Anarcho-capitalist literature
Encyclopedia
Anarcho-capitalism
has been the subject of a number of works of literature, both nonfiction and fiction.
" existed. These thinkers and their writings are often considered the predecessors of modern market anarchism. Anarcho-capitalism has been heavily influenced by and intertwined with the Austrian School
of economics, reflected in works by Rothbard and others.
The Structure of Liberty
, by legal theorist Randy Barnett
, offers a libertarian theory of law and politics. Barnett calls his theory the liberal conception of justice, emphasizing the relationship between legal libertarianism and classical liberalism.
The Law
(1850), by Frédéric Bastiat
, was influenced by John Locke's Second Treatise on Government and in turn influenced Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson
. It is the work for which Bastiat is most famous, along with the Petition of the Candlemakers and the parable of the broken window. See also: The State.
To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice, by Bruce L. Benson
, concerns private policing, private prosecution, and other market-based methods of providing criminal justice. See also: The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State.
James Dale Davidson
and William Rees-Mogg
wrote The Sovereign Individual.
The Machinery of Freedom
(1973), by libertarian economist David D. Friedman
, outlines the means by which a stateless society could operate. The book calls for the abolition or privatization of all government functions, details suggestions for many specific instances of privatization, explores the consequences of libertarian thought, examples of libertarian society (such as the Icelandic Commonwealth), and offers the author's personal statement about why he became a libertarian.
David Gordon
wrote Secession, State & Liberty.
Auberon Herbert
wrote The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State.
In March 1969 an essay appeared in Playboy by Karl Hess
titled The Death of Politics.
Democracy: The God That Failed
, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
, contains a series of thirteen essays on the subject of democracy and concluding with the belief that democracy is the primary cause of the decivilization sweeping the world since World War I, and that it must be delegitimized. Another by Hoppe, The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
, covers a wide range of topics including employment, interest, money, banking, trade cycles, taxes, public goods, war, imperialism, and the rise and fall of civilizations. The Myth of National Defense
is a book edited by Hoppe, published in 2003 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute
, and contributed to by many prominent anarcho-capitalists, about the merits of replacing government defense agencies with private defense agencies. A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism
is a treatise by Hoppe which uses the ethics of argumentation, a Habermasian principle, as the foundation for self-ownership and private property as ethical principles.
Anthony de Jasay
wrote The State.
The New Libertarian Manifesto
is a work of agorist philosophy written by Samuel Edward Konkin III
. Konkin proffers various arguments of how a free society would function as well as examples of existing black markets. It contains criticisms of utilizing political (i.e. activist or legislative) or violent means, and advocated non-politics with non-voting as a strategy. Finally, Konkin describes the steps of utilizing the black market to dismantle the state, a strategy known as counter-economics.
Gustave de Molinari
wrote The Production of Security.
Robert P. Murphy
wrote Chaos Theory: Two Essays on Market Anarchy.
Albert Jay Nock
wrote Our Enemy, the State.
Universally Preferable Behavior: A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics, by Stefan Molyneux
, lays down the framework for evaluating ethical theories, and is the grounding of his later work in discussing anarchism. Everyday Anarchy was Molyneux's first book to take the idea of anarchism and show that the word has a meaning and that it is applicable to our daily lives. Molyneux's second book Practical Anarchy expanded on his first by providing examples of possible ways in which a future anarchist society could function. How (Not) to Achieve Freedom was Molyneux's third book in a series that showed that the ways in which people attempt to bring about a free society are not working and that a new method is needed.
The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically (1908), by German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer
, summarizes Oppenheimer's general theory on the origin, development and future transformation of the State.
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays
, by Murray Rothbard
, takes its title from its lead essay, which argues that egalitarian theory always results in a politics of statist control because it is founded on revolt against the ontological structure of reality itself. The Ethics of Liberty
, also by Rothbard, is an exposition of the libertarian political position. It roots the case for freedom in the concept of natural rights and applies it to a host of practical problems. For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto helped launch the modern libertarian movement in the United States, and was the first modern free market anarchist manifesto. Power and Market: Government and the Economy is another work by Rothbard in which he analyzes the negative effects of the various kinds of government intervention, and denies that government is either useful or necessary. Man, Economy, and State
is a book on economics by Rothbard, and is one of the most important books in the Austrian School of economics.
