Minarchism

In civics, minarchism, sometimes called minimal statism, or small government, is the view that the size, role and influence of government in a free society should be minimal — only large enough to protect the liberty and property of each individual. Many minarchists consider themselves part of the libertarian tradition, and claim that what they call minarchy continues the traditions of classical liberal philosophy. The term is perhaps most often used to differentiate libertarians who believe it is possible to have a state that protects individual liberty without violating it itself, from the anarcho-capitalists who believe that any state is inherently a violation of individual liberty. Minarchists believe some minimal government is necessary to preserve liberty (from invading non-minarchy based armies, if nothing else).

The term was coined in 1970 or 1971 by Samuel Edward Konkin III, an agorist.

Overview

Minarchists agree that the guiding principle in determining what should or should not fall into the domain of the government is the maximization of individual liberty. Minarchists often disagree on exactly how to accomplish this.

Many minarchists usually agree that government should be restricted to its "minimal" or "night watchman" state functions of government such as courts, police, prisons and defense forces. Objectivists are minarchists, who support a night watchman state for the enforcement of contracts.

Some minarchists, such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Independent Institute, view that the government should be limited to the management of roads, education vouchers, intellectual property and money.

Even more moderate minarchists such as the Cato Institute, The Prometheus Institute, and the Chicago School view that government should also intervene in a negative income tax, carbon tax and the Iraq War.

In general, minarchists favor the administration and funding of government services in a small jurisdiction (like a city or county) over a larger jurisdiction (like a state or nation). This is favored because decisions are presumed to be more efficient when the decision-makers are closer to the subjects of the decisions (the citizens), and this leaves individuals who wish to avoid living or working under an expansion of government more options (it's easier to move to another city or county than to move to another state or country) - thus inducing more downsizing political pressure on the government. Minarchists are generally opposed to government programs that either transfer wealth or subsidize certain sectors of the economy. However, most minarchists support some level of government funding, including perhaps taxation in some limited cases, as long as individual liberty and the non-aggression principle are not compromised.

Some minarchists use utilitarian arguments. They might use theoretical economic arguments, like Ludwig von Mises's contribution to Austrian economics, or statistical economic research, like the Indices of Economic Freedom.

Other arguments for minarchism are natural rights, contractarianism and egalitarianism.

Prominent minarchists include Benjamin Constant, Herbert Spencer, Leonard Read, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, James M. Buchanan, Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, John Hospers, Robert Nozick and George Reisman.

Organizations with minarchist members and supporters include the Reason Foundation, International Society for Individual Liberty and Bureaucrash.

Criticism

Some libertarians argue that anarcho-capitalism is the only logically consistent form of libertarian belief. It is also contradictory to state that violence is immoral, yet still maintain violence in the form of a government. Such views are often voiced by "rights libertarians", though consequentialist libertarians may argue that minarchism is more compatible with utilitarian values (in the manner of von Mises or Milton Friedman)

But supporters of minarchism counter that a government could survive on private donations and the creation of trust funds without any form of taxation whatsoever. Even if a government could be voluntarily funded, then it still amounts to an authority with a monopoly of force over a given area, and as such would dictate and control. The mere existence of government, irrespective of how it is funded, undermines one's self-ownership, since to govern is to control. Minarchists, however, depart here from anarcho-capitalists in philosophical beliefs, believing that the government should indeed be the sole arbiter of force in law and military matters, on the premise that competing law systems would inevitably lead to chaos, where no libertarian principles could possibly reign.

Also, some libertarians believe that the concept of "constitutionally limited government" is a fallacy. They argue that the American Founding Fathers' approach of limiting the inherent force linked with government (in respect to the United States Constitution) has not worked.

A number of minarchists state that human beings naturally gravitate towards leaders, hence making anarchism untenable and not viable. As such, they believe that the existence of government is inevitable, and people should only be concerned with limiting the size and scope of the state, rather than opposing its existence.

More to the point, even if anarchy were in some way commensurate with individual liberties, minarchists often argue that anarchy would be highly inefficient at providing for a stable means of repelling organized aggression from foreign armies. As such anarchies would quickly be replaced by whatever government happened to assert its will via military means.

Some minarchists believe their approach to be more pragmatic. However, Hans Hermann Hoppe has argued that the only form of state that can pragmatically be restrained from expanding is a monarchical (privately owned) state.

Murray Rothbard was a prominent critic of minarchism. As an anarcho-capitalist, he argued that government defence is inefficient. He criticized libertarian centralists, who are laissez-faire activists for supporting geographically large, minarchist states. In his book Power and Market, he argued that libertarian centralists support a unified minarchist world monopoly government.

See also

• Anarchism
• Anarcho-individualism
• Capitalism
• Classical liberalism
• Objectivist philosophy
• Starve the beast

External links

• International Society for Individual Liberty
• The Prometheus Institute
• Bureaucrash (a project of the Competitive Enterprise Institute)
• Cato Institute
• The ORION Initiative (high IQ minarchists)