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Anarcho-capitalism is a hyper-idealist ideology that seeks the total abolition of the state and the return of a fantasized version of capitalism. Being an extremist form of right-wing libertarianism, anarcho-capitalists fundimentally reject any sort of class or historical analysis, instead viewing the only conflict in society as that between the government and the "free market". Anarcho-capitalists wish to privatize practically everything in society, from legal courts, to roads, in order to liberate the people from what they view as "government coercion", and create a "voluntary society".[1]
Anarcho-capitalism differs from minarchism and mainstream libertarianism in its desire to totally remove any sort of governmental authority, replacing it with absolutely unregulated market forces, such as corporations. Furthermore, in spite of ancaps having "anarcho" in their name, ancapism's place in anarchism is highly contested by real anarchists, largely because of ancaps' fetishization of the "free market", private ownership of the means of production, and economic stratification, all of which is extremely heterodoxical from the normally socialistic and anti-hierarchical views of anarchists.[2] In addition, the leading theoretician and founder of anarcho-capitalism, Murray Rothbard, also denied any identification with anarchism.[3]
History
Origins
Anarcho-capitalism is largely based upon the same ideas of right-libertarianism, as such, they largely share the same history.
Early individualist anarchists
Anarcho-capitalism was somewhat augmented by the ideas of early Statesian individualist anarchists, namely, in their ideas about both statelessness as well as less regulated economics, which differed from the much more collectivist anarchists of the time.[1]
Right-libertarian economists
Anarcho-capitalism, being merely a radical form of mainstream libertarianism, was largely created as a result of right-libertarian ideas and adherents, such as Murray Rothbard.
Applied Theory
The society and economy ancaps dream about is, ironically, much closer to a sort of feudalism than capitalism. Ancaps view nearly all bad aspects of capitalism as, not capitalism, but rather, “corporatism” or “cronyism”. As such, ancaps largely wish to have the economy be based on small-producers of primitive goods, where people “hire” “private security contractors” to protect themselves, likely in exchange for raw goods, such as food, a very similar arrangement to feudalism. Furthermore, it must be said again that anarcho-capitalists only wish the removal of an organization which calls itself a “government”, private organizations, such as corporations, while likely remaining small in the beginning of an anarcho-capitalist society, would likely grow (as is expected with capitalism) to such a point where the owner of said corporations could begin to monopolize these “private security contractors”, and have these “private security contractors” work out agreements where they protect small farms, further making ancapism similar to feudalism.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Peter Marshall (1991). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism: '36'. PM Press. ISBN 9781604860641
- ↑ Richard J. White, Colin C. Williams. "Anarchist economic practices in a ‘capitalist’ society: Some implications for organisation and the future of work" Ephemera.
- ↑ “We must therefore turn to history for enlightenment; here we find that none of the proclaimed anarchist groups correspond to the libertarian position, that even the best of them have unrealistic and socialistic elements in their doctrines. Furthermore, we find that all of the current anarchists are irrational collectivists, and therefore at opposite poles from our position. We must therefore conclude that we are not anarchists, and that those who call us anarchists are not on firm etymological ground, and are being completely unhistorical.”
Murray N. Rothbard (July 4th, 2022). "Are Libertarians "Anarchists"?" Mises Institute. Archived from the original.