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{{Short description|Political ideology and economic theory}}
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[[File:Flag of Anarcho-capitalism.svg|thumb|alt=A two-colored flag, split diagonally, with yellow at the top and black at the bottom|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]]<ref name=":1">[[Murray Rothbard|Rothbard, Murray N.]], ''[https://mises.org/library/betrayal-american-right-0 The Betrayal of the American Right] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171030214712/https://mises.org/library/betrayal-american-right-0 |date=30 October 2017 }}'' (2007): 188</ref> and is also used by the Swedish ''Anarkokapitalistisk Front.''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/se-pol.html#akf | title=Flags of political parties (Sweden) }}</ref>|261x261px]]
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'''Anarcho-capitalism''' (colloquially: '''ANCAP''', '''Ancap''', '''AnCap''', or '''An-Cap''') is a [[Ideology|political ideology]] and [[economic theory]] that advocates the abolition of [[State constitution|state institutions]] and services and their replacement with [[private sector|private providers]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Geloso |first1=Vincent |last2=Leeson |first2=Peter T. |year=2020 |title=Are Anarcho-Capitalists Insane? Medieval Icelandic Conflict Institutions in Comparative Perspective |journal=Revue d'économie politique |language=en |volume=130 |issue=6 |pages=957–974 |doi=10.3917/redp.306.0115 |s2cid=235008718 |issn=0373-2630 |quote=Anarcho-capitalism is a variety of libertarianism according to which all government institutions can and should be replaced by private ones. |doi-access=free }}</ref> Proponents argue that a society could function without a state through [[voluntary exchange]] and [[security|private institutions that provide legal and security services]]. This model envisions a [[voluntary society]],<ref name=":2">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title=Anarcho-Capitalism |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location=Thousand Oaks, California |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC&pg=PT51 |last=Morriss |first=Andrew |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-first=Ronald |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |pages=13–14 |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n8 |isbn=978-1-4129-6580-4 |oclc=750831024 |access-date=19 June 2020 |archive-date=7 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207152725/https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC&pg=PT51#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Stringham51">{{cite book |first=Edward |last=Stringham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nft4e62nicsC&pg=PA51 |title=Anarchy and the law: the political economy of choice |year=2007 |page=51 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-1-4128-0579-7 |access-date=21 October 2016 |archive-date=7 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207152713/https://books.google.com/books?id=nft4e62nicsC&pg=PA51#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="marshallpitzer">{{cite web |last=Marshall |first=Peter |title=Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism – The New Right and Anarcho-capitalism |url=http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/dward/newrightanarchocap.html |access-date=2 July 2020 |website=dwardmac.pitzer.edu |archive-date=19 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419011544/http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/dward/newrightanarchocap.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite web |last=Costa |first=Daniel |date=21 October 2022 |title=Anarcho-capitalism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/anarcho-capitalism |access-date=25 October 2022 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en |archive-date=25 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221025005604/https://www.britannica.com/topic/anarcho-capitalism |url-status=live }}</ref> drawing on concepts such as the [[non-aggression principle]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.libertarianism.org/topics/non-aggression-principle |access-date=2026-03-21 |website=www.libertarianism.org}}</ref> [[free market]]s, and [[self-ownership]]. In the absence of [[Statute|statutory law]], [[Private defense agency|private defense agencies]] and [[Insurance|insurance companies]] would compete to provide services analogous to those performed by [[Court|courts]] and the [[police]] under a state system.

While the earliest documented use of the term ''anarcho-capitalism'' appears in [[Karl Hess]]'s essay "The Death of Politics", published in ''[[Playboy]]'' in March 1969,<ref name = "HessDoP">{{cite web|url= http://fare.tunes.org/books/Hess/dop.html|title= The Death of Politics|last= Hess|first= Karl|orig-date= March 1969|date= 2003|website= Faré's Home Page|publisher= Playboy|access-date= 9 October 2023|quote= 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.|archive-date= 2 August 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190802164945/http://fare.tunes.org/books/Hess/dop.html|url-status= live}}</ref><ref name = "Johnson2015">{{cite web|url= https://c4ss.org/content/39997|title= Karl Hess on Anarcho Capitalism|last= Johnson|first= Charles|date= 28 August 2015|website= Center for a Stateless Society|access-date= 9 October 2023|quote= '''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]|archive-date= 4 October 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231004131548/https://c4ss.org/content/39997|url-status= live}}</ref> the American economist [[Murray Rothbard]] is credited with developing and popularizing the concepts of ''anarcho-capitalists''<ref name = "Leeson">{{cite book |last=Leeson |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pQ4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA180 |title=Hayek: A Collaborative Biography, Part IX: The Divine Right of the 'Free' Market |publisher=Springer |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-319-60708-5 |page=180 |quote=To the original 'anarcho capitalist' (Rothbard coined the term) [...]. |access-date=18 March 2023 |archive-date=25 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425065230/https://books.google.com/books?id=_pQ4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA180 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = "Crocetta">Roberta Modugno Crocetta, "Murray Rothbard's anarcho capitalism in the contemporary debate. A critical defense", [[Ludwig Von Mises Institute]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20050511201301/https://mises.org/journals/scholar/roberta.pdf Archived] from the [https://mises.org/journals/scholar/roberta.pdf original]. quote: "Murray Rothbard suggests the anarcho capitalist mode, [...]"</ref> and ''anarcho-capitalism'' in the early 1970s.<ref name = "Flood2010">Flood, Anthony (2010). [http://anthonyflood.com/rothbardknowyourrights.htm Untitled preface to Rothbard's "Know Your Rights"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811135031/http://anthonyflood.com/rothbardknowyourrights.htm |date=11 August 2011 }}, 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, 'anarcho capitalism,' probably makes its first appearance in print here."</ref>

Rothbard, an [[Libertarianism in the United States|American libertarian]],<ref name=":8" /> drew on elements of the [[Austrian school|Austrian school of economics]], [[classical liberalism]], 19th-century [[Individualist anarchism in the United States|American individualist anarchists]], and [[Mutualism (economic theory)|mutualist]] thinkers such as [[Lysander Spooner]] and [[Benjamin Tucker]], while rejecting the [[labor theory of value]].<ref name="Miller 1987">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/blackwellencyclo0000unse_w3j5 |title=Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought |year=1987 |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |isbn=978-0-631-17944-3 |editor1-last=Miller |editor1-first=David |location=Hoboken |page=290 |quote=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. |display-editors=etal |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Bottomore 1991">{{cite book |last=Bottomore |first=Tom |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionarymarxis00bott |title=A Dictionary of Marxist Thought |publisher=Blackwell Reference |year=1991 |isbn=0-63118082-6 |location=Oxford |page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionarymarxis00bott/page/n22 21] |chapter=Anarchism |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name="Outhwaite 2003">{{cite book |last=Outhwaite |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/blackwelldiction0002edunse_m6t9 |title=The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought |year=2003 |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |isbn=978-0-631-22164-7 |location=Hoboken |page=13 |chapter=Anarchism |quote=Their successors today, such as Murray Rothbard, having abandoned the labor theory of value, describe themselves as anarcho-capitalists. |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Rothbard proposed that an anarcho-capitalist society would operate under a mutually agreed-upon legal code, which he suggested would be generally accepted and adhered to by courts."<ref name="Rothbard" /> This legal code would recognize contracts between individuals, [[private property]], [[self-ownership]], and [[tort law]], in accordance with the non-aggression principle.<ref name=":8" /><ref name="Rothbard" /><ref name="miseslawproperty" /> Unlike a state system, enforcement in Rothbard's model would apply only to those who initiated [[Violence|force]] or [[fraud]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-07-30 |title=Role of Personal Justice in Anarcho-capitalism, The {{!}} Mises Institute |url=https://mises.org/journal-libertarian-studies/role-personal-justice-anarcho-capitalism |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=mises.org |language=en}}</ref> Rothbard argued that state power is unjustified, asserting that it violates individual rights, reduces prosperity, and creates social and economic problems.<ref name=":8" />

Proponents of anarcho-capitalism cite several historical precedents that they regard as examples of quasi-anarcho-capitalism,{{refn|<ref name="Rothbard" /><ref name="ANCAP FAQ" /><ref name="Friedman-79" /><ref name="Long-Vikings">{{Cite web |last=Long |first=Roderick T. |author-link=Roderick T. Long |date=6 June 2002 |title=Privatization, Viking Style: Model or Misfortune? (The Vikings Were Libertarians) |url=https://www.lewrockwell.com/2002/06/roderick-t-long/the-vikings-were-libertarians |access-date=15 June 2020 |publisher=[[LewRockwell.com]] |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208172838/https://www.lewrockwell.com/2002/06/roderick-t-long/the-vikings-were-libertarians/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="tabarroki" />}} including the [[Republic of Cospaia]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=McFarland |first=Ellie |date=11 April 2020 |title=The Republic of Cospaia: An Anarchist Renaissance City |url=https://mises.org/power-market/republic-cospaia-anarchist-renaissance-city |access-date=9 October 2022 |website=Mises Institute |language=en |archive-date=3 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220903034224/https://mises.org/power-market/republic-cospaia-anarchist-renaissance-city |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Acadia]],<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Benjamin |date=9 August 2022 |title=The Acadian Community: An Anarcho-Capitalist Success Story |url=https://mises.org/wire/acadian-community-anarcho-capitalist-success-story |access-date=5 December 2022 |website=Mises Institute |language=en |archive-date=5 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205100027/https://mises.org/wire/acadian-community-anarcho-capitalist-success-story |url-status=live }}</ref> [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon England]],<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Morriss |first=Andrew P. |date=15 August 2008 |title=Anarcho-Capitalism |url=https://www.libertarianism.org/topics/anarcho-capitalism |access-date=21 August 2022 |website=Libertarianism.org |quote=Although most anarchists oppose all large institutions, public or private, anarcho-capitalists oppose the state, but not private actors with significant market power. |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922211040/https://www.libertarianism.org/topics/anarcho-capitalism |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2" /> [[History of Iceland|Medieval Iceland]],<ref name=":9" /> the [[American Old West]],<ref name=":9" /> [[Gaelic Ireland]],<ref name=":8" /> and systems such as [[law merchant|merchant law]], [[admiralty law]], and early [[common law]].

