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Minarchism (sometimes called minimal statism,1 small government, or limited-government libertarianism2) is a libertarian political ideology which maintains that the state's only legitimate function is the protection of individuals from aggression, theft, breach of contract, and fraud.23 (Such states are sometimes called night watchman states.) Minarchists defend the existence of the state as a necessary evil.14 Minarchism is closely associated with libertarianism, propertarianism, and classical liberalism. Samuel Edward Konkin III, an agorist, coined the term in 1971 to describe libertarians who defend some form of compulsory government. Konkin invented the term minarchism because he initially felt dismayed of using the cumbersome phrase limited-government libertarianism.25 Contents 1 Ideology 2 Criticism 3 See also 4 References 5 External links Ideology Important ethical aspects of libertarianism include the non-aggression principle, self-ownership, and property rights.4 Minarchists oppose all compulsory spending, intervention, and regulation, except those whose only function is to protect individuals from aggression.1 Such minimal functions include courts, military, and police. However, most minarchists support some level of government funding, including perhaps taxation in some limited cases, as long as the state does not compromise all other areas of individual liberty.2

Robert Nozick, a libertarian philosopher who has gained popularity for his work Anarchy, State and Utopia, rejected libertarian anarchist theories, writing that under anarchy a dominant private defense agency (PDA) will eventually out compete all other agencies. It will turn into an ultra-minimal state, which will only protect those who pay for its services and finally into a minimal state which will protect all, regardless of whether they pay for its services or not. Nozick, therefore, supports the minimal state and advocates the right for the minimal state to violently prohibit the formation of competing jurisdictions.6 Minarchists are more likely in favoring reforms such as voting instead of the counter-economic strategies advocated by anarcho-capitalists.7 Some limited government advocates use the term "libertarianism" almost interchangeably with the term classical liberalism.89 However, Walter Block, a market anarchist, writes that some of the key thinkers of classical liberalism were far from minarchist.10 Criticism Murray Rothbard, an anarcho-capitalist, argued that all government services, including defense, are inefficient because they lack a market-based pricing mechanism regulated by the voluntary decisions of consumers purchasing services that fulfill their highest-priority needs and by investors seeking the most profitable enterprises to invest in. He wrote, "The defense function is the one reserved most jealously by the State. It is vital to the State's existence, for on its monopoly of force depends its ability to exact taxes from the citizens. If citizens were permitted privately owned courts and armies, then they would possess the means to defend themselves against invasive acts by the government as well as by private individuals."11 In his book Power and Market, he argued that geographically large minarchist states are indifferent from a unified minarchist world monopoly government.12 Rothbard wrote governments were not inevitable, noting that it often took hundreds of years for aristocrats to set up a state out of anarchy.13 He also argued that if a minimal state allows individuals to freely secede from the current jurisdiction to join a competing jurisdiction, then it does not by definition constitute a state.14

In response to the minarchist argument that competing law systems would inevitably lead to chaos, market anarchists had argued that the sole arbitrator can just be the society itself, instead of a government that is separate from the society.1516 Also, some libertarians believe that the experiment of "constitutionally limited government" of the United States Constitution has failed. This is due to a combination of congressional and presidential activism and Supreme Court passivity in the face of ever expanding powers of the federal government.17 Hans Hermann Hoppe has argued that the only form of state that can pragmatically be restrained from expanding is a monarchical (privately owned) state.18 See also Anarcho-capitalism and minarchism Anti-federalism Constitutional republic Jeffersonian political philosophy Libertarian conservatism Market liberalism Old Right Paleoconservatism Paleolibertarianism Traditionalist conservatism References ^ a b c Rob Miller. An introduction to minarchism. Homeland Stupidity. ^ a b c d Marcus, B.K. BlackCrayon.com: Dictionary: Definition of "minarchism" ^ Gregory, Anthory.The Minarchist's Dilemma. Strike The Root. 10 May 2004. ^ a b weebies. An Anarchist's Proposal for Limited Constitutional Government -- Minarchy vs. Anarchy. Strike The Root. 3 March 2005 ^ Konkin’s History of the Libertarian Movement bradspangler.com. ^ Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) ^ Davis, Mark. The Anarchist Vote. Strike The Root. 14 January 2008. ^ Cubeddu, Raimondo, preface to "Perspectives of Libertarianism", Etica e Politica (Università di Trieste) V, no. 2 (2003). "It is often difficult to distinguish between 'Libertarianism' and 'Classical Liberalism.' Those two labels are used almost interchangeably by those whom we may call libertarians of a minarchist persuasion: scholars who, following Locke and Nozick, believe a state is needed in order to achieve effective protection of property rights." ^ Schmidt, Steffen W., American Government and Politics Today (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004), 17. ^ Jeet Heer, "Adam Smith and the Left", National Post, December 3, 2001. ^ y (March 18, 2004). "The Myth of Efficient Government Service". http://mises.org/story/1471  ^ Murray Rothbard. Power and Market: Defense services on the Free Market. p. 1051. http://mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp. "It is all the more curious, incidentally, that while laissez-faireists should by the logic of their position, be ardent believers in a single, unified world government, so that no one will live in a state of “anarchy” in relation to anyone else, they almost never are."  ^ Murray Rothbard. Power and Market: Defense services on the Free Market. p. 1054. http://mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp. "In the purely free-market society, a would-be criminal police or judiciary would find it very difficult to take power, since there would be no organized State apparatus to seize and use as the instrumentality of command. To create such an instrumentality de novo is very difficult, and, indeed, almost impossible; historically, it took State rulers centuries to establish a functioning State apparatus. Furthermore, the purely free-market, stateless society would contain within itself a system of built-in “checks and balances” that would make it almost impossible for such organized crime to succeed."  ^ Murray Rothbard. Power and Market: Defense services on the Free Market. p. 1051. http://mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp. "But, of course, if each person may secede from government, we have virtually arrived at the purely free society, where defense is supplied along with all other services by the free market and where the invasive State has ceased to exist."  ^ Long, Roderick, Market Anarchism as Constitutionalism, Molinari Institute. ^ Plauché, Geoffrey Allan (2006). On the Social Contract and the Persistence of Anarchy, American Political Science Association, (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University). ^ Randy E. Barnett, Is the Constitution Libertarian?, Cato Institute, lecture delivered from article, September 17, 2008, p. 10. ^ Hoppe, Hans-Hermann. Democracy: The God that Failed: Studies in the Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy, and Natural Order New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2001 External links Chaos Theory: Two Essays On Market Anarchy - Robert P. Murphy presents a critique to minarchism. Market Anarchism as Constitutionalism - Roderick T. Long argues against the constitutional minarchist and constitutional anarchist distinction, by revealing anarchism as a "diffusion of government onto society." Robert Nozick and the Immaculate Conception of the State - An critique to Robert Nozick of his minarchism, by Murray Rothbard. Roderick T. Long, Tibor R. Machan, Anarchism/minarchism: is a government part of a free country?, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008