Market Anarchism

According to the About Market Anarchism page of the web site of the Molinari Institute, a market anarchist or free-market anarchist ¹⁾ think tank:

“Market Anarchism is the doctrine that the legislative, adjudicative, and protective functions unjustly and inefficiently monopolised by the coercive State should be entirely turned over to the voluntary, consensual forces of market society… The terms 'anarcho-capitalism' and 'voluntary socialism' have both been associated with the Market Anarchist tradition.”

Variations of market anarchism include agorism, so called ”anarcho-capitalism”, mutualism, geoism, voluntaryism and others.

Market anarchism overlaps with the term ”left libertarian” with three notable exceptions:

1. Those who prefer the term “anarcho-capitalism” often exhibit a tendency to downplay or deny their ideological common ground with advocates of anti-state socialism, often to the point of conceiving of themselves as “right wing” or “right anarchists” and exhibiting what are generally regarded as right-wing cultural attitudes. It should be noted that this is at odds with Rothbard's placing of libertarianism on the far left of the political spectrum opposite statist conservatism, with state socialism as a confused centrism (the pursuit of liberal ends through statist conservative means).

2. Some self-described left libertarians are not anarchists and instead advocate a mix of minarchist and social democratic (“liberal”) views.

3. Some avowed anarchists also describe themselves as “left libertarians” (as opposed to market oriented “right libertarians” in their view) but are hostile to the insights provided by the market anarchist tradition because they equate a market economy with capitalism or corporatism.

The genre market anarchism has two distinct branches.²⁾ One branch, called propertarian market anarchism, recognizes all economically scarce goods as legitimate property.³⁾ This includes “natural capital” such as land, but does not necessarily include non-scarce goods such as intellectual property (patents, copyrights, and trademarks). Propertarian forms of market anarchism include agorism, anarcho-capitalism and voluntaryism.

The other branch of market anarchism, called non-propertarian market anarchism, treats property titles on land as illegitimate, not exchangeable within the free market.⁴⁾ Non-propertarian forms of market anarchism include geolibertarianism and mutualism.⁵⁾ Unlike the propertarian forms of market anarchism, mutualists support a possession or “occupancy and use” basis for land. As for capital, mutualist opinions differs on whether these should be commonly managed assets or private property.

• Spoonerite anarchism: Many consider Lysander Spooner as one of the first natural law philosophers, which influenced later philosophers like Albert Jay Nock and Murray N. Rothbard. However, in contrast to most of the 19th century individualist anarchists, Spooner believe in land ownership.⁶⁾
• Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism: Like his predecessor Lysander Spooner, Murray N. Rothbard's natural law philosophy centers on an agreed-upon ethical code derived from the non-aggression principle.⁷⁾
• Friedmanite anarcho-capitalism: A theory founded by David D. Friedman in which private defense agencies spontaneously compete for profit.⁸⁾ Friedman's utilitarian methodology contrasts with Rothbard's natural rights theory.
• Agorism: A school by Samuel Konkin that holds revolutionary counter-economics as the ultimate strategy to a free market.
• Voluntaryism: A school headed by Carl Watner, Wendy McElroy, and Robert LeFevre, which advocates civil disobedience and education instead of politics.
• Individualist feminism: A feminist school of thought lead by Wendy McElroy, which largely oppose electoral politics.^9)10)11)
• Post-Objectivism: A form of propertarian market anarchism disagrees with fundamental aspects of Ayn Rand's epistemology and ethics. Its primary philosophers include Stefan Molyneux and George H. Smith.
• Aristotelian liberalism: A thick libertarian philosophy based on the tradition of virtue ethics, free markets, and individual sovereignty. Its philosophers include¹²⁾ Geoffrey Allan Plauche, Douglas Rasmussen, Douglas Den Uyl, Roderick Tracy Long, and Chris Matthew Sciabarra.¹³⁾
• Paleolibertarianism: Virtually all of its proponents subscribe to anarcho-capitalism, but they differ over what a society which has a state should do about issues like property and immigration.¹⁴⁾ Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Thomas DiLorenzo, Thomas Woods, Lew Rockwell, and N. Stephan Kinsella support this ideology.
• Free-market environmentalism: Advocate private land ownership as to prevent pollution, thus compatible with propertarian market anarchism.

• Proudhonian mutualism: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's anarchism favored cooperative associations and workers' self-management. However, some consider Proudhon as an individualist anarchist, while others regard him to be a social anarchist. Some commentators consider his preference for association in large industries, rather than individual control, as a branch of social anarchism. Some see it being situated somewhere between individualism and collectivism. Proudhon described the “liberty” which he pursued as “the synthesis of communism and property.” ¹⁵⁾
• 19th century individualist anarchism: This comprises of some individuals like Josiah Warren, William B. Greene, and Stephen Pearl Andrews, with its ideas like mutual banking, the cost the limit of price, and Gustave de Molinari's private defense. This excludes Lysander Spooner, because he supports private land ownership.
• Tuckerite mutualism: Benjamin R. Tucker, a 19th century mutualist, integrated William B. Greene's mutual banking, Henry George's opposition to land ownership, and Gustave de Molinari's private defense. Tucker famously elucidated the “four monopolies,” comprising of the money monopoly, the land monopoly, tariffs, and patents. Tucker's ideas later influenced Murray N. Rothbard and mutualist Kevin Carson.
• Carsonian mutualism: Kevin Carson holds ”actually existing capitalism” as founded on “an act of robbery as massive as feudalism.”¹⁶⁾ Carson argues the centralization of wealth and creation of hierarchy is due to state intervention including creating a money monopoly, granting patents and subsidies to corporations, imposing discriminatory taxation, and intervening militarily to gain access to international markets. Carson argues that in a truly laissez-faire system, the ability to extract a profit from labor and capital would be negligible.
• Geoanarchism: The voluntary form of geolibertarianism as described by Fred E. Foldvary, prescribes private associations to collect rent with the opportunity to secede from a geocommunity (and not receive the geocommunity's services) if desired.¹⁷⁾