Anarcho-capitalism is distinguished from [[minarchism]], which advocates for a minimal state (often described as a [[night-watchman state]] limited to protecting individuals from aggression and enforcing private property), and from [[Objectivism]], a broader [[philosophy]] advocating a somewhat limited role for government.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PUev30VZ04kC |title=Anarchism/Minarchism: Is a Government Part of a Free Country? |year=2008 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-0-7546-6066-8 |editor1-last=Long |editor1-first=Roderick T. |editor2-last=Machan |editor2-first=Tibor R.}}</ref> 
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== Classification ==
{{See also|Anarchism and capitalism}}
Anarcho-capitalism developed from Austrian School-[[neoliberalism]] and [[individualist anarchism]].{{efn|Attributed to multiple sources:<ref name="Tormey">{{cite book|last=Tormey|first=Simon|year=2004|title=Anti-capitalism: A Beginner's Guide|pages=118–119|publisher=Oneworld|isbn=978-1851683420}}</ref><ref name="Perlin">{{cite book|last=Perlin|first=Terry M.|year=1979|title=Contemporary Anarchism|publisher=Transaction Books|page=7}}</ref><ref name="Raico">{{cite book|last=Raico|first=Ralph|year=2004|title=Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century|publisher=Ecole Polytechnique, Centre de Recherce en Epistemologie Appliquee, Unité associée au CNRS}}</ref><ref name="Heider">{{cite book|last=Heider|first=Ulrike|year=1994|title=Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green|publisher=City Lights|page=3}}</ref><ref name="Outhwaite">{{cite book|last=Outhwaite|first=William|year=2002|title=The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought|chapter=Anarchism|page=21}}</ref><ref name="Bottomore">{{cite book|last=Bottomore|first=Tom|title=Dictionary of Marxist Thought|chapter=Anarchism|year=1991}}</ref><ref name="Ostergaard2">{{cite web|last=Ostergaard|first=Geofrey|url=http://www.ppu.org.uk/e_publications/dd-trad6.html|title=Resisting the Nation State: The Pacifist and Anarchist Tradition|website=Peace Pledge Union Publications|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725025426/http://www.ppu.org.uk/e_publications/dd-trad6.html|archive-date=25 July 2008}}. Retrieved 20 June 2020.</ref>}} Most [[History of anarchism|anarchist movements]] do not view anarcho-capitalism as anarchist, since they understand anarchism as a system that is incompatible with capitalism.{{efn|Attributed to multiple sources:<ref name=":10">{{cite book|quote=The philosophy of “anarcho-capitalism” dreamed up by the “libertarian’ [[New Right]], has nothing to do with Anarchism as known by the Anarchist movement proper.|author-link=Albert Meltzer|last=Meltzer|first=Albert|title=[[iarchive:anarchism00albe|Anarchism: Arguments For and Against]]|publisher=[[AK Press]]|year=2000|page=50}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|quote=In fact, few anarchists would accept the “anarcho-capitalists” into the anarchist camp since they do not share a concern for economic equality and social justice, Their self-interested, calculating market men would be incapable of practising voluntary co-operation and mutual aid. Anarcho-capitalists, even if they do reject the State, might therefore best be called [[Right-libertarianism|right-wing libertarians]] rather than anarchists|first=Peter|last=Marshall|title=[[Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism]]|publisher=Harper Perennial|location=[[London]]|year=2008|page=565}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|quote=It is important to distinguish between anarchism and certain strands of [[Right-libertarianism|right-wing libertarianism]] which at times go by the same name (for example, Murray Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism)|author-link=Saul Newman|last=Newman|first=Saul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SiqBiViUsOkC&q=anarcho-capitalism+right+libertarian&pg=PA43|title=The Politics of Postanarchism|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2010|page=43|isbn=978-0748634958}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/secFcon.html|chapter=Section F – Is "anarcho"-capitalism a type of anarchism?|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190909065550/http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/secFcon.html |archive-date=9 September 2019|title=An Anarchist FAQ|volume=I|publisher=[[AK Press]]|year=2008|isbn=978-1902593906}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|quote=“Libertarian” and “libertarianism” are frequently employed by anarchists as synonyms for “anarchist” and “anarchism”, largely as an attempt to distance themselves from the negative connotations of “anarchy” and its derivatives. The situation has been vastly complicated in recent decades with the rise of anarcho-capitalism, “minimal statism” and an extreme right-wing ''laissez-faire'' philosophy advocated by such theorists as Murray Rothbard and [[Robert Nozick]] and their adoption of the words “libertarian” and “libertarianism”. It has therefore now become necessary to distinguish between their [[right libertarianism]] and the [[left libertarianism]] of the anarchist tradition|title=[[Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward]]|first=David|last=Goodway|publisher=Liverpool University Press|location=Liverpool|year=2006|page=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|quote=Within Libertarianism, Rothbard represents a minority perspective that actually argues for the total elimination of the state. However Rothbard's claim as an anarchist is quickly voided when it is shown that he only wants an end to the public state. In its place he allows countless private states, with each person supplying their own police force, army, and law, or else purchasing these services from capitalist venders...so what remains is shrill anti-statism conjoined to a vacuous freedom in hackneyed defense of capitalism. In sum, the "anarchy" of Libertarianism reduces to a liberal fraud|url=http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-sabatini-libertarianism-bogus-anarchy|title=Libertarianism: Bogus Anarchy|first=Peter|last=Sabatini|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107105115/http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-sabatini-libertarianism-bogus-anarchy |archive-date=7 January 2020|issue=41|date=1994–95|journal=[[Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed]]}}'</ref>}} Anarcho-capitalism lies outside the tradition of the vast majority of anarchist schools of thought and is therefore more closely associated with [[capitalism]], [[right-libertarianism]], and [[neoliberalism]], and is occasionally seen as part of the [[New Right]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Vincent |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=igrwb3rsOOUC&pg=PA66 |title=Modern Political Ideologies |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4443-1105-1 |edition=3rd |location=Hoboken |page=66 |quote=Whom to include under the rubric of the New Right remains puzzling. It is usually seen as an amalgam of traditional liberal conservatism, Austrian liberal economic theory (Ludwing von Mises and Hayek), extreme libertarianism (anarcho-capitalism), and crude populism. |access-date=18 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512212239/https://books.google.com/books?id=igrwb3rsOOUC&pg=PA66 |archive-date=12 May 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|Attributed to multiple sources:<ref name=":10" /><ref name="Marshall 1992" /><ref name="Jennings 1993" /><ref name="Franks 2013" /><ref name="Newman 2010" /><ref name="Pele Riley p=1743872120978202">{{cite journal |last1=Pele |first1=Antonio |last2=Riley |first2=Stephen |date=2 February 2021 |title=For a Right to Health Beyond Biopolitics: The Politics of Pandemic and the 'Politics of Life' |journal=Law, Culture and the Humanities |volume=21 |pages=7–23 |publisher=Sage Publications |doi=10.1177/1743872120978201 |s2cid=234042976 |issn=1743-8721 |url=https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/14115635 |quote=In his Cours on The Birth of Biopolitics, Foucault has exclusively dedicated his lectures on (neo)liberalism (e.g. German ordoliberalism and the American 'anarcho-capitalism'), offering his apologies for not having examined thoroughly this idea of biopolitics. |doi-access=free |access-date=19 June 2023 |archive-date=8 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208210754/https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/For_a_Right_to_Health_Beyond_Biopolitics_The_Politics_of_Pandemic_and_the_Politics_of_Life_/14115635 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Traditionally, anarchists oppose and reject capitalism, and consider "anarcho-capitalism" to be a [[Contradictio in terminis|contradiction in terms]].<ref name="White & Williams 2014" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Marshall |first=Peter H. |url=https://archive.org/details/Demanding_the_impossible_9781604862706 |title=Demanding the impossible : a history of anarchism: be realistic! Demand the impossible! |year=2010 |publisher=PM Press |isbn=978-1-60486-268-3 |location=Oakland, CA |pages=564–565 |oclc=611612065 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Gay & Gay 1999, p. 15" /> Despite this, anarcho-capitalists and some right-libertarians consider anarcho-capitalism to be a form of anarchism, with some even considering it to be the only true form of anarchism.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name="brooks2" />

== Philosophy ==
{{primary sources|section|date=July 2020}}
[[File:Rothbard '70s.jpg|thumb|[[Murray Rothbard]] (1926–1995), who is credited with coining the words ''anarcho-capitalist''<ref name = "Leeson"/><ref name = "Crocetta"/> and ''anarcho-capitalism''<ref name = "Flood2010"/>|alt=Murray Rothbard in the 1970s]]

According to author J. Michael Oliver, a philosophical movement arose during the 1960s in the United States that championed "reason, ethical egoism, and free-market capitalism."<ref name="J Michael Oliver 2013 11–12, 173">{{Cite book |author=J Michael Oliver |title=The New Libertarianism: Anarcho-Capitalism |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4910-6862-5 |pages=11–12, 173|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform}}</ref> Oliver states that anarcho-capitalism is a political theory that follows Objectivism, a philosophical system developed by [[Ayn Rand]]. However, he acknowledged that his advocacy of anarcho-capitalism is "quite at odds with Rand's ardent defense of 'limited government{{'"}}.<ref name="J Michael Oliver 2013 11–12, 173"/> Professor [[Lisa Duggan]] also said that Rand's [[Anti-statism|anti-statist]], [[Free market|pro–free market]] stances went on to shape the politics of anarcho-capitalism.<ref name="Dissent Magazine 2019">{{cite web |title=Ayn Rand and the Cruel Heart of Neoliberalism |website=Dissent Magazine |date=22 May 2019 |url=https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/ayn-rand-and-the-cruel-heart-of-neoliberalism |access-date=29 October 2021 |first=Lisa |last=Duggan |author-link=Lisa Duggan |archive-date=29 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029160640/https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/ayn-rand-and-the-cruel-heart-of-neoliberalism |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to [[Patrik Schumacher]], the political ideology and program of anarcho-capitalism envisages the radicalization of the [[neoliberal]] "rollback of the state." It also calls for the extension of "entrepreneurial freedom" and "competitive market rationality" to the point where the scope for private enterprise is all-encompassing and "leaves no space for state action whatsoever."<ref name="pschu" />

=== On the state ===
Anarcho-capitalists oppose the state and seek to [[privatize]] any service the government presently provides, such as education, infrastructure, or the enforcement of law.<ref name="pschu" /><ref name="Kinna 2012" /> They see [[capitalism]] and the free market as the basis for a free and prosperous society. Murray Rothbard stated that the difference between [[free-market capitalism]] and [[state capitalism]] is the difference between "peaceful, voluntary exchange" and a "collusive partnership" between business and government that "relies on coercive mechanisms that interfere with market processes."<ref>Rothbard, Murray N., [https://www.mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1559 A Future of Peace and Capitalism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016170817/http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1559 |date=16 October 2008 }}; Murray N. Rothbard, [https://www.mises.org/article.aspx?control=910 Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty] .</ref> Rothbard 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.<ref name="Rothbard-P&M">{{cite book |last=Rothbard |first=Murray |title=[[Power and Market]] |year=1977 |edition=2nd |author-link=Murray Rothbard |orig-date=1970}} published in {{cite book |last=Rothbard |first=Murray |url=https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market |title=Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market |year=2009 |publisher=[[Mises Institute]] |isbn=978-1-933550-27-5 |edition=2nd |access-date=15 June 2020 |archive-date=18 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818171401/https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|1051|quote=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.}}{{Failed verification|date=December 2025}}

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Rothbard used the term ''anarcho-capitalism'' to distinguish his philosophy from anarchism that opposes private property<ref>[http://search.eb.com/eb/article-234237 "Libertarianism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208210833/https://academic.eb.com/ |date=8 February 2024 }} (2007). In ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 30 July 2007.</ref> as well as to distinguish it from individualist anarchism.<ref name="autogenerated1">Murray Rothbard (2000). "Egalitarianism as A Revolt Against Nature And Other Essays: and other essays". Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2000. p. 207.</ref> Other terms sometimes used by proponents of the philosophy include:
* Individualist anarchism<ref name="Avrich 1996">[[Paul Avrich|Avrich, Paul]] (1996). ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America'' (abridged paperback ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 282. {{ISBN|978-0691044941}}. "Although there are many honorable exceptions who still embrace the 'socialist' label, most people who call themselves individualist anarchists today are followers of Murray Rothbard's Austrian economics and have abandoned the labor theory of value."</ref><ref>[[Kevin Carson|Carson, Kevin]] (2006). ''Studies in Mutualist Political Economy''. [http://www.mutualist.org/id112.html "Preface"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415135834/http://www.mutualist.org/id112.html|date=15 April 2011}} Charleston: BookSurge Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1419658693}}. "Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995), American economist, historian, and individualist anarchist."</ref>
* Natural order<ref name="Hoppe 2001">[[Hans-Hermann Hoppe|Hoppe, Hans-Hermann]] (31 December 2001). [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/hoppe/hoppe5.html "Anarcho-Capitalism: An Annotated Bibliography"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111070712/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/hoppe/hoppe5.html |date=11 January 2014 }}. Lew Rockwell.com. Retrieved 5 July 2020.</ref>
* Ordered anarchy<ref name="Hoppe 2001" />
* Private-law society<ref name="Hoppe 2001" />
* Private-property anarchy<ref name="Hoppe 2001" />
* Radical capitalism<ref name="Hoppe 2001" />
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Maverick Edwards of [[Liberty University]] describes anarcho-capitalism as a political, social, and economic theory that places markets as the central "governing body" and where government no longer "grants" rights to its citizenry.<ref name="Edwards 2021">{{cite journal | last=Edwards | first=Maverick | title=The Failure of Imagination: A Theoretical and Pragmatic Analysis of Utopianism as an Orientation for Human Life | journal=Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy | date=9 January 2021 | volume=1 | issue=2 | url=https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/jspp/vol1/iss2/2 | access-date=16 January 2022 | archive-date=16 January 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116172514/https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/jspp/vol1/iss2/2/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