No Treason
is a lengthy essay in which Lysander Spooner
argues that the United States Constitution is a contract of government which was irreparably violated during the American Civil War, and is thus void. See also Natural Law; or The Science of Justice and Let's Abolish Government.
Edward Stringham
wrote Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice.
Linda and Morris Tannehill, in The Market For Liberty
, opposed statutory law and advocated the usage of natural law as the basis for society and point out that society would not be lawless in the absence of the state. They outlined at considerable length how different businesses and organisational structures would interact in a laissez-faire society, and how these interactions would create checks which would ultimately keep the tendency for crime low. In keeping with their belief in radical free market principles, they were skeptical about the potential for violent anarcho-capitalist revolution to bring about good outcomes.
Instead of Politics (Civilization 101) by John Frederic Kosanke launches a full-fledged attack on every form of politics, showing how only the free market
can solve the ills of society. The book takes a look at war and other forms of aggression such as pollution from the vantage point of surrender and accountability, showing how the possibility for aggression is proportionate to the realm of the state.
. Vernor Vinge
's short story "The Ungoverned
" depicts anarcho-capitalists defending against an invading government. Example contract corporations in this story include Big Al's Protection Racket (a police service) and Justice, Inc. Anarcho-capitalism is also discussed in Vinge's novels The Peace War
and Marooned in Realtime
, which both occur in the same literary milieu as "The Ungoverned". The short story "Conquest by Default" depicts an anarcho-capitalist alien race which prevents monopolistic groups via antitrust
religious customs. Vinge's more recent novel A Deepness in the Sky
involves a stateless nonhuman society.
Anarcho-capitalism also plays a major role in Neal Stephenson
's novels Snow Crash
and The Diamond Age
. In Snow Crash, territory is primarily controlled by corporate franchises ("franchise operated quasi-national entities") such as "Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong" and "Nova Sicilia," with privately-operated police forces and justice systems; Los Angeles has been turned into a patchwork of franchise enclave communities; the roads are private entities, serving subscribers; and the Federal Government is just one more competitor (albeit an inefficient one losing market share by the day) in a free market for sovereignty services. Its sequel, The Diamond Age, depicts a more mature anarcho-capitalist society where common law
and other international private law conventions have evolved into a Common Economic Protocol to which all non-outlaw phyles and FOQNEs subscribe in their own legal systems.
Robert A. Heinlein
's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
(1966) explores what he calls "rational anarchism." Heinlein's imaginary lunar
society has a very weak central government. He speculates on how a society would operate if it had no formal laws or legal system, a private currency, and no social security or other forms of welfare provided by the government. His imaginary society works quite well, although newcomers have a relatively high death rate. However, through one of his characters, Heinlein seems to posit near the end of his book that a true anarcho-capitalist society is inherently unattainable, and will eventually devolve into a traditional statist society.
The Hostile Takeover Trilogy
by S. Andrew Swann
depicts a world called Bakunin that operates on anarcho-capitalist principles, and examines the particular problem of an anarcho-capitalist society defending itself against a statist aggressor when that aggressor hires so many of the Anarcho-capitalist society's own denizens as mercenary forces.
L. Neil Smith
's series of novels starting with The Probability Broach
take place in an alternate history where the United States becomes the "North American Confederacy", which is basically anarcho-capitalist in nature, although there is the vestigial remnant of a government whose Continental Congress might meet every few decades.
J. Neil Schulman
's novel, Alongside Night
, features a group called the "Agorist
Underground" (from a Greek word for "marketplace") who form a literal underground economy (in a cavern beneath Manhattan) to practice anarcho-capitalism until their revolution brings down the United States.
Although Ayn Rand
often criticized anarcho-capitalists in favor of a minarchist society (meaning government is limited to police, military and a court system), the heroes in her popular 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged
create an isolated community with no government, that operates strictly according to the non-aggression principle.
Ken MacLeod
's four-part Fall Revolution series deals extensively with several different visions of anarchist societies. The Stone Canal deals with the interactions of an individualist anarchist, Johnathon Wilde, who is reborn as a clone into a high-tech anarcho-capitalist society influenced largely by an adversary from his past.
Cecelia Holland
's only sci-fi novel Floating Worlds depicts an anarchist future earth in the early scenes. In particular it shows how such a system might deal with such issues as unemployment, theft, and poverty.
Max Barry's novel Jennifer Government
depicts an anarcho-capitalist society in a critical and dystopian fashion, with the Government, now an almost formal corporation itself, on the outs. People are surnamed after their employers.
