By Insula Qui
Author’s note: The main themes of this series will be further expounded upon in my upcoming book Anarcho-Monarchism, which will be available in April.
Introduction
If there is to be a government in a libertarian society, there will eventually be a problem of state formation. Libertarians wish to avoid having a state over them, but here I advocate for giving a degree of sovereignty to a governing entity. The main problem lies within the potential capacity of the managerial government to usurp the property of its constituents and leave that property liable for expropriation and resale. This is an issue no matter whether we default to monarchs, insurance agencies, private defense organizations, or heavily armed individuals.
Markets in Everything
When governance is integrated into the market as all other industries are, there is necessarily a formation of a market for governance. Government is no longer a coercive agency that imposes itself onto a society, but rather is subject to the same economic laws that all other agencies are. The government then must conform to the wishes of those who pay for the government, and is no longer subsidized by a monopoly on violence. If a market government were to not conform to the wishes of those who pay for its governance services, it would find itself out-competed by other governments.
When a government is subject to market forces, it will be affected by those market forces just as every other agency. This will cause the services offered by a government to be less costly and of better quality. By placing the government within the confines of consumer sovereignty, we have fundamentally erased the problem of inefficiency and oppression. By removing the state that subsidizes a government and thus the capacity to aggressively exercise government force, we have removed the negatives of government. The reason why libertarians should be opposed to the state is that it has legitimized aggressive force, not that it provides valuable services.
Within a libertarian society where property rights are absolute, there is no way that a government can even theoretically become tyrannical. The only way in which tyranny can be exercised without the state is through overt warfare, at which point the government, as such, would be dissolved. This perfect confederacy wherein each person is the absolute ruler of their own property can restrain and hold the mandate of the government in check. The management of property can continue on efficient terms without leading to perverse incentives. This is unlike the statist government, which retains its privileged position while being aggressive.
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