Critics such as Peter Sabatini and [[Bob Black (anarchist)|Bob Black]] argue that private defense agencies would act as private states, leading to coercion.<ref>Brian Morris, "Global Anti-Capitalism", pp. 170–176, ''Anarchist Studies'', vol. 14, no. 2, p. 175.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=Peter Sabatini |title=Libertarianism: Bogus Anarchy |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-sabatini-libertarianism-bogus-anarchy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830212211/http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-sabatini-libertarianism-bogus-anarchy |archive-date=30 August 2019 |access-date=28 June 2019}}</ref><ref>Bob Black (1992), "The Libertarian As Conservative", ''The Abolition of Work and Other Essays'', p. 144</ref> Other variations of anarchists reject anarcho-capitalism's solutions to the state as non-anarchist due to retaining hierarchical structures.<ref name="holcombe">{{Cite journal |last=Holcombe |first=Randall G. |title=Government: Unnecessary but Inevitable |url=https://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_08_3_1_holcombe.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_08_3_1_holcombe.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |journal=[[The Independent Review]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Meltzer |first=Albert |url=https://archive.org/details/anarchism00albe/page/50 |title=Anarchism: Arguments For and Against |publisher=[[AK Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-873176-57-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/anarchism00albe/page/50 50] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

=== Non-aggression principle ===
Writer Stanisław Wójtowicz said that although anarcho-capitalists are against centralized states, they believe that all people would naturally share and agree to a specific moral theory based on the [[non-aggression principle]].<ref name="swnauka">{{Cite journal |author=Stanisław Wójtowicz |year=2017 |title=Anarcho-capitalism, or can we do away with the state |url=http://nauka-pan.pl/index.php/nauka/article/view/747 |journal=Nauka |issue=4 |issn=1231-8515 |quote=The last problem is especially vexing, since anarcho-capitalists seem to be caught up in a contradiction here. On one hand, they are proponents of a specific moral theory (based on non-aggression principle), on the other hand, they do not allow for any central, monopolistic agency to impose that moral theory on society. |access-date=4 January 2021 |archive-date=29 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029100842/http://nauka-pan.pl/index.php/nauka/article/view/747 |url-status=live }}</ref> While the [[David D. Friedman|Friedmanian]] formulation of anarcho-capitalism considers the presence of violence and assumes some degree of violence will occur,<ref>Friedman, David D. (1989) [http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Libertarian/Machinery_of_Freedom/MofF_Chapter_41.html "Chapter 41: Problems"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111182546/http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Libertarian/Machinery_of_Freedom/MofF_Chapter_41.html |date=11 November 2020 }}. ''The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism'' (2nd ed.). La Salle: Open Court Press. {{ISBN|0-8126-9069-9}}.</ref> anarcho-capitalism as formulated by thinkers such as Rothbard holds strongly to the central [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] nonaggression [[axiom]],<ref name="swnauka" /> sometimes referred to as the non-aggression principle. Rothbard wrote:
{{blockquote|The basic axiom of libertarian political theory holds that every man is a self-owner, having absolute jurisdiction over his own body. In effect, this means that no one else may justly invade, or aggress against, another's person. It follows then that each person justly owns whatever previously unowned resources he appropriates or "mixes his labor with". From these twin axioms – [[self-ownership]] and "homesteading" – stem the justification for the entire system of [[property rights]] titles in a [[free-market]] society. This system establishes the right of every man to his own person, the right of donation, of bequest (and, concomitantly, the right to receive the bequest or inheritance), and the right of contractual exchange of property titles.<ref name="miseslawproperty">Rothbard, Murray (Spring 1982). [https://www.mises.org/rothbard/lawproperty.pdf "Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140921104222/http://www.mises.org/rothbard/lawproperty.pdf |date=21 September 2014 }}. ''Cato Journal''. '''2''' (1): 55–99.</ref>}}

Rothbard's defense of the self-ownership principle stems from what he believed to be his falsification of all other alternatives, namely that either a group of people can own another group of people, or that no single person has full ownership over oneself. Rothbard dismisses these two cases on the basis that they cannot result in a [[universal ethic]], i.e. a just natural law that can govern all people, independent of place and time. The only alternative that remains to Rothbard is [[self-ownership]], which he believes is both axiomatic and universal.<ref name="Rothbard-1982.2">Rothbard, Murray (1982). [https://www.mises.org/rothbard/ethics/ethics.asp ''The Ethics of Liberty''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109113441/http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/ethics.asp |date=9 November 2014 }}. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press. p. 162. {{ISBN|978-0-8147-7506-6}}.</ref>

In general, Rothbard describes the non-aggression axiom as a prohibition against initiating force, or the threat of force, against persons (including direct violence, assault, and murder) or property (including fraud, burglary, theft, and taxation).<ref name="Rothbard">{{Cite book |last=Rothbard |first=Murray |url=https://mises.org/library/new-liberty-libertarian-manifesto |title=For a New Liberty |year=1978 |publisher=Mises Institute |isbn=978-1-61016-448-1 |location=Auburn |page=282 |access-date=26 December 2020 |archive-date=28 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028122904/http://mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|24–25}} The initiation of force is usually referred to as [[aggression]] or [[coercion]]. The difference between anarcho-capitalists and other libertarians is largely one of the degree to which they take this axiom. [[Minarchist]] libertarians, such as [[libertarian political parties]] would retain the state in some smaller and less invasive form, retaining at the very least public police, courts, and military. However, others might give further allowance for other government programs. In contrast, Rothbard rejects any level of "[[state intervention]]", defining the state as a [[coercive monopoly]] and as the only entity in human society, excluding acknowledged criminals, that derives its income entirely from coercion, in the form of taxation, which Rothbard describes as "compulsory seizure of the property of the state's inhabitants, or subjects."<ref name="Rothbard-1982.2" />

Some anarcho-capitalists, including Rothbard accept the non-aggression axiom on an intrinsic moral or natural law basis. It is in terms of the [[non-aggression principle]] that Rothbard defined his interpretation of anarchism, "a system which provides no legal sanction for such aggression "against persons and property" and wrote that "what anarchism proposes to do, then, is to abolish the State, i.e. to abolish the regularized institution of aggressive coercion."<ref>Rothbard, Murray N. (1975) [https://www.mises.org/journals/lf/1975/1975_01.pdf "Society Without A State"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131210042358/http://mises.org/journals/lf/1975/1975_01.pdf |date=10 December 2013 }} ''Libertarian Forum'' newsletter (January 1975).</ref> In an interview published in the [[American libertarian]] journal ''The New Banner'', Rothbard stated that "capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."<ref name=":6">Rothbard, Murray (25 February 1972). [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard103.html "Exclusive Interview With Murray Rothbard"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618045309/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard103.html |date=18 June 2015 }}. ''The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal''. Retrieved 10 September 2020.</ref>

=== Property ===
==== Private property ====
Anarcho-capitalists support the [[privatization]] of everything, including cities with all their infrastructures, public spaces, streets, and urban management systems.<ref name="pschu">{{Cite web |author=Patrik Schumacher |year=2016 |title=The Stages of Capitalism and the Styles of Architecture |url=https://www.patrikschumacher.com/Texts/The%20Stages%20of%20Capitalism%20and%20the%20Styles%20of%20Architecture.html |access-date=22 December 2020 |publisher=ASA web-magazine |archive-date=8 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200208205457/http://www.patrikschumacher.com/Texts/The%20Stages%20of%20Capitalism%20and%20the%20Styles%20of%20Architecture.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |author=Cristóbal Matarán López |year=2021 |title=The Austrian school of Madrid |journal=The Review of Austrian Economics |volume=36 |pages=61–79 |doi=10.1007/s11138-021-00541-0 |quote=In addition, Professor Huerta de Soto has become one of the most prominent and resolute defenders of the Anarchocapitalism, that is, the full and complete privatisation of all goods and services. |doi-access=free|hdl=11268/9792 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Central to Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism are the concepts of [[self-ownership]] and [[original appropriation]] that combine [[personal property|personal]] and [[private property]]. [[Hans-Hermann Hoppe]] wrote:
{{blockquote|Everyone is the proper owner of his own physical body as well as of all places and nature-given goods that he occupies and puts to use by means of his body, provided only that no one else has already occupied or used the same places and goods before him. This ownership of "originally appropriated" places and goods by a person implies his right to use and transform these places and goods in any way he sees fit, provided only that he does not change thereby uninvitedly the physical integrity of places and goods originally appropriated by another person. In particular, once a place or good has been first appropriated by, in [[John Locke]]'s phrase, 'mixing one's labor' with it, ownership in such places and goods can be acquired only by means of a voluntary&nbsp;– contractual&nbsp;– transfer of its property title from a previous to a later owner.<ref name="Hoppe-2002">{{Cite web |last=Hoppe |first=Hans-Hermann |author-link=Hans-Hermann Hoppe |date=20 May 2002 |title=Rothbardian Ethics |url=http://archive.lewrockwell.com/hoppe/hoppe7.html |access-date=15 June 2020 |website=[[LewRockwell.com]] |archive-date=13 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313203720/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/hoppe/hoppe7.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Rothbard, however, rejected the [[Lockean proviso]] and followed the rule of "first come, first served", without any consideration of what resources are left for other individuals.<ref name="tennessee" /><ref>John Locke, ''[[Second Treatise of Government]]'', Chapter V, paragraph 27.</ref>

Anarcho-capitalists advocate private ownership of the means of production and the allocation of the product of labor created by workers within the context of [[wage labour|wage labor]] and the free market – that is, through decisions made by property and capital owners, regardless of what an individual needs or does not need.<ref name=":12" /> Original appropriation allows an individual to claim any never-before-used resources, including land, and by improving or otherwise using it, own it with the same "absolute right" as their own body, and retain those rights forever, regardless of whether the resource is still being used by them. According to Rothbard, property can only come about through labor, therefore original appropriation of land is not legitimate by merely claiming it or building a fence around it{{snd}}it is only by using land and by mixing one's labor with it that original appropriation is legitimized: "Any attempt to claim a new resource that someone does not use would have to be considered invasive of the property right of whoever the first user will turn out to be." Rothbard argued that the resource need not continue to be used for it to be the person's property as "for once his labor is mixed with the natural resource, it remains his owned land. His labor has been irretrievably mixed with the land, and the land is therefore his or his assigns' in perpetuity."<ref name="Rothbard-MES">{{Cite book |last=Rothbard |first=Murray |title=[[Man, Economy, and State]] |year=1993 |edition=2nd |author-link=Murray Rothbard |orig-date=1962}} published in {{cite book |last=Rothbard |first=Murray |title=Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market |year=2009 |publisher=Mises Institute |isbn=978-1-933550-27-5 |edition=2nd |url=https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market |access-date=15 June 2020 |archive-date=18 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818171401/https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|170}}

Rothbard also spoke about a theory of justice in property rights:
{{blockquote|It is not enough to call simply for the defense of "the rights of private property"; there must be an adequate theory of justice in property rights, else any property that some State once decreed to be "private" must now be defended by libertarians, no matter how unjust the procedure or how mischievous its consequences.<ref name="autogenerated1" />}}