Tarrin Lupo's novel Pirates of the Savannah follows the lives of various characters who create an economy outside the purview of the government in the area around Savannah, Georgia
during the American Revolution
.
Anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism is a libertarian and individualist anarchist political philosophy that advocates the elimination of the state in favour of individual sovereignty in a free market...
has been the subject of a number of works of literature, both nonfiction and fiction.
Nonfiction
The following is a partial list of notable nonfiction works discussing anarcho-capitalism. Works by Bastiat, de Molinari, and others were written before the terms "anarcho-capitalism" or "libertarianLibertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
" existed. These thinkers and their writings are often considered the predecessors of modern market anarchism. Anarcho-capitalism has been heavily influenced by and intertwined with the Austrian School
Austrian School
The Austrian School of economics is a heterodox school of economic thought. It advocates methodological individualism in interpreting economic developments , the theory that money is non-neutral, the theory that the capital structure of economies consists of heterogeneous goods that have...
of economics, reflected in works by Rothbard and others.
The Structure of Liberty
The Structure of Liberty
The Structure of Liberty is a book by legal theorist Randy Barnett which offers a libertarian theory of law and politics. Barnett calls his theory the liberal conception of justice, emphasizing the relationship between legal libertarianism and classical liberalism.Barnett argues that private...
, by legal theorist Randy Barnett
Randy Barnett
Randy E. Barnett is a lawyer, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and a legal theorist in the United States...
, offers a libertarian theory of law and politics. Barnett calls his theory the liberal conception of justice, emphasizing the relationship between legal libertarianism and classical liberalism.
The Law
The Law (1849 book)
The Law, original French title La Loi, is a 1850 book by Frédéric Bastiat. It was written at Mugron two years after the third French Revolution and a few months before his death of tuberculosis at age 49. The essay was influenced by John Locke's Second Treatise on Government and in turn...
(1850), by Frédéric Bastiat
Frédéric Bastiat
Claude Frédéric Bastiat was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly. He was notable for developing the important economic concept of opportunity cost.-Biography:...
, was influenced by John Locke's Second Treatise on Government and in turn influenced Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson
Economics in One Lesson
Economics in One Lesson is an introduction to free market economics written by Henry Hazlitt and published in 1946, based on Frédéric Bastiat's essay .The "One Lesson" is stated in Part One of the book:...
. It is the work for which Bastiat is most famous, along with the Petition of the Candlemakers and the parable of the broken window. See also: The State.
To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice, by Bruce L. Benson
Bruce L. Benson
Dr. Bruce L. Benson is an American academic economist who is widely recognized as an authority on law and economics and a major exponent of anarcho-capitalism legal theory. He is DeVoe L. Moore Professor and Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University, where he serves as Chairman...
, concerns private policing, private prosecution, and other market-based methods of providing criminal justice. See also: The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State.
James Dale Davidson
James Dale Davidson
James Dale Davidson is an American investment newsletter writer and author of The Sovereign Individual, The Great Reckoning, and Blood in the Streets, all three co-authored with William Rees-Mogg. He also wrote The Plague of the Black Debt - How to Survive the Coming Depression. He is also the...
and William Rees-Mogg
William Rees-Mogg
William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg is an English journalist and life peer.-Education:Rees-Mogg was educated at Clifton College Preparatory School in Bristol and Charterhouse School in Godalming, followed by Balliol College, Oxford...
wrote The Sovereign Individual.
The Machinery of Freedom
The Machinery of Freedom
The Machinery of Freedom is a 1973 nonfiction book by libertarian economist David D. Friedman outlining the means by which an anarcho-capitalist society could operate...
(1973), by libertarian economist David D. Friedman
David D. Friedman
David Director Friedman is an American economist, author, and Right-libertarian theorist. He is known as a leader in anarcho-capitalist political theory, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom...
, outlines the means by which a stateless society could operate. The book calls for the abolition or privatization of all government functions, details suggestions for many specific instances of privatization, explores the consequences of libertarian thought, examples of libertarian society (such as the Icelandic Commonwealth), and offers the author's personal statement about why he became a libertarian.
David Gordon
David Gordon (philosopher)
David Gordon is a libertarian philosopher and intellectual historian influenced by Rothbardian views of economics. He is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and editor of "The Mises Review."...
wrote Secession, State & Liberty.
