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The black and gold flag, a symbol of anarchism (black) and capitalism (gold) which according to Murray Rothbard was first flown in 1963 in Colorado[1] and is also used by the Swedish AnarkoKapitalistisk Front[citation needed]
Anarcho-capitalism (colloquially: ancap or an-cap) is an anti-statist,[2]libertarian[3]political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforced by private agencies, based on concepts such as the non-aggression principle, free markets and self-ownership. In the absence of statute, anarcho-capitalists hold that society tends to contractually self-regulate and civilize through participation in the free market, which they describe as a voluntary society involving the voluntary exchange of goods and services.[4][5][6][7] In a theoretical anarcho-capitalist society a system of private property would still exist, and would be enforced by private defense agencies and/or insurance companies that were selected by property owners, whose ownership rights or claims would be enforced by private defence agencies and/or insurance companies. These agencies or companies would operate competitively in a market and fulfill the roles of courts and the police. Some anarcho-capitalist authors have argued that voluntary slavery is compatible with anarcho-capitalist ideals.[8][9]
According to its proponents, various historical theorists have espoused philosophies similar to anarcho-capitalism.[10] While the earliest extant attestation of "anarchocapitalism" [sic] is in Karl Hess's essay "The Death of Politics" published by Playboy in March 1969,[11][12] American economist Murray Rothbard was credited with coining the terms anarcho-capitalist[13][14] and anarcho-capitalism in 1971.[15] A leading figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement,[7] Rothbard synthesized elements from the Austrian School, classical liberalism and 19th-century American individualist anarchists and mutualistsLysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker, while rejecting the labor theory of value.[16][17][18] Rothbard's anarcho-capitalist society would operate under a mutually agreed-upon "legal code which would be generally accepted, and which the courts would pledge themselves to follow".[19] This legal code would recognize contracts between individuals, private property, self-ownership and tort law in keeping with the non-aggression principle.[7][19][20] Anyone who disagreed with the legal code would ultimately be subject to enforcement measures such as those utilised by a state.[21] Rothbard views the power of the state as unjustified, arguing that it restricts individual rights and prosperity, and creates social and economic problems.[7]
Anarcho-capitalism is distinguished from minarchism, which advocates a minimal governing body (typically a night-watchman state limited to protecting individuals from aggression and enforcing private property) and from Objectivism (which is a broader philosophy advocating a limited role, yet unlimited size, of said government).[29] Anarcho-capitalists consider themselves to be anarchists, however unlike most anarchists, they support private property and private institutions.[2]
^ abcMorriss, Andrew P. (15 August 2008). "Anarcho-Capitalism". Libertarianism.org. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2022. Although most anarchists oppose all large institutions, public or private, anarcho-capitalists oppose the state, but not private actors with significant market power.
^Hess, Karl (2003) [March 1969]. "The Death of Politics". Faré's Home Page. Playboy. Archived from the original on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2023. Laissez-faire capitalism, or anarchocapitalism [sic], is simply the economic form of the libertarian ethic. Laissez-faire capitalism encompasses the notion that men should exchange goods and services, without regulation, solely on the basis of value for value. It recognizes charity and communal enterprises as voluntary versions of this same ethic. Such a system would be straight barter, except for the widely felt need for a division of labor in which men, voluntarily, accept value tokens such as cash and credit. Economically, this system is anarchy, and proudly so.
^Johnson, Charles (28 August 2015). "Karl Hess on Anarcho-Capitalism". Center for a Stateless Society. Archived from the original on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023. In fact, the earliest documented, printed use of the word "anarcho-capitalism" that I can find [6] actually comes neither from Wollstein nor from Rothbard, but from Karl Hess's manifesto "The Death of Politics," which was published in Playboy in March, 1969. [boldface in original]
^Roberta Modugno Crocetta, "Murray Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism in the contemporary debate. A critical defense", Ludwig Von Mises Institute. Archived from the original. quote: "Murray Rothbard suggests the anarcho-capitalist mode, [...]"
^Flood, Anthony (2010). Untitled preface to Rothbard's "Know Your Rights"Archived 11 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, originally published in WIN: Peace and Freedom through Nonviolent Action, Volume 7, No. 4, 1 March 1971, 6–10. Flood's quote: "Rothbard's neologism, 'anarchocapitalism,' probably makes its first appearance in print here."
^Miller, David; et al., eds. (1987). Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 290. ISBN978-0-631-17944-3. A student and disciple of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, Rothbard combined the laissez-faire economics of his teacher with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the 19th century such as Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker.