In ''Justice and Property Rights'', Rothbard wrote that "any identifiable owner (the original victim of theft or his heir) must be accorded his property."<ref>Rothbard, Murray (2000). [https://mises.org/library/justice-and-property-rights-failure-utilitarianism "Justice and Property Rights: The Failure of Utilitarianism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200825043047/https://mises.org/library/justice-and-property-rights-failure-utilitarianism |date=25 August 2020 }}. In ''Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays'' (2nd ed.). Auburn: Mises Institute. p. 113. {{ISBN|978-1610164627}}.</ref><ref>Cobin, John M. (2009). ''A Primer on Modern Themes in Free Market Economics and Policy''. Irvine: Universal-Publishers. p. 557. {{ISBN|978-1610167024}}.</ref> In the case of slavery, Rothbard claimed that in many cases "the old plantations and the heirs and descendants of the former slaves can be identified, and the reparations can become highly specific indeed." Rothbard believed slaves rightfully own any land they were forced to work on under the homestead principle. If property is held by the state, Rothbard advocated its confiscation and "return to the private sector",<ref>Deist, Jeff (7 December 2019). [https://mises.org/power-market/rothbard-slavery-reparations "Rothbard on Slavery Reparations"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200828194210/https://mises.org/power-market/rothbard-slavery-reparations |date=28 August 2020 }}. Mises Institute. Retrieved 6 September 2020.</ref> writing that "any property in the hands of the State is in the hands of thieves and should be liberated as quickly as possible."<ref name="Gordon 2019">Gordon, David, ed.; Rothbard, Murray; Fuller, Edward W. (2019). ''Rothbard A to Z''. Auburn: Mises Institute. {{ISBN|978-1610167024}}.</ref> Rothbard proposed that [[state universities]] be seized by the students and faculty under the homestead principle. Rothbard also supported the expropriation of nominally "private property" if it is the result of state-initiated force such as businesses that receive grants and subsidies.<ref>Carson, Kevin (28 September 2012). [https://c4ss.org/content/12938 "The Left-Rothbardians, Part I: Rothbard"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924152853/https://c4ss.org/content/12938 |date=24 September 2019 }}. Center for a Stateless Society. "What most people ordinarily identify as the stereotypical 'libertarian' privatization proposal, unfortunately, goes something like this: sell it to a giant corporation on terms that are most advantageous to the corporation. Rothbard proposed, instead, was to treat state property as unowned, and allow it to be homesteaded by those actually occupying it and mixing their labor with it. This would mean transforming government utilities, schools, and other services into consumer cooperatives and placing them under the direct control of their present clientele. It would mean handing over state industry to workers' syndicates and transforming it into worker-owned cooperatives". Retrieved 10 January 2020.</ref> Rothbard further proposed that businesses that receive at least 50% of their funding from the state be confiscated by the workers,<ref>Rothbard, Murray (Spring 1965). "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty". ''Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought''. '''1''' (1): 4–22.</ref><ref>Long, Roderick T. (8 April 2006). [https://mises.org/library/rothbards-left-and-right-forty-years-later "Rothbard's 'Left and Right': Forty Years Later"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191010073127/https://mises.org/library/rothbards-left-and-right-forty-years-later |date=10 October 2019 }}. Mises Institute. Rothbard Memorial Lecture, Austrian Scholars Conference 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2020.</ref> writing: "What we libertarians object to, then, is not government ''per se'' but crime, what we object to is unjust or criminal property titles; what we are for is not 'private' property ''per se'' but just, innocent, non-criminal private property."<ref name="Gordon 2019" />

Similarly, [[Karl Hess]] wrote that "libertarianism wants to advance principles of property, but it in no way wishes to defend, indiscriminately, all property which now is called private ... Much of that property is stolen. Much is of dubious title. All of it is deeply intertwined with an immoral, coercive state system."<ref name="Hess1969">{{cite journal |last=Hess |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Hess |title=Letter From Washington: Where Are The Specifics? |journal=[[The Libertarian Forum]] |date=15 June 1969 |volume=I |issue=VI |page=2}} published in {{Cite book |url=https://cdn.mises.org/Libertarian%20Forum_Volume_1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://cdn.mises.org/Libertarian%20Forum_Volume_1.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=The Complete Libertarian Forum: 1969–1984 |year=2006 |publisher=[[Ludwig von Mises Institute]] |isbn=978-1-933550-02-2 |editor-last=Rothbard |editor-first=Murray N. |editor-link=Murray Rothbard |volume=1: 1969–1975 |page=26 |access-date=15 June 2020}}</ref>

[[Left-wing anarchists]] view capitalism as an inherently authoritarian and hierarchical system and seek the [[Private property#Criticism|abolishment of private property]].<ref name="proudhon-prop">[[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph]] (1840). ''[[What is Property?]]''</ref> There is disagreement between anarchists and anarcho-capitalists<ref>{{Cite web |author=Murray Rothbard |author-link=Murray Rothbard |title=Concepts of the role of intellectuals in social change toward laissez faire |url=https://www.mises.org/journals/jls/9_2/9_2_3.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216214953/https://www.mises.org/journals/jls/9_2/9_2_3.pdf |archive-date=16 December 2008<!--Added by DASHBot--> |access-date=28 December 2008}}</ref> as the former generally rejects anarcho-capitalism as a form of anarchism and considers ''anarcho-capitalism'' a contradiction in terms,<ref>[[David Weick|Weick, David]]. ''Anarchist Justice''. pp. 223–24</ref><ref>[[Peter Sabatini|Sabatini, Peter]]. ''Libertarianism: Bogus Anarchy''.</ref> while the latter holds that the abolishment of private property would require [[expropriation]], which is "counterproductive to order" and would require a state.<ref name="libertarianpapers">Stacy, Don (2011). [http://libertarianpapers.org/articles/2011/lp-3-3.pdf "Review of Kosanke's Instead of Politics – Don Stacy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001010127/http://libertarianpapers.org/articles/2011/lp-3-3.pdf |date=1 October 2018 }}. ''Libertarian Papers''. '''3''' (3).</ref>

==== Common property ====
As opposed to anarchists,<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Sandra Jeppesen |last2=Anna Kruzynski |last3=Rachel Sarrasin |year=2014 |title=The anarchist commons |url=http://www.mediaactionresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Anarchist-Commons-FINAL.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.mediaactionresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Anarchist-Commons-FINAL.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |publisher=Ephemera}}</ref> most anarcho-capitalists reject the [[commons]].<ref name="Holcombe" /> However, some of them propose that non-state public or community property can also exist in an anarcho-capitalist society.<ref name="Holcombe" /> For anarcho-capitalists, what is important is that it is "acquired" and transferred without help or hindrance from what they call the "compulsory state." [[Natural-rights libertarianism|Deontological anarcho-capitalists]] believe that the only just and most economically beneficial way to acquire property is through voluntary trade, gift, or labor-based [[Homestead principle (ethics)|original appropriation]], rather than through [[aggression]] or fraud.<ref>[[Paul Avrich|Avrich, Paul]]. ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America'', Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282.</ref>

Anarcho-capitalists state that there could be cases where [[common property]] may develop in a [[Natural rights and legal rights#John Locke|Lockean natural rights]] framework. Anarcho-capitalists make the example of many private businesses that may arise in an area, each owning the land and buildings that they use, but they argue that the paths between them become clear through customer and commercial movement. These paths may become valuable to the community, but according to them, ownership cannot be attributed to any single person and [[original appropriation]] does not apply because many contributed the labor necessary to create them. To prevent it from falling to the "[[tragedy of the commons]]", anarcho-capitalists suggest transitioning from common to private property, wherein an individual would make a homesteading claim based on disuse, acquire title by the assent of the community consensus, form a corporation with other involved parties, or other means.<ref name="Holcombe">{{Cite journal |last=Holcombe |first=Randall G. |author-link=Randall G. Holcombe |year=2005 |title=Common Property in Anarcho-Capitalism |url=https://cdn.mises.org/19_2_1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://cdn.mises.org/19_2_1.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |journal=[[Journal of Libertarian Studies]] |volume=19 |issue=2 (Spring) |pages=3–29 |access-date=15 June 2020}}</ref>

American economist [[Randall G. Holcombe]] sees challenges stemming from the idea of common property under anarcho-capitalism, such as whether an individual might claim [[Fishing license|fishing rights]] in the area of a major [[shipping lane]] and thereby forbid passage through it.<ref name="Holcombe" /> In contrast, Hoppe's work on anarcho-capitalist theory is based on the assumption that all property is privately held, including "all streets, rivers, airports, and harbors", which forms the foundation of [[Hans-Hermann Hoppe#Support for immigration restrictions and critiques|his views on immigration]].<ref name="Holcombe" />

==== Intellectual property ====
Most anarcho-capitalists strongly oppose [[intellectual property]] (i.e., [[trademark]]s, [[patent]]s, [[copyright]]s). Intellectual property is typically opposed because ideas are seen as lacking scarcity; and implementing an idea does not prevent another party from implementing the same idea. Further, the arbitrary nature of intellectual property is commonly criticized.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-08-25 |title=The Fallacy of Intellectual Property {{!}} Mises Institute |url=https://mises.org/mises-daily/fallacy-intellectual-property |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=mises.org |language=en}}</ref> [[Stephan Kinsella|Stephan N. Kinsella]] argues that ownership only relates to tangible assets.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kinsella |first=N. Stephan |url=https://cdn.mises.org/Against%20Intellectual%20Property_2.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://cdn.mises.org/Against%20Intellectual%20Property_2.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=Against Intellectual Property |publisher=[[Ludwig Von Mises Institute]] |year=2008}}</ref>

=== Contractual society ===
The society envisioned by anarcho-capitalists has been labelled by them as a "contractual society" which Rothbard described as "a society based purely on voluntary action, entirely unhampered by violence or threats of violence"<ref name="Rothbard-MES" />{{rp|84}} The system relies on contracts between individuals as the legal framework which would be enforced by private police and security forces as well as private arbitration.<ref name="kazmi">{{Cite book |author=Zaheer Kazmi |title=Polite Anarchy in International Relations Theory |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-137-02813-6 |series=The Palgrave Macmillan History of International Thought |page=46 |quote=Notably, in light of latter-day anarcho-capitalism, Tucker had also advocated the privatisation of the policing and security functions of the state to protect people and property and accepted the use of violence as means of enforcing contracts.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author1=Nathan W. Schlueter |author2=Nikolai G. Wenzel |title=Selfish Libertarians and Socialist Conservatives? |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-5036-0029-4 |page=138}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author1=Carl Levy |author2=Matthew Adams |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2019 |isbn=978-3-319-75620-2 |page=558}}</ref>

Rothbard argues that [[limited liability]] for corporations could also exist through contract, arguing that "Corporations are not at all monopolistic privileges; they are free associations of individuals pooling their capital. On the purely free market, those men would simply announce to their creditors that their liability is limited to the capital specifically invested in the corporation."<ref name="Rothbard-P&M" />