Auberon Herbert
Auberon Herbert
Auberon Edward William Molyneux Herbert was a writer, theorist, philosopher, and "19th-century individualist anarchist." A member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Herbert was the son of the 3rd Earl of Carnarvon, brother of Henry Herbert, the 4th Earl, and father of the 9th Baron Lucas...
wrote The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State.
In March 1969 an essay appeared in Playboy by Karl Hess
Karl Hess
Karl Hess was an American national-level speechwriter and author. He was also a political philosopher, editor, welder, motorcycle racer, tax resister, atheist, and libertarian activist...
titled The Death of Politics.
Democracy: The God That Failed
Democracy: The God That Failed
Democracy: The God That Failed is a 2001 book by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, containing a series of thirteen essays on the subject of democracy and concluding with the belief that democracy is the primary cause of the decivilization sweeping the world since World War I, and that it must be delegitimized.He...
, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Hans-Hermann Hoppe is an Austrian School economist of the anarcho-capitalist tradition, and a Professor Emeritus of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.-Academic career:...
, contains a series of thirteen essays on the subject of democracy and concluding with the belief that democracy is the primary cause of the decivilization sweeping the world since World War I, and that it must be delegitimized. Another by Hoppe, The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property: Studies in Political Economy and Philosophy by Hans-Hermann Hoppe was first published in 1993 followed by a second edition in 2006.- Brief summary :From the back cover of the second edition:...
, covers a wide range of topics including employment, interest, money, banking, trade cycles, taxes, public goods, war, imperialism, and the rise and fall of civilizations. The Myth of National Defense
The Myth of National Defense
The Myth of National Defense is a book edited by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, published in 2003 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and contributed to by many prominent anarcho-capitalists, about the merits of replacing government defense agencies with private defense agencies...
is a book edited by Hoppe, published in 2003 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute
The Ludwig von Mises Institute , based in Auburn, Alabama, is a libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy. Its scholarship is inspired by the work of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises...
, and contributed to by many prominent anarcho-capitalists, about the merits of replacing government defense agencies with private defense agencies. A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism
A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism
A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism is a treatise by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, an anarcho-capitalist economist and a student of Jürgen Habermas, which uses the ethics of argumentation, a Habermasian principle, as the foundation for self-ownership and private property as ethical principles.Published in...
is a treatise by Hoppe which uses the ethics of argumentation, a Habermasian principle, as the foundation for self-ownership and private property as ethical principles.
Anthony de Jasay
Anthony de Jasay
Anthony de Jasay is a Hungarian-born philosopher and economist known for his anti-statist writings. He was born at Aba, Hungary in 1925. . He was educated at Szekesfehervar and Budapest, taking a degree in Agriculture...
wrote The State.
The New Libertarian Manifesto
New Libertarian Manifesto
The New Libertarian Manifesto is a work of agorist philosophy written by Samuel Edward Konkin III. In it, Konkin proffers various arguments of how a free society would function as well as examples of existing gray and black markets. It contains criticisms of utilizing political or violent means,...
is a work of agorist philosophy written by Samuel Edward Konkin III
Samuel Edward Konkin III
Samuel Edward Konkin III was the author of the New Libertarian Manifesto and a proponent of the political philosophy which he called agorism. Agorism is a leftward evolution of anarcho-capitalism, and subset of market anarchism...
. Konkin proffers various arguments of how a free society would function as well as examples of existing black markets. It contains criticisms of utilizing political (i.e. activist or legislative) or violent means, and advocated non-politics with non-voting as a strategy. Finally, Konkin describes the steps of utilizing the black market to dismantle the state, a strategy known as counter-economics.
Gustave de Molinari
Gustave de Molinari
Gustave de Molinari was an economist born in Belgium associated with French laissez-faire liberal economists such as Frédéric Bastiat and Hippolyte Castille. Living in Paris, in the 1840s, he took part in the "Ligue pour la Liberté des Échanges" , animated by Frédéric Bastiat...
wrote The Production of Security.
Robert P. Murphy
Robert P. Murphy
Robert P. "Bob" Murphy is an Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist.-Education and personal life:Murphy completed his Bachelor of Arts in economics at Hillsdale College in 1998. He then moved back to his home state of New York to continue his studies at New York University. Murphy earned...
wrote Chaos Theory: Two Essays on Market Anarchy.
