Ruth Kinna writes that
anarcho-capitalism is a term coined by Rothbard to describe "a commitment to unregulated private property and laissez-faire economics, prioritizing the liberty-rights of individuals, unfettered by government regulation, to accumulate, consume and determine the patterns of their lives as they see fit". According to Kinna, anarcho-capitalists "will sometimes label themselves market anarchists because they recognize the negative connotations of 'capitalism'. But the literatures of anarcho-capitalism draw on classical liberal theory, particularly the Austrian School—
Friedrich von Hayek and
Ludwig von Mises—rather than recognizable
anarchist traditions.
Ayn Rand's laissez-faire, anti-government, corporate philosophy—
Objectivism—is sometimes associated with anarcho-capitalism". Other scholars similarly associate anarcho-capitalism with anti-state liberal schools such as
neo-classical liberalism, radical
neoliberalism and right-libertarianism. Anarcho-capitalism is usually seen as part of the
New Right.
Conservative libertarianism Conservative libertarianism combines
laissez-faire economics and conservative values. It advocates the greatest possible
economic liberty and the least possible
government regulation of social life whilst harnessing this to
traditionalist conservatism, emphasizing authority and duty. Conservative libertarianism prioritizes liberty as its main emphasis, promoting
free expression,
freedom of choice and
laissez-faire capitalism to achieve
cultural and
social conservative ends whilst rejecting
liberal social engineering. This can also be understood as promoting
civil society through conservative institutions and authority such as education, family, fatherland and religion in the quest of libertarian ends for less state power. In the United States, conservative libertarianism combines
conservatism and
libertarianism, representing the conservative wing of libertarianism and vice versa. Fusionism combines
traditionalist and
social conservatism with
laissez-faire economics. This is most closely associated with
Frank Meyer.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe is a cultural conservative right-libertarian, whose belief in the rights of property owners to establish private covenant communities, from which homosexuals and political dissidents may be "physically removed", has proven particularly divisive.
Minarchism Within right-libertarian philosophy, minarchism is supportive of a
night-watchman state, a model of a state whose only functions are to provide its citizens with courts, military and police, protecting them from aggression, breach of contract, fraud and theft whilst enforcing
property laws. As a term,
night-watchman state () was coined by German
socialist Ferdinand Lassalle, an advocate of
social-democratic state socialism, to criticize the
bourgeois state. Austrian School economist
Ludwig von Mises, a classical liberal who greatly influenced right-libertarianism, later opined that Lassalle tried to make limited government look ridiculous, but that it was no more ridiculous than governments that concerned themselves with "the preparation of sauerkraut, with the manufacture of trouser buttons, or with the publication of newspapers".
Robert Nozick, a right-libertarian advocate of minarchism, received a
National Book Award in
category Philosophy and Religion for his book
Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), where he argued that only a minimal state limited to the narrow functions of protection against "force, fraud, theft, and administering courts of law" could be justified without violating people's rights.
Neo-classical liberalism Traditionally, liberalism's primary emphasis was placed on securing the freedom of the individual by limiting the power of the government and maximizing the power of free market forces. As a political philosophy, it advocated
civil liberties under the
rule of law, with an emphasis on
economic freedom. Closely related to
economic liberalism, it developed in the early 19th century, emerging as a response to urbanization and to the
Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States. It advocated a
limited government and held a belief in
laissez-faire economic policy. Built on ideas that had already arisen by the end of the 18th century such as selected ideas of
John Locke,
Adam Smith,
Thomas Robert Malthus,
Jean-Baptiste Say and
David Ricardo, it drew on
classical economics and economic ideas as espoused by Smith in
The Wealth of Nations and stressed the belief in
progress,
natural law and
utilitarianism. These liberals were more suspicious than conservatives of all but the most minimal government and adopted
Thomas Hobbes's theory of government, believing government had been created by individuals to protect themselves from one another. The term
classical liberalism was applied in retrospect to distinguish earlier 19th-century liberalism from the newer
social liberalism. Neoliberalism emerged in the era following
World War II during which social liberalism was the mainstream form of liberalism while
Keynesianism and
social democracy were the dominant ideologies in the Western world. It was led by
neoclassical economists such as
Friedrich Hayek and
Milton Friedman, who advocated the reduction of the state and a return to classical liberalism, hence the term
neo-classical liberalism, not to be confused with the more left-leaning
neoclassical liberalism, an American
bleeding-heart libertarian school originating in Arizona. Right-libertarianism has been influenced by these schools of liberalism. It has been commonly referred to as a continuation or radicalization of classical liberalism among right-leaning commentators who distinguished themselves from
neoconservatives by their support for
individual liberties and from libertarians by their support for
foreign interventionism. it overlaps with
paleoconservatism. In the United States, paleolibertarianism is a controversial current due its connections to the
alt-right and the
Tea Party movement. Besides their anti-
gun control stance in regard to
gun laws and
politics in support of the
right to keep and bear arms, these movements, especially the
Old Right and paleoconservatism, are united by an anti-leftist stance. In the essay "Right-Wing Populism: A Strategy for the Paleo Movement", Rothbard reflected on the ability of paleolibertarians to engage in an "outreach to
rednecks" founded on libertarianism and social conservatism. He cited former
Louisiana State Representative David Duke and former United States Senator
Joseph McCarthy as models for the new movement.
Propertarianism Propertarianism advocates the replacement of states with contractual relationships. Propertarian ideals are most commonly cited to advocate for a state or other governance body whose main or only job is to enforce contracts and
private property. Propertarianism is generally considered right-libertarian As a term,
propertarian appears to have been coined in 1963 by Edward Cain, who wrote: Since their use of the word "liberty" refers almost exclusively to property, it would be helpful if we had some other word, such as "propertarian", to describe them. [...] Novelist Ayn Rand is not a conservative at all but claims to be very relevant. She is a radical capitalist, and is the closest to what I mean by a propertarian. ==Comparison to classical liberalism ==