There are limits to the right to contract under some interpretations of anarcho-capitalism. Rothbard believes that the right to contract is based in [[inalienable rights]]<ref name="Rothbard-1982.2" /> and because of this any contract that implicitly violates those rights can be voided at will, preventing a person from permanently selling himself or herself into indentured slavery. That restriction aside, the right to contract under anarcho-capitalist order would be pretty broad. For example, Rothbard went as far as to justify stork markets, arguing that a market in guardianship rights would facilitate the transfer of guardianship from abusive or neglectful parents to those more interested or suited to raising children.<ref>{{cite web |author=Murray Rothbard |date=4 May 2007 |title=Children and Rights |url=https://mises.org/library/children-and-rights |publisher=[[Mises Institute]] |access-date=7 July 2020 |archive-date=31 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231183556/https://mises.org/library/children-and-rights |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=2 September 2016 |title=Where did Donald Trump get his racialized rhetoric? From libertarians |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/02/where-did-donald-trump-get-his-racialized-rhetoric-from-libertarians/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=7 July 2020 |archive-date=12 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012131625/https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/02/where-did-donald-trump-get-his-racialized-rhetoric-from-libertarians/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Other anarcho-capitalists have also suggested the legalization of organ markets, as in [[Kidney trade in Iran|Iran's renal market]]. Other interpretations conclude that banning such contracts would, in itself, be an unacceptably invasive interference in the right to contract.<ref name="Nozick-1974">{{cite book |last=Nozick |first=Robert |title=Anarchy, State, and Utopia |year=1974 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York |author-link=Robert Nozick}}{{pages needed|date=July 2020}}</ref> Some anarcho-capitalist philosophies understand control of private property as part of the self, and some permit [[voluntary slavery]].<ref name="Block-2003">{{cite journal |last=Block |first=Walter |date=2003 |title=Toward a Libertarian Theory of Inalienability: A Critique of Rothbard, Barnett, Smith, Kinsella, Gordon, and Epstein |url=https://mises.org/library/toward-libertarian-theory-inalienability-critique-rothbard-barnett-smith-kinsella-gordon-and |journal=[[The Journal of Libertarian Studies]] |publisher=[[Mises Institute]] |volume=17 |issue=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Casey |first=Gerard |date=2011 |title=Can You Own Yourself? |url=https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/entities/publication/d53b4dab-f934-41a4-81c2-e73ad97b9865/details |url-status=live |journal=Analysis and Metaphysics |volume=10 |pages=60–66 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250708051642/https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/server/api/core/bitstreams/57fdcbf7-645a-4b61-8f16-b607e02d22ab/content |archive-date=8 July 2025 |access-date=8 July 2025}}</ref><ref name="Vandenberg-Block-2022">{{cite journal |last1=Vandenberg |first1=Christopher |last2=Block |first2=Walter E. |date=2022 |title=The Case in Favor of the Voluntary Slave Contract |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/en/278683 |journal=Political Analysis: Croatian and International Politics Quarterly |publisher=[[HRČAK]] |volume=11 |issue=41 |pages=22–29}}</ref> The vast majority of anarcho‑capitalists deny this, and critics of capitalism argue that this minority opinion is not unique to anarcho-capitalists, but is an essential consequence of the capitalist contract theory ([[wage slavery]]).<ref name="AncapFreedom">{{cite web |last=McKay |first=Iain |date=2008–2012 |title=An Anarchist FAQ – Appendix: Anarchism and "Anarcho"-capitalism – 2 What do "anarcho"-capitalists mean by "freedom"? |url=https://anarchism.pageabode.com/book/2-what-do-anarcho-capitalists-mean-by-freedom/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250127212945/https://anarchism.pageabode.com/book/2-what-do-anarcho-capitalists-mean-by-freedom/ |archive-date=27 January 2025 |access-date=30 April 2025 |publisher=AK Press |location=Edinburgh and Oakland}}</ref>

The right to contract includes "the right to contract oneself out for employment by others." While anarchists criticize wage labor, describing it as wage slavery, anarcho-capitalists view it as a consensual contract.<ref name="radcap" /> Some anarcho-capitalists prefer to see self-employment prevail over wage labor. [[David D. Friedman]] has expressed a preference for a society where "almost everyone is self-employed" and "instead of corporations there are large groups of entrepreneurs related by trade, not authority. Each sells not his time, but what his time produces."<ref name="radcap">{{cite book|last=Friedman |first=David |author-link=David D. Friedman |title=[[The Machinery of Freedom]]: Guide to a Radical Capitalism |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-06-091010-5 |pages=144–145}}</ref>

=== Law and order and the use of violence ===
Different anarcho-capitalists propose different forms of anarcho-capitalism and one area of disagreement is in the area of law. In ''[[The Market for Liberty]]'', [[Morris Tannehill|Morris]] and [[Linda Tannehill]] object to any [[Statute|statutory]] law whatsoever. They argue that all one has to do is ask if one is aggressing against another to decide if an act is right or wrong.<ref>Brown, Susan Love, ''The Free Market as Salvation from Government: The Anarcho-Capitalist View'', Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture, edited by James G. Carrier, Berg/Oxford, 1997, p. 113.</ref> However, while also supporting a [[Natural-rights libertarianism|natural prohibition]] on force and fraud, Rothbard supports the establishment of a mutually agreed-upon centralized libertarian legal code which private courts would pledge to follow, as he presumes a high degree of convergence amongst individuals about what constitutes natural justice.<ref>{{cite book |first=George |last=Klosko |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |year=2011 |page=684}}</ref>

Unlike both Rothbard and the Tannehill couple, who see an ideological commonality of ethics and morality as a requirement, David D. Friedman proposes that "the systems of law will be produced for profit on the open market, just as books and bras are produced today. There could be competition among different brands of law, just as there is competition among different brands of cars."<ref name="koltwm">Friedman, David. ''The Machinery of Freedom''. Second edition. La Salle, Ill, Open Court, pp. 116–17.</ref> Friedman says whether this would lead to a libertarian society "remains to be proven." He says it is a possibility that very un-libertarian laws may result, such as laws against drugs, but he thinks this would be rare. He reasons that "if the value of a law to its supporters is less than its cost to its victims, that law...will not survive in an anarcho-capitalist society."<ref>{{cite book|last=Friedman |first=David |author-link=David D. Friedman |title=[[The Machinery of Freedom]]: Guide to a Radical Capitalism |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-06-091010-5 |pages=127–128}}</ref>

Anarcho-capitalists only accept the collective defense of [[individual liberty]] (i.e. courts, military, or police forces) insofar as such groups are formed and paid for on an explicitly voluntary basis. However, their complaint is not just that the state's defensive services are funded by taxation, but that the state assumes it is [[Monopoly on violence|the only legitimate practitioner of physical force]]{{snd}}that is, they believe it forcibly prevents the private sector from providing comprehensive security, such as a police, judicial and prison systems to protect individuals from aggressors. Anarcho-capitalists believe that there is nothing morally superior about the state which would grant it, but not private individuals, a right to use physical force to restrain aggressors. If competition in security provision were allowed to exist, prices would be lower and services would also be better according to anarcho-capitalists. According to [[Gustave de Molinari|Molinari]]: "Under a regime of liberty, the natural organization of the security industry would not be different from that of other industries."<ref name="Molinari-1849">{{cite book|last=De Molinari |first=Gustave |year=1849 |url=http://praxeology.net/GM-PS.htm |title=The Production of Security |translator-first=J. Huston |translator-last=McCulloch |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927000023/http://praxeology.net/GM-PS.htm |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=15 July 2006}}</ref> Proponents believe that private systems of justice and defense already exist, naturally forming where the market is allowed to "compensate for the failure of the state", namely private arbitration, security guards, neighbourhood watch groups and so on.<ref name="Stringham 53">{{cite journal |last1=Stringham |first1=Edward |last2=Curott |first2=Nicholas |year=2010 |editor-last=Lopez |editor-first=Edward |title=The Rise of Government Law Enforcement in England |journal=The Pursuit of Justice: Law and Economics of Legal Institutions |publisher=Independent Institute |ssrn=1711665}}</ref><ref name="Stringham 52">{{cite journal |last=Stringham |first=Edward |title=Market Chosen Law |journal=Journal of Libertarian Studies |date=12 December 1999 |volume=14 (1998–1999) |issue=1 (Winter) |pages=53–77 |ssrn=1676257}}</ref><ref name="Stringham 51">{{cite journal |last1=Stringham |first1=Edward |last2=Zywicki |first2=Todd |date=5 November 2005 |title=Rivalry and Superior Dispatch: An Analysis of Competing Courts in Medieval and Early Modern England |journal=George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper |volume=10 |issue=57 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.1703598 |ssrn=1703598 |s2cid=154834118}}</ref><ref name="Friedman-1973">{{cite book|last=Friedman |first=David |author-link=David D. Friedman |title=[[The Machinery of Freedom]]: Guide to a Radical Capitalism |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-06-091010-5 |chapter=29 |chapter-url=http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Libertarian/Machinery_of_Freedom/MofF_Chapter_29.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231170941/http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Libertarian/Machinery_of_Freedom/MofF_Chapter_29.html |archive-date=31 December 2010}}</ref> These private courts and police are sometimes referred to generically as [[Private defense agency|private defense agencies]]. The defense of those unable to pay for such protection might be financed by charitable organizations relying on voluntary donation rather than by state institutions relying on taxation, or by cooperative self-help by groups of individuals.<ref name="Rothbard" />{{rp|223}} [[Edward Stringham]] argues that private adjudication of disputes could enable the market to internalize externalities and provide services that customers desire.<ref name="Stringham 2015">{{cite book |last=Stringham |first=Edward |title=Private Governance |year=2015 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref><ref name="Stringham 60">{{cite journal |last1=Caplan |first1=Bryan |last2=Stringham |first2=Edward |year=2008 |title=Privatizing the Adjudication of Disputes |journal=Theoretical Inquiries in Law |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=503–28 |doi=10.2202/1565-3404.1195 |ssrn=1674441 |s2cid=154304272}}</ref>

[[File:The death of general warren at the battle of bunker hill.jpg|thumb|The death of General [[Joseph Warren]] at the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]], a war that anarcho-capitalists such as Murray Rothbard admired and believed was the only American war that could be justified<ref>{{cite web |title=Just War and Rothbardian Libertarianism {{!}} Encyclopedia of Military Ethics |url=https://www.militaryethics.org/Just-War-and-Rothbardian-Libertarianism/13/ |website=www.militaryethics.org |access-date=2 November 2023 |archive-date=28 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128124912/https://www.militaryethics.org/Just-War-and-Rothbardian-Libertarianism/13/ |url-status=usurped }}</ref>]]
Rothbard stated that the [[American Revolutionary War]] and the [[American Civil War]] were the only two just wars in American military history.<ref>{{Citation |last=Rothbard |first=Murray N. |title=America's Two Just Wars: 1775 and 1861 |date=5 July 2017 |work=The Costs of War |pages=119–133 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315131481-4 |isbn=978-1-315-13148-1}}</ref> Some anarcho-capitalists such as Rothbard feel that violent revolution is counter-productive and prefer voluntary forms of economic secession to the extent possible.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rothbard |first=Murray |author-link=Murray Rothbard |year=1981 |title=Konkin on Libertarian Strategy |url=http://www.rothbard.it/articles/konkin-on-libertarian.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.rothbard.it/articles/konkin-on-libertarian.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |journal=Strategy of the New Libertarian Alliance}}</ref> [[Retributive justice]] is often a component of the contracts imagined for an anarcho-capitalist society. According to Matthew O'Keeffe, some anarcho-capitalists believe prisons or [[indentured servitude]] would be justifiable institutions to deal with those who violate anarcho-capitalist property relations while others believe exile or forced [[restitution]] are sufficient.<ref name="OKeefe1989">{{Cite journal |last=O'Keeffe |first=Matthew |year=1989 |title=Retribution Versus Restitution |url=http://libertarian.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/legan005.pdf |journal=Legal Notes |location=London |publisher=Libertarian Alliance |volume=5 |isbn=1-870614-22-4 |issn=0267-7083|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203193034/http://libertarian.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/legan005.pdf|archive-date=3 February 2022}}</ref> Rothbard stressed the importance of restitution as the primary focus of a libertarian legal order<ref name="tennessee">{{Cite web |last=Hall |first=Larry M |date=December 1990 |title=Anarcho-Capitalist Threads in Modern Libertarianism: The Social Thought of Murray Rothbard |url=https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4312&context=utk_graddiss |access-date=23 July 2023 |website=tennessee.edu |page=140 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324032927/https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4312&context=utk_graddiss |url-status=live }}</ref> and advocated for corporal punishment for petty vandals and the death penalty for murders.