Albert Jay Nock
Albert Jay Nock
Albert Jay Nock was an influential United States libertarian author, educational theorist, and social critic of the early and middle 20th century.- Life and work :...
wrote Our Enemy, the State.
Universally Preferable Behavior: A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics, by Stefan Molyneux
Stefan Molyneux
Stefan Basil Molyneux is a blogger, essayist, author, and host of the Freedomain Radio series of podcasts, living in Mississauga, Canada...
, lays down the framework for evaluating ethical theories, and is the grounding of his later work in discussing anarchism. Everyday Anarchy was Molyneux's first book to take the idea of anarchism and show that the word has a meaning and that it is applicable to our daily lives. Molyneux's second book Practical Anarchy expanded on his first by providing examples of possible ways in which a future anarchist society could function. How (Not) to Achieve Freedom was Molyneux's third book in a series that showed that the ways in which people attempt to bring about a free society are not working and that a new method is needed.
The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically (1908), by German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer
Franz Oppenheimer
Franz Oppenheimer was a German-Jewish sociologist and political economist, who published also in the area of the fundamental sociology of the state.-Personal life:...
, summarizes Oppenheimer's general theory on the origin, development and future transformation of the State.
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays represents some of libertarian anarchist Murray Rothbard's most advanced and radical theorizing on topics impacting on human liberty...
, by Murray Rothbard
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard was an American author and economist of the Austrian School who helped define capitalist libertarianism and popularized a form of free-market anarchism he termed "anarcho-capitalism." Rothbard wrote over twenty books and is considered a centrally important figure in the...
, takes its title from its lead essay, which argues that egalitarian theory always results in a politics of statist control because it is founded on revolt against the ontological structure of reality itself. The Ethics of Liberty
The Ethics of Liberty
The Ethics of Liberty, by American economist and historian Murray N. Rothbard, first published in 1982, is an exposition of the libertarian political position...
, also by Rothbard, is an exposition of the libertarian political position. It roots the case for freedom in the concept of natural rights and applies it to a host of practical problems. For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto helped launch the modern libertarian movement in the United States, and was the first modern free market anarchist manifesto. Power and Market: Government and the Economy is another work by Rothbard in which he analyzes the negative effects of the various kinds of government intervention, and denies that government is either useful or necessary. Man, Economy, and State
Man, Economy, and State
Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles, first published in 1962, is a book on economics by Murray Rothbard, and is one of the most important books in the Austrian School of economics...
is a book on economics by Rothbard, and is one of the most important books in the Austrian School of economics.
No Treason
No Treason
No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority is an 1867 essay by American individualist anarchist, political philosopher and legal theorist Lysander Spooner...
is a lengthy essay in which Lysander Spooner
Lysander Spooner
Lysander Spooner was an American individualist anarchist, political philosopher, Deist, abolitionist, supporter of the labor movement, legal theorist, and entrepreneur of the nineteenth century. He is also known for competing with the U.S...
argues that the United States Constitution is a contract of government which was irreparably violated during the American Civil War, and is thus void. See also Natural Law; or The Science of Justice and Let's Abolish Government.
Edward Stringham
Edward Stringham
Edward Peter Stringham is the L.V. Hackley Endowed Professor for the Study of Capitalism and Free Enterprise at Fayetteville State University.He received a B.A. in economics from College of the Holy Cross and his Ph.D...
wrote Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice.
Linda and Morris Tannehill, in The Market For Liberty
The Market for Liberty
The Market for Liberty is an anarcho-capitalist book written by Linda and Morris Tannehill, which according to Karl Hess has become "something of a classic." It was preceded by the self-published Liberty via the Market in 1969. Mary Ruwart credits the Tannehills and their book with winning her over...
, opposed statutory law and advocated the usage of natural law as the basis for society and point out that society would not be lawless in the absence of the state. They outlined at considerable length how different businesses and organisational structures would interact in a laissez-faire society, and how these interactions would create checks which would ultimately keep the tendency for crime low. In keeping with their belief in radical free market principles, they were skeptical about the potential for violent anarcho-capitalist revolution to bring about good outcomes.
Instead of Politics (Civilization 101) by John Frederic Kosanke launches a full-fledged attack on every form of politics, showing how only the free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
can solve the ills of society. The book takes a look at war and other forms of aggression such as pollution from the vantage point of surrender and accountability, showing how the possibility for aggression is proportionate to the realm of the state.
