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Anarcho-capitalism (colloquially: ancap or an-cap) is an anti-statist,[2] libertarian[3] political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforced by private agencies, based on concepts such as the non-aggression principle, free markets and self-ownership. An anarcho-capitalist philosophy extends the concept of ownership to include control of private property as part of the self, and, in some interpretations, control of other people as private property only if they voluntarily granted such control.[4][5] 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 involving the voluntary exchange of goods and services.[6][7][8][9] In a theoretical anarcho-capitalist society a system of private property would still exist, and would be enforced by private defense agencies and/or insurance companies that were selected by property owners, whose ownership rights or claims would be enforced by private defence agencies and/or insurance companies. These agencies or companies would operate competitively in a market and fulfill the roles of courts and the police, similar to a state apparatus. Some anarcho-capitalist authors have argued that slavery is compatible with anarcho-capitalist ideals.[4][5]
According to its proponents, various historical theorists have espoused philosophies similar to anarcho-capitalism.[10] While the earliest extant attestation of "anarchocapitalism" [sic] is in Karl Hess's essay "The Death of Politics" published by Playboy in March 1969,[11][12] American economist Murray Rothbard was credited with coining the terms anarcho-capitalist[13][14] and anarcho-capitalism in 1971.[15] A leading figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement,[9] Rothbard synthesized elements from the Austrian School, classical liberalism and 19th-century American individualist anarchists and mutualists Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker, while rejecting the labor theory of value.[16][17][18] Rothbard's anarcho-capitalist society would operate under a mutually agreed-upon "legal code which would be generally accepted, and which the courts would pledge themselves to follow".[19] This legal code would recognize contracts between individuals, private property, self-ownership and tort law in keeping with the non-aggression principle.[9][19][20] Anyone who disagreed with the legal code would ultimately be subject to enforcement measures such as those utilised by a state.[21] Rothbard views the power of the state as unjustified, arguing that it restricts individual rights and prosperity, and creates social and economic problems.[9]
Anarcho-capitalists and right-libertarians cite several historical precedents of what they believe to be examples of quasi-anarcho-capitalism,[26] including the Republic of Cospaia,[27] Acadia,[28] Anglo-Saxon England,[2][6] Medieval Iceland,[28] the American Old West,[28] Gaelic Ireland,[9] and merchant law, admiralty law, and early common law.
Anarcho-capitalism is distinguished from minarchism, which advocates a minimal governing body (typically a night-watchman state limited to protecting individuals from aggression and enforcing private property) and from Objectivism (which is a broader philosophy advocating a limited role, yet unlimited size, of said government).[29] Unlike most anarchists[citation needed], anarcho-capitalists support private property and private institutions.[2]
Although most anarchists oppose all large institutions, public or private, anarcho-capitalists oppose the state, but not private actors with significant market power.
Anarcho-capitalism is a variety of libertarianism according to which all government institutions can and should be replaced by private ones.
Laissez-faire capitalism, or anarchocapitalism [sic], is simply the economic form of the libertarian ethic. Laissez-faire capitalism encompasses the notion that men should exchange goods and services, without regulation, solely on the basis of value for value. It recognizes charity and communal enterprises as voluntary versions of this same ethic. Such a system would be straight barter, except for the widely felt need for a division of labor in which men, voluntarily, accept value tokens such as cash and credit. Economically, this system is anarchy, and proudly so.
In fact, the earliest documented, printed use of the word "anarcho-capitalism" that I can find [6] actually comes neither from Wollstein nor from Rothbard, but from Karl Hess's manifesto "The Death of Politics," which was published in Playboy in March, 1969. [boldface in original]
To the original 'anarchocapitalist' (Rothbard coined the term) [...].
A student and disciple of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, Rothbard combined the laissez-faire economics of his teacher with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the 19th century such as Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker.
Their successors today, such as Murray Rothbard, having abandoned the labor theory of value, describe themselves as anarcho-capitalists.
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