American economist [[Bruce L. Benson]] argues that legal codes may impose punitive damages for intentional torts in the interest of deterring crime. Benson gives the example of a thief who breaks into a house by picking a lock. Even if caught before taking anything, Benson argues that the thief would still owe the victim for violating the sanctity of his property rights. Benson opines that despite the lack of objectively measurable losses in such cases, "standardized rules that are generally perceived to be fair by members of the community would, in all likelihood, be established through precedent, allowing judgments to specify payments that are reasonably appropriate for most criminal offenses."<ref>{{cite book |last=Benson |first=Bruce |url=https://archive.org/details/toserveprotectpr00bens |title=To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice |publisher=[[New York University Press|NYU Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8147-1327-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/toserveprotectpr00bens/page/n263 235]–38 |url-access=limited}}</ref>

Morris and Linda Tannehill raise a similar example, saying that a bank robber who had an attack of conscience and returned the money would still owe reparations for endangering the employees' and customers' lives and safety, in addition to the costs of the defense agency answering the teller's call for help. However, they believe that the robber's loss of reputation would be even more damaging. They suggest that specialized companies would list aggressors so that anyone wishing to do business with a man could first check his record, provided they trust the veracity of the companies' records. They further theorise that the bank robber would find insurance companies listing him as a very poor risk and other firms would be reluctant to enter into contracts with him.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tannehill, Linda and Morris |url=https://www.mises.org/books/marketforliberty.pdf |title=The Market for Liberty |publisher=Fox & Wilkes |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-930073-08-4 |location=San Francisco |pages=105–106 |access-date=30 June 2011 |archive-date=3 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141003011703/http://www.mises.org/books/marketforliberty.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Fraud and breach of contract ===
{{Blockquote|text=The problem is that, in most people's minds, "fraud" basically means misrepresenting the truth{{snd}}i.e., lying. But clearly merely lying is not a rights violation. I think imprecise use of "fraud" permits it to be used to arrive at unlibertarian conclusions. It is imperative to understand it properly and to integrate it into libertarian theory in a way that is compatible with our notions of property and rights and aggression.|author=Stephan Kinsella| title=The Problem with “Fraud”:<ref>{{cite web |last=Kinsella |first=Stephan |year=2006 |title=The Problem with "Fraud": Fraud, Fraud Threat and Contract Breach – Types of Aggression |url=https://mises.org/mises-wire/problem-fraud-fraud-threat-and-contract-breach-types-aggression |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250329182925/https://mises.org/mises-wire/problem-fraud-fraud-threat-and-contract-breach-types-aggression |archive-date=29 March 2025 |publisher=Mises Institute |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

There is a debate among anarcho-capitalists about how to codify the concepts and standards for 'fraud' and 'breach of contract'.<ref>Child, J. 1994. Can libertarianism sustain a fraud standard? Ethics 104: 722–738. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/293652?journalCode=et</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Slutskiy |first=Pavel |date=2016 |title=Fraudulent advertising: A mere speech act or a type of theft? |journal=Libertarian Papers |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=109–128 |url=https://philpapers.org/archive/MCCFAA-2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241112001632/https://philpapers.org/archive/MCCFAA-2.pdf |archive-date=2024-11-12 |access-date=2025-05-28 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Block |first=Walter E. |title=Classic Book Review: The Ethics of Liberty |url=https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=1712 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250206200548/https://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=1712 |archive-date=6 February 2025 |date=Spring 2022 |publisher=The Independent Review |access-date=1 April 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dominiak |first1=Łukasz |last2=Fegley |first2=Tate |title=Contract Theory, Title Transfer, and Libertarianism |journal=Diametros |volume=19 |issue=72 |pages=1–25 |year=2022 |doi=10.33392/diam.1800 |url=https://repozytorium.umk.pl/bitstream/handle/item/6842/document-5.pdf?sequence=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240906112637/https://repozytorium.umk.pl/bitstream/handle/item/6842/document-5.pdf?sequence=1 |archive-date=2024-09-06 |url-status=live|doi-access=free }}</ref> Mark D. Friedman has argued that most right-libertarian theories on this topic are unconvincing because 'he has been duped, he nevertheless elects to entrust his property'.<ref>Friedman, M. D. (2014). Libertarian Philosophy in the Real World: The Politics of Natural Rights. USA: Bloomsbury Publishing. p.26-28</ref> Benjamin Ferguson writes that virtually all libertarians have a standard of fraud, but while libertarians will typically invoke the power of a state to prohibit such acts, libertarians who are anarchists may deny that prohibition of such immoral acts is enforceable by a state. Alternatively, they may take the weaker position that state-like collectives may be formed to enforce prohibitions, but the collective must dissolve once its purpose is fulfilled.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ferguson |first=Benjamin |date=2018 |title=Can libertarians get away with fraud? |journal=Economics and Philosophy |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=165–184 |doi=10.1017/S0266267117000311 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

== Influences ==
[[Murray Rothbard]] has listed different ideologies of which his interpretations have influenced anarcho-capitalism.<ref name="Miller 1987" /><ref name="Bottomore 1991" /> This includes his interpretation of anarchism, and more precisely individualist anarchism; classical liberalism and the [[Austrian School]] of economic thought. Scholars additionally associate anarcho-capitalism with [[neo-classical liberalism]], radical [[neoliberalism]] and [[right-libertarianism]].<ref name="Marshall 1992" /><ref name="Newman 2010" /><ref name="Goodway 2006" />

=== Anarchism ===
{{Main|Anarchism and capitalism}}

In both its [[Social anarchism|social]] and [[Individualist anarchism|individualist]] forms, [[anarchism]] is usually considered an [[anti-capitalist]]<ref name="Jun 2009">{{cite journal|last=Jun |first=Nathan |date=September 2009 |title=Anarchist Philosophy and Working Class Struggle: A Brief History and Commentary |journal=WorkingUSA |volume=12 |number=3 |pages=507–508 |doi=10.1111/j.1743-4580.2009.00251.x |issn=1089-7011 |url=https://philarchive.org/rec/JUNAPA-2 |quote=[Anarchists oppose] all centralized and hierarchical forms of government (e.g., monarchy, representative democracy, state socialism, etc.), economic class systems (e.g., capitalism, Bolshevism, feudalism, slavery, etc.), autocratic religions (e.g., fundamentalist Islam, Roman Catholicism, etc.), patriarchy, heterosexism, white supremacy, and imperialism.}}</ref><ref name="Williams 2018">Williams, Dana M. (2018). "Contemporary Anarchist and Anarchistic Movements". ''Sociology Compass''. Wiley. '''12''' (6): 4. {{doi|10.1111/soc4.12582}}. {{ISSN|1751-9020}}.</ref> and [[Political radicalism|radical]] left-wing or far-left<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kahn |first=Joseph |date=5 August 2000 |title=Anarchism, the Creed That Won't Stay Dead; The Spread of World Capitalism Resurrects a Long-Dormant Movement |journal=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/05/arts/anarchism-creed-that-won-t-stay-dead-spread-world-capitalism-resurrects-long.html |access-date=26 September 2023 |archive-date=26 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926114130/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/05/arts/anarchism-creed-that-won-t-stay-dead-spread-world-capitalism-resurrects-long.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moynihan |first=Colin |title=Book Fair Unites Anarchists. In Spirit, Anyway |journal=The New York Times |date=16 April 2007 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/nyregion/16anarchists.html |access-date=26 September 2023 |archive-date=14 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914000000/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/nyregion/16anarchists.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="brooks2" /> movement that promotes [[libertarian socialist]] economic theories such as [[Collectivist anarchism|collectivism]], [[Anarcho-communism|communism]], [[Free-market anarchism|individualism]], [[Mutualism (economic theory)|mutualism]] and [[Anarcho-syndicalism|syndicalism]].<ref>Guerin, Daniel (1970). ''Anarchism: From Theory to Practice''. Monthly Review Press. pp. 12, 35. {{ISBN|978-0853451280}}.</ref> Because anarchism is usually described alongside [[libertarian Marxism]] as the [[libertarian]] wing of the [[socialist movement]] and as having a historical association with anti-capitalism and [[socialism]], anarchists believe that [[capitalism]] is incompatible with [[Social egalitarianism|social]] and [[Economic egalitarianism|economic equality]] and therefore do not recognize anarcho-capitalism as an [[anarchist school of thought]].<ref name="Marshall 1992">Marshall, Peter (1992). ''[[iarchive:Demanding the impossible 9781604862706|Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism]]''. London: HarperCollins. pp. 564–565. {{ISBN|978-0-00-217855-6}}. "Anarcho-capitalists are against the State simply because they are capitalists first and foremost. [...] They are not concerned with the social consequences of capitalism for the weak, powerless and ignorant. [...] As such, anarcho-capitalism overlooks the egalitarian implications of traditional individualist anarchists like Spooner and Tucker. In fact, few anarchists would accept the 'anarcho-capitalists' into the anarchist camp since they do not share a concern for economic equality and social justice. Their self-interested, calculating market men would be incapable of practising voluntary cooperation and mutual aid. Anarcho-capitalists, even if they do reject the state, might therefore best be called right-wing libertarians rather than anarchists."</ref><ref name="Goodway 2006">Goodway, David (2006). ''[[Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward]]''. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 4. {{"'}}Libertarian' and 'libertarianism' are frequently employed by anarchists as synonyms for 'anarchist' and 'anarchism', largely as an attempt to distance themselves from the negative connotations of 'anarchy' and its derivatives. The situation has been vastly complicated in recent decades with the rise of anarcho-capitalism, 'minimal statism' and an extreme right-wing laissez-faire philosophy advocated by such theorists as Rothbard and Nozick and their adoption of the words 'libertarian' and 'libertarianism'. It has therefore now become necessary to distinguish between their right libertarianism and the left libertarianism of the anarchist tradition."</ref><ref name="Newman 2010">Newman, Saul (2010). ''The Politics of Postanarchism''. Edinburgh University Press. p. 43. "It is important to distinguish between anarchism and certain strands of right-wing libertarianism which at times go by the same name (for example, Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism)." {{ISBN|0748634959}}.</ref> In particular, anarchists argue that capitalist transactions are not voluntary and that maintaining the class structure of a capitalist society requires coercion which is incompatible with an anarchist society.<ref name="Tame, Chris R 1983. p. 56">Tame, Chris R. (October 1983). ''The Chicago School: Lessons from the Thirties for the Eighties''. Economic Affairs. p. 56.</ref><ref name="McKay 2008">McKay, Iain (2008). ''An Anarchist FAQ''. '''1'''. "What are the myths of capitalist economics?" "Is 'anarcho'-capitalism a type of anarchism?" Oakland/Edinburgh: AK Press. {{ISBN|978-1902593906}}.</ref> The usage of ''libertarian'' is also in dispute.<ref>Marshall, Peter (1992). ''Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism''. London: HarperCollins. p. 641. {{ISBN|978-0-00-217855-6}}. "For a long time, libertarian was interchangeable in France with anarchist but in recent years, its meaning has become more ambivalent."</ref> While both anarchists and anarcho-capitalists have used it, ''libertarian'' was synonymous with ''anarchist'' until the mid-20th century, when anarcho-capitalist theory developed.<ref name="Goodway 2006" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Cohn |first=Jesse |date=20 April 2009 |chapter=Anarchism |editor-last=Ness |editor-first=Immanuel |title=The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest |location=Oxford |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |pages=1–11 (6) |doi=10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0039 |isbn=978-1-4051-9807-3 |quote=[...] 'libertarianism' [...] a term that, until the mid-twentieth century, was synonymous with 'anarchism' ''per se''}}</ref>