Fiction
Anarcho-capitalism has been examined in certain works of literature, particularly science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
. Vernor Vinge
Vernor Vinge
Vernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels and novellas A Fire Upon the Deep , A Deepness in the Sky , Rainbows End , Fast Times at Fairmont High ...
's short story "The Ungoverned
The Ungoverned
The Ungoverned is a 1985 science fiction novella by Vernor Vinge, set between his novels The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime. It was first published in Far Frontiers, Volume III, first collected in True Names and Other Dangers, and later published in the 1991 edition of the omnibus Across...
" depicts anarcho-capitalists defending against an invading government. Example contract corporations in this story include Big Al's Protection Racket (a police service) and Justice, Inc. Anarcho-capitalism is also discussed in Vinge's novels The Peace War
The Peace War
The Peace War is a science fiction novel by American writer Vernor Vinge, about authoritarianism and technological progress. It was first published as a serial in Analog in 1984, and then appeared in book form shortly afterward. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1985...
and Marooned in Realtime
Marooned in Realtime
Marooned in Realtime is a 1986 murder mystery and time-travel science fiction novel by American writer Vernor Vinge, about a small, time-displaced group of people who may be the only survivors of a technological singularity or alien invasion. It is the sequel to The Peace War and "The Ungoverned"...
, which both occur in the same literary milieu as "The Ungoverned". The short story "Conquest by Default" depicts an anarcho-capitalist alien race which prevents monopolistic groups via antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
religious customs. Vinge's more recent novel A Deepness in the Sky
A Deepness in the Sky
A Deepness in the Sky is a Hugo Award–winning science fiction novel by Vernor Vinge. Published in 1999, the novel is a loose prequel to his earlier novel A Fire Upon the Deep...
involves a stateless nonhuman society.
Anarcho-capitalism also plays a major role in Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson
Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction.Difficult to categorize, his novels have been variously referred to as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk...
's novels Snow Crash
Snow Crash
Snow Crash is Neal Stephenson's third novel, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's other novels it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics, and philosophy....
and The Diamond Age
The Diamond Age
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction bildungsroman, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of...
. In Snow Crash, territory is primarily controlled by corporate franchises ("franchise operated quasi-national entities") such as "Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong" and "Nova Sicilia," with privately-operated police forces and justice systems; Los Angeles has been turned into a patchwork of franchise enclave communities; the roads are private entities, serving subscribers; and the Federal Government is just one more competitor (albeit an inefficient one losing market share by the day) in a free market for sovereignty services. Its sequel, The Diamond Age, depicts a more mature anarcho-capitalist society where common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
and other international private law conventions have evolved into a Common Economic Protocol to which all non-outlaw phyles and FOQNEs subscribe in their own legal systems.
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony's revolt against rule from Earth....
(1966) explores what he calls "rational anarchism." Heinlein's imaginary lunar
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
society has a very weak central government. He speculates on how a society would operate if it had no formal laws or legal system, a private currency, and no social security or other forms of welfare provided by the government. His imaginary society works quite well, although newcomers have a relatively high death rate. However, through one of his characters, Heinlein seems to posit near the end of his book that a true anarcho-capitalist society is inherently unattainable, and will eventually devolve into a traditional statist society.
The Hostile Takeover Trilogy
Hostile Takeover Trilogy
Hostile Takeover is a science fiction trilogy written by S. Andrew Swann and published by DAW Books where the main setting is the Anarcho-capitalist planet of Bakunin...
by S. Andrew Swann
S. Andrew Swann
S. Andrew Swann is a science fiction and fantasy author living in Solon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, where much of his fiction is set. He was born Steven Swiniarski and has published some of his books as Swiniarski and some as Swann...
depicts a world called Bakunin that operates on anarcho-capitalist principles, and examines the particular problem of an anarcho-capitalist society defending itself against a statist aggressor when that aggressor hires so many of the Anarcho-capitalist society's own denizens as mercenary forces.
L. Neil Smith
L. Neil Smith
L. Neil Smith , also known to readers and fans as El Neil, is a libertarian science fiction author and political activist. He was born on May 12, 1946 in Denver...