Anarcho-capitalists are distinguished from the dominant anarchist tradition by their relation to [[Property rights (economics)|property]] and [[Capital (economics)|capital]]. While both anarchism and anarcho-capitalism share general antipathy towards government authority, anarcho-capitalism favours [[free-market capitalism]]. Anarchists, including [[Egoist anarchism|egoists]] such as [[Max Stirner]], have supported the protection of an individual's freedom from powers of both government and private property owners.<ref name="Mark Francis 1983">{{Cite journal |last=Francis |first=Mark |date=December 1983 |title=Human Rights and Libertarians |journal=[[Australian Journal of Politics & History]] |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=462–463 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8497.1983.tb00212.x |issn=0004-9522}}</ref> In contrast, while condemning governmental encroachment on personal liberties, anarcho-capitalists support freedoms based on private property rights. Anarcho-capitalist theorist [[Murray Rothbard]] argued that protesters should rent a street for protest from its owners. The abolition of public amenities is a common theme in some anarcho-capitalist writings.<ref name="Mark Francis 1983" />

As anarcho-capitalism puts ''[[laissez-faire]]'' economics before economic equality, it is commonly viewed as incompatible with the anti-capitalist and egalitarian tradition of anarchism. Although anarcho-capitalist theory implies the abolition of the state in favor of a fully ''laissez-faire'' economy,<ref name="Gay & Gay 1999">Gay, Kathlyn; Gay, Martin (1999). ''Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy''. ABC-CLIO. {{ISBN|978-0-87436-982-3}}.</ref> it lies outside the tradition of anarchism.{{refn|<ref name="Marshall 1992" /><ref name="Jennings 1993">Jennings, Jeremy (1993). "Anarchism". In Eatwell, Roger; Wright, Anthony (eds.). ''Contemporary Political Ideologies''. London: Pinter. pp. 127–146. {{ISBN|978-0-86187-096-7}}. "[...] anarchism does not stand for the untrammelled freedom of the individual (as the 'anarcho-capitalists' appear to believe) but, as we have already seen, for the extension of individuality ''and'' community" (p. 143).</ref><ref name="Gay & Gay 1999, p. 15">Gay, Kathlyn; Gay, Martin (1999). ''Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy''. ABC-CLIO. p. 15. {{ISBN|978-0-87436-982-3}}. "For many anarchists (of whatever persuasion), anarcho-capitalism is a contradictory term, since 'traditional' anarchists oppose capitalism".</ref><ref name="Morriss 2008">Morriss, Andrew (2008). "Anarcho-capitalism". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). ''The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism''. Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 13–14. {{doi|10.4135/9781412965811.n8}}. {{ISBN|978-1-4129-6580-4}}. {{OCLC|191924853}}. "Social anarchists, those anarchists with communitarian leanings, are critical of anarcho-capitalism because it permits individuals to accumulate substantial power through markets and private property."</ref><ref name="Franks 2013">Franks, Benjamin (August 2013). Freeden, Michael; Stears, Marc (eds.). "Anarchism". ''The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies''. Oxford University Press: 385–404. {{doi|10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199585977.013.0001}}. "Individualisms that defend or reinforce hierarchical forms such as the economic-power relations of anarcho-capitalism [...] are incompatible with practices of social anarchism. [...] Increasingly, academic analysis has followed activist currents in rejecting the view that anarcho-capitalism has anything to do with social anarchism" (pp. 393–394).</ref>}} While using the language of anarchism,<ref name="Davis 2019, p. 64" /> anarcho-capitalism only shares anarchism's antipathy towards the state<ref name="Gay & Gay 1999" /> and not anarchism's antipathy towards hierarchy as theorists expect from anarcho-capitalist economic power relations.<ref name="Davis 2019, p. 64">Davis, Laurence (2019). "Individual and Community". In Levy, Carl; Adams, Matthew S. (eds.). ''The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism''. Cham: Springer. pp. 47–70. {{doi|10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_3}}. {{ISBN|978-3-319-75619-6}}.</ref> It follows a different paradigm from anarchism and has a fundamentally different approach and goals.<ref name="Davis 2019, p. 64" /> In spite of the ''anarcho-'' in its title,<ref name="Davis 2019, p. 64" /> anarcho-capitalism is more closely affiliated with capitalism, [[right-libertarianism]], and liberalism than with anarchism.<ref name="Pele Riley p=1743872120978202" />{{refn|<ref name="Marshall 1992" /><ref name="Jennings 1993" /><ref name="Gay & Gay 1999, p. 15" /><ref name="Morriss 2008" /><ref name="Franks 2013" />}} Some within this ''laissez-faire'' tradition reject the designation of ''anarcho-capitalism'', believing that ''capitalism'' may either refer to the ''laissez-faire'' market they support or the government-regulated system that they oppose.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Long |editor1-first=Roderick T. |editor2-last=Machan |editor2-first=Tibor R. |year=2008 |title=Anarchism/Minarchism: Is a Government Part of a Free Country? |publisher=Ashgate |page=vii |isbn=978-0-7546-6066-8}}</ref>

Rothbard argued that anarcho-capitalism is the only true form of anarchism{{snd}}the only form of anarchism that could possibly exist in reality as he maintained that any other form presupposes authoritarian enforcement of a political ideology such as "redistribution of private property", which he attributed to anarchism.<ref name=":6" /> According to this argument, the capitalist [[free market]] is "the natural situation" that would result from people being free from state authority and entails the establishment of all voluntary associations in society such as cooperatives, non-profit organizations, businesses and so on. Moreover, anarcho-capitalists, as well as [[classical liberal]] [[minarchists]], argue that the application of anarchist ideals as advocated by what they term "left-wing anarchists" would require an authoritarian body of some sort to impose it. Based on their understanding and interpretation of anarchism, to forcefully prevent people from accumulating capital, which they believe is a goal of anarchists, there would necessarily be a redistributive organization of some sort which would have the authority to in essence exact a tax and re-allocate the resulting resources to a larger group of people. They conclude that this theoretical body would inherently have political power and would be nothing short of a state. The difference between such an arrangement and an anarcho-capitalist system is what anarcho-capitalists see as the voluntary nature of organization within anarcho-capitalism contrasted with a "centralized ideology" and a "paired enforcement mechanism" which they believe would be necessary under what they describe as a "coercively" egalitarian-anarchist system.<ref name="Tame, Chris R 1983. p. 56" />

Rothbard also argued that the capitalist system of today is not properly anarchistic because it often colludes with the state. According to Rothbard, "what Marx and later writers have done is to lump together two extremely different and even contradictory concepts and actions under the same portmanteau term. These two contradictory concepts are what I would call 'free-market capitalism' on the one hand, and 'state capitalism' on the other." "The difference between free-market capitalism and state capitalism", writes Rothbard, "is precisely the difference between, on the one hand, peaceful, voluntary exchange, and on the other, violent expropriation." He continues: "State capitalism inevitably creates all sorts of problems which become insoluble."<ref name=":6" />

Traditional anarchists reject the notion of [[capitalism]], hierarchies and private property.<ref name="Funnell 2007">Funnell, Warwick (2007). [https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=aabfj "Accounting and the Virtues of Anarchy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211115205625/https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=aabfj |date=15 November 2021 }}. ''Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal''. '''1''' (1) 18–27. {{doi|10.14453/aabfj.v1i1.2}}.</ref><ref name="Williams 2012">Williams, Dana (2012). "From Top to Bottom, a Thoroughly Stratified World: An Anarchist View of Inequality and Domination". ''Race, Gender & Class''. '''19''' (3/4): 9–34. {{JSTOR|43497486}}.</ref><ref name="White & Williams 2014">White, Richard; Williams, Colin (2014). [http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/anarchist-economic-practices-%E2%80%98capitalist%E2%80%99-society-some-implications-organisation-and "Anarchist Economic Practices in a 'Capitalist' Society: Some Implications for Organisation and the Future of Work"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211115205823/http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/anarchist-economic-practices-%E2%80%98capitalist%E2%80%99-society-some-implications-organisation-and |date=15 November 2021}}. ''Ephermera: Theory and Politics in Organization''. '''14''' (4): 947–971. {{ssrn|2707308}}.</ref> [[Albert Meltzer]] argued that anarcho-capitalism simply cannot be anarchism because capitalism and the state are inextricably interlinked and because capitalism exhibits domineering hierarchical structures such as that between an employer and an employee.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Casey |first=Gerard |title=Freedom's Progress? |publisher=Andrews UK Limited |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-84540-942-5 |page=670}}</ref> Anna Morgenstern approaches this topic from the opposite perspective, arguing that anarcho-capitalists are not really capitalists because "mass concentration of capital is impossible" without the state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jun |first=Nathan J. |title=Brill's Companion to Anarchism and philosophy |publisher=Brill |year=2017 |isbn=978-90-04-35688-7 |page=293}}</ref> According to [[Jeremy Jennings]], "[i]t is hard not to conclude that these ideas", referring to anarcho-capitalism, have "roots deep in classical liberalism" and "are described as anarchist only on the basis of a misunderstanding of what anarchism is." For Jennings, "anarchism does not stand for the untrammeled freedom of the individual (as the 'anarcho-capitalists' appear to believe) but, as we have already seen, for the extension of individuality and community."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jennings |first=Jeremy |title=Contemporary Political Ideologies |publisher=A & C Black |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8264-5173-6 |editor-last=Eatwell |editor-first=Roger |edition=reprinted, 2nd |location=London |page=147 |chapter=Anarchism |editor2-last=Wright |editor2-first=Anthony}}</ref> Similarly, Barbara Goodwin, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, argues that anarcho-capitalism's "true place is in the group of right-wing libertarians", not in anarchism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodwin |first=Barbara |title=Using Political Ideas |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-470-02552-9 |location=Hoboken |page=143}}</ref>

Some right-libertarian scholars like [[Michael Huemer]], who identify with the ideology, describe anarcho-capitalism as a "variety of anarchism."<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=[[Michael Huemer]] |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/right-anarchy-michael-huemer/e/10.4324/9781315185255-24 |title=The Routledge Handbook of Anarchy and Anarchist Thought |publisher=Routledge |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-315-18525-5 |pages=342–359 |chapter=The Right Anarchy |doi=10.4324/9781315185255-24 |s2cid=228838944 |quote=(From abstract): There are two main varieties of anarchism: the socialist variety (aka "social anarchism" or "anarcho-socialism") and the capitalist variety ("anarcho-capitalism") |access-date=4 January 2021 |archive-date=8 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208210848/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315185255-24/right-anarchy-michael-huemer |url-status=live }}</ref> British author [[Andrew Heywood]] also believes that "individualist anarchism overlaps with libertarianism and is usually linked to a strong belief in the market as a self-regulating mechanism, most obviously manifest in the form of anarcho-capitalism."<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Political Ideologies: An introduction, fifth edition (Chapter summaries) |url=https://www.macmillanihe.com/companion/Heywood-Political-Ideologies/resources/Chapter-summaries/  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616142654/https://www.macmillanihe.com/companion/Heywood-Political-Ideologies/resources/Chapter-summaries/#Anarchism |archive-date=16 June 2019 |publisher=Macmillan International}}</ref> Frank H. Brooks, author of ''The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881–1908)'', believes that "anarchism has always included a significant strain of radical individualism, from the hyper-rationalism of Godwin, to the egoism of Stirner, to the libertarians and anarcho-capitalists of today."<ref name="brooks2">{{cite book |last=Brooks |first=Frank H. |title=The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881–1908) |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1994 |isbn=1-56000-132-1 |page=xi |quote=Usually considered to be an extreme left-wing ideology, anarchism has always included a significant strain of radical individualism, from the hyperrationalism of Godwin, to the egoism of Stirner, to the libertarians and anarcho-capitalists of today}}.</ref>