's series of novels starting with The Probability Broach
The Probability Broach
The Probability Broach is the first novel by science fiction writer L. Neil Smith. It is set in an alternate history, the so-called Gallatin Universe, where a libertarian society has formed on the North American continent, styled the North American Confederacy.-Plot summary:Edward William "Win"...
take place in an alternate history where the United States becomes the "North American Confederacy", which is basically anarcho-capitalist in nature, although there is the vestigial remnant of a government whose Continental Congress might meet every few decades.
J. Neil Schulman
J. Neil Schulman
Joseph Neil Schulman is a novelist who wrote Alongside Night and The Rainbow Cadenza which both received the Prometheus Award, a libertarian science fiction award....
's novel, Alongside Night
Alongside Night
Alongside Night is a Prometheus Award winning dystopian novel by science fiction writer J. Neil Schulman intended to articulate the principles of Agorism, a form of left-libertarianism created by Samuel Edward Konkin III, to whom Schulman had dedicated the work.-Introduction:It was first published...
, features a group called the "Agorist
Agorism
Agorism is a political philosophy founded by Samuel Edward Konkin III and developed with contributions by J. Neil Schulman that holds as its ultimate goal bringing about a society in which all "relations between people are voluntary exchanges – a free market." The term comes from the Greek...
Underground" (from a Greek word for "marketplace") who form a literal underground economy (in a cavern beneath Manhattan) to practice anarcho-capitalism until their revolution brings down the United States.
Although Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
often criticized anarcho-capitalists in favor of a minarchist society (meaning government is limited to police, military and a court system), the heroes in her popular 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
create an isolated community with no government, that operates strictly according to the non-aggression principle.
Ken MacLeod
Ken MacLeod
Ken MacLeod , is a Scottish science fiction writer.MacLeod was born in Stornoway. He graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in zoology and has worked as a computer programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics....
's four-part Fall Revolution series deals extensively with several different visions of anarchist societies. The Stone Canal deals with the interactions of an individualist anarchist, Johnathon Wilde, who is reborn as a clone into a high-tech anarcho-capitalist society influenced largely by an adversary from his past.
Cecelia Holland
Cecelia Holland
-Biography:She was born December 31, 1943 in Henderson, Nevada, and began writing at the age of twelve, recording the stories she made up for her own entertainment. From the beginning, her focus was on history because "being twelve, I had precious few stories of my own...
's only sci-fi novel Floating Worlds depicts an anarchist future earth in the early scenes. In particular it shows how such a system might deal with such issues as unemployment, theft, and poverty.
Max Barry's novel Jennifer Government
Jennifer Government
Jennifer Government is a novel written by Max Barry. Published in 2003, it is Barry's second novel, following 1999's Syrup. The novel is set in a dystopian alternate reality in which most nations are dominated by for-profit corporate entities while the government's political power is extremely...
depicts an anarcho-capitalist society in a critical and dystopian fashion, with the Government, now an almost formal corporation itself, on the outs. People are surnamed after their employers.
Tarrin Lupo's novel Pirates of the Savannah follows the lives of various characters who create an economy outside the purview of the government in the area around Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
.
Related literature
(This is found in the Capricorn Books edition, edited by Louis M. Hacker in Volume II, Part VI, Chapter 4, "The Influence of Religion," paragraph 15.) Also see Carl Watner, "The Most Generous Nation on Earth: Voluntaryism and American Philanthropy," Whole Number 61. THE VOLUNTARYIST (April 1993). Earlier editions were titled "Cliches of Socialism."See also
- Libertarian science fictionLibertarian science fictionLibertarian science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that focuses on the politics and social order implied by libertarian philosophies with an emphasis on individualism and a limited state-- and in some cases, no state whatsoever....
- Prometheus AwardPrometheus AwardThe Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
- Anarcho-capitalist symbolismAnarcho-capitalist symbolismA small number of free-market libertarians have embraced symbols which represent the convergence of anarchist and libertarian traditions. These ones are the most popular.-Gold-black bisected flag:...
Further reading
- Hoppe, Hans-HermannHans-Hermann HoppeHans-Hermann Hoppe is an Austrian School economist of the anarcho-capitalist tradition, and a Professor Emeritus of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.-Academic career:...
, "Anarcho-Capitalism: An Annotated Bibliography", Lewrockwell.comLewRockwell.comLewRockwell.com is a 501 libertarian web magazine operated by Burton Blumert , Lew Rockwell , Eric Garris , and others associated with the Center for Libertarian Studies ; its motto is "anti-state, anti-war, pro-market"...
, December 31, 2001.