While both anarchism and anarcho-capitalism are in opposition to the state, they nevertheless interpret state-rejection differently.<ref>McLaughlin, Paul (2007). ''Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism''. Ashgate. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kkj5i3CeGbQC pp. 28] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208210722/https://books.google.com/books?id=kkj5i3CeGbQC |date=8 February 2024 }}–166. {{ISBN|978-0754661962}}. "Anarchists do reject the state, as we will see. But to claim that this central aspect of anarchism is definitive is to sell anarchism short. [...] [Opposition to the state] is (contrary to what many scholars believe) ''not definitive of anarchism''."</ref><ref>Jun, Nathan (September 2009). "Anarchist Philosophy and Working Class Struggle: A Brief History and Commentary". ''WorkingUSA''. '''12''' (3): 505–519. {{doi|10.1111/j.1743-4580.2009.00251.x}}. {{ISSN|1089-7011}}. "One common misconception, which has been rehearsed repeatedly by the few Anglo-American philosophers who have bothered to broach the topic [...] is that anarchism can be defined solely in terms of opposition to states and governments" (p. 507).</ref><ref>Franks, Benjamin (August 2013). Freeden, Michael; Stears, Marc (eds.). "Anarchism". ''The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies''. Oxford University Press: 385–404. {{doi|10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199585977.013.0001}}. "[M]any, questionably, regard anti-statism as the irremovable, universal principle at the core of anarchism. [...] The fact that [anarchists and anarcho-capitalists] share a core concept of 'anti-statism', which is often advanced as [...] a commonality between them [...], is insufficient to produce a shared identity [...] because [they interpret] the concept of state-rejection [...] differently despite the initial similarity in nomenclature" (pp. 386–388).</ref><ref name="prychytkodl">{{Cite book |author=David L. Prychytko |title=Markets, Planning, and Democracy |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing, Incorporated |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-84376-738-1 |page=124 |chapter=Chapter 10: Expanding the Anarchist Range: A Critical Reappraisal of Rothbard's Contribution to the Contemporary Theory of Anarchism |quote=While society without a state is necessary for full-fledged anarchy, it is nevertheless insufficient.}}</ref> Austrian school economist [[David Prychitko]], in the context of anarcho-capitalism says that "while society without a state is necessary for full-fledged anarchy, it is nevertheless insufficient."<ref name="prychytkodl" /> According to [[Ruth Kinna]], anarcho-capitalists are [[anti-statists]] who draw more on right-wing [[liberal theory]] and the [[Austrian School]] than [[anarchist traditions]]. Kinna writes that "[i]n order to highlight the clear distinction between the two positions", anarchists describe anarcho-capitalists as "[[propertarians]]."<ref name="Kinna 2012">Kinna, Ruth, ed. (2012). ''The Bloomsbury Companion to Anarchism''. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 330–331. {{ISBN|978-1441142702}}.</ref> Anarcho-capitalism is usually seen as part of the [[New Right]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Meltzer |first=Albert |url=https://archive.org/details/anarchism00albe |title=Anarchism: Arguments for and Against |publisher=AK Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-873176-57-3 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/anarchism00albe/page/50 50] |quote=The philosophy of 'anarcho-capitalism' dreamed up by the 'libertarian' New Right, has nothing to do with Anarchism as known by the Anarchist movement proper. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name=":13"/>

Some anarcho-capitalists understand anarchism to mean something other than "opposition to hierarchy" and therefore consider the two traditions to be philosophically distinct. Therefore, the anarchist critique that anarcho-capitalist societies would necessarily contain hierarchies is not concerning to these anarcho-capitalists.<ref name="marshallpitzer" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Murphy |first=Ryan H. |title=Markets against Modernity: Ecological Irrationality, Public and Private |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-4985-9118-8 |page=84}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Hatlestad |first=Luc |date=19 August 2018 |title=Is Anarchy the Solution to Our Political Problems? |url=https://www.5280.com/2016/08/is-anarchy-the-solution-to-our-political-problems/ |publisher=5280 Denver's Mile High Magazine |access-date=1 January 2021 |archive-date=4 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804214025/https://www.5280.com/2016/08/is-anarchy-the-solution-to-our-political-problems/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Additionally, Rothbard discusses the difference between "government" and "[[governance]]"<ref name="MurrayRothbard">{{cite book |year=2016 |title=The Rothbard Reader – Society Without a State |url=https://mises.org/library/rothbard-reader/html/c/406 |access-date=28 November 2022 |publisher=Mises Institute |isbn=978-1-61016-661-4 |last=Rothbard |first=Murray N. |archive-date=28 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128055729/https://mises.org/library/rothbard-reader/html/c/406 |url-status=live }}</ref> thus, proponents of anarcho-capitalism think the philosophy's common name is indeed consistent, as it promotes private governance, but is vehemently anti-government.<ref name="Stringham 2015"/><ref name="Stringham 60"/>

{{blockquote|"I define [[anarchist]] society as one where there is no legal possibility for coercive aggression against the person or property of any individual. Anarchists oppose the State because it has its very being in such aggression, namely, the expropriation of private property through taxation, the coercive exclusion of other providers of defense service from its territory, and all of the other depredations and coercions that are built upon these twin foci of invasions of individual rights." —[[Murray Rothbard]] in ''Society Without a State''<ref name="MurrayRothbard" />}}

=== Classical liberalism ===
{{Main|Classical liberalism}}

{{capitalism sidebar|ideologies}}
Historian and libertarian [[Ralph Raico]] argued that what [[liberal philosophers]] "had come up with was a form of individualist anarchism, or, as it would be called today, anarcho-capitalism or market anarchism."<ref name="raico2004">Raico, Ralph (2004). [https://www.mises.org/story/1787 ''Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th century''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090610035217/http://www.crea.polytechnique.fr/index.htm |date=10 June 2009 }}. École Polytechnique, Centre de Recherche en Épistémologie Appliquée. Unité associée au CNRS.</ref> He also said that [[Gustave de Molinari]] was proposing a doctrine of the private production of security, a position which was later taken up by Murray Rothbard.<ref name="raico2004" /> Some anarcho-capitalists consider Molinari to be the first proponent of anarcho-capitalism.<ref name="Mises">[[Ralph Raico|Raico, Ralph]] (29 March 2011) [https://mises.org/daily/5088/Neither-the-Wars-Nor-the-Leaders-Were-Great "Neither the Wars Nor the Leaders Were Great"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914021824/https://mises.org/daily/5088/Neither-the-Wars-Nor-the-Leaders-Were-Great |date=14 September 2014 }}. [[Mises Institute]].</ref> In the preface to the 1977 English translation by Murray Rothbard called ''The Production of Security'' the "first presentation anywhere in human history of what is now called anarcho-capitalism", although admitting that "Molinari did not use the terminology, and probably would have balked at the name."<ref>Molinari, Gustave; Ebeling, Richard M., ed. (1977). [https://mises.org/library/production-security-0 ''The Production of Security''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191128182908/https://mises.org/library/production-security-0 |date=28 November 2019 }}. "Preface". Translated by McCulloch, J. Huston. ''Occasional Papers Series'' (2). New York: The Center for Libertarian Studies.</ref> Hans-Hermann Hoppe said that "the 1849 article 'The Production of Security' is probably the single most important contribution to the modern theory of anarcho-capitalism." According to Hans-Hermann Hoppe, one of the 19th century precursors of anarcho-capitalism were philosopher [[Herbert Spencer]], classical liberal [[Auberon Herbert]] and [[liberal socialism|liberal socialist]] [[Franz Oppenheimer]].<ref name="Hoppe 2001" />

[[Ruth Kinna]] credits [[Murray Rothbard]] with coining the term ''anarcho-capitalism'', which is – Kinna proposes – to describe "a commitment to unregulated private property and laissez-faire economics, prioritizing the liberty-rights of individuals, unfettered by government regulation, to accumulate, consume and determine the patterns of their lives as they see fit." According to Kinna, anarcho-capitalists "will sometimes label themselves market anarchists because they recognize the negative connotations of 'capitalism'. But the literature of anarcho-capitalism draws on classical liberal theory, particularly the [[Austrian School]] – [[Friedrich von Hayek]] and [[Ludwig von Mises]] – rather than recognizable [[anarchist traditions]]. [[Ayn Rand]]'s laissez-faire, anti-government, corporate philosophy – [[Objectivism]] – is sometimes associated with anarcho-capitalism."<ref name="Kinna 2012" /> Other scholars similarly associate anarcho-capitalism with anti-state classical liberalism, [[neo-classical liberalism]], radical [[neoliberalism]] and [[right-libertarianism]].<ref name="Marshall 1992" /><ref name="Newman 2010" /><ref name="Goodway 2006" /><ref>Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed. ''The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America''. London: Sage Publications. pp. 1006–1007. {{ISBN|978-1412988766}}.</ref>

Paul Dragos Aligica writes that there is a "foundational difference between the classical liberal and the anarcho-capitalist positions." Classical liberalism, while accepting critical arguments against collectivism, acknowledges a certain level of public ownership and collective governance as necessary to provide practical solutions to political problems. In contrast anarcho-capitalism, according to Aligica, denies any requirement for any form of public administration, and allows no meaningful role for the public sphere, which is seen as sub-optimal and illegitimate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aligica |first=Paul Dragos |year=2017 |title=Public Administration and the Classical Liberal Perspective: Criticism, Clarifications, and Reconstruction |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0095399715581044 |journal=Administration & Society |language=en |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=530–551 |doi=10.1177/0095399715581044 |s2cid=144893289 |issn=0095-3997 |access-date=12 June 2022 |archive-date=12 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220612110335/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0095399715581044 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Individualist anarchism ===
{{individualism sidebar|ideologies}}
{{Main|Individualist anarchism}}

[[File:LysanderSpooner.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Lysander Spooner]], an American individualist anarchist and [[Mutualism (economic theory)|mutualist]], who is claimed to have influenced anarcho-capitalism]]
[[Murray Rothbard]], a student of [[Ludwig von Mises]], stated that he was influenced by the work of the 19th-century [[American individualist anarchists]].<ref>De Leon, David (1978). ''[[The American as Anarchist: Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism]]''. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 127. "[...] Only a few individuals like Murray Rothbard, in Power and Market, and some article writers were influenced by these men. Most had not evolved consciously from this tradition; they had been a rather automatic product of the American environment."</ref> In the winter of 1949, Rothbard decided to reject [[minimal state]] ''[[laissez-faire]]'' and embrace his interpretation of individualist anarchism.<ref>Gordon, David (2007). ''The Essential Rothbard''. Mises Institute. pp. 12–13.</ref> In 1965, Rothbard wrote that "[[Lysander Spooner]] and [[Benjamin R. Tucker]] were unsurpassed as political philosophers and nothing is more needed today than a revival and development of the largely forgotten legacy they left to political philosophy."<ref name="Rothbard 2000">Rothbard, Murray (2000) [1965]. [https://cdn.mises.org/20_1_2.pdf "The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130135410/https://cdn.mises.org/20_1_2.pdf |date=30 November 2020 }}. ''Journal of Libertarian Studies''. '''20''' (1): 5–15.</ref> However, Rothbard thought that they had a faulty understanding of economics, as the 19th-century individualist anarchists had a [[labor theory of value]] as influenced by the [[classical economists]], while Rothbard was a student of [[Austrian School]] economics, which does not agree with the labor theory of value.<ref name="Miller 1987" /> Rothbard sought to meld 19th-century American individualist anarchists' advocacy of [[economic individualism]] and [[free market]]s with the principles of Austrian School economics, arguing that "[t]here is, in the body of thought known as 'Austrian economics', a scientific explanation of the workings of the free market (and of the consequences of government intervention in that market) which individualist anarchists could easily incorporate into their political and social Weltanschauung."<ref>Rothbard, Murray (2000) [1965]. [https://www.mises.org/journals/jls/20_1/20_1_2.pdf "The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102032649/http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/20_1/20_1_2.pdf |date=2 November 2012 }}. ''Journal of Libertarian Studies''. '''20''' (1): 7.</ref> Rothbard held that the economic consequences of the political system they advocate would not result in an economy with people being paid in proportion to labor amounts, nor would profit and interest disappear as they expected. Tucker thought that unregulated banking and money issuance would cause increases in the money supply so that interest rates would drop to zero or near to it.<ref name="Rothbard 2000" /> [[Peter Marshall (author, born 1946)|Peter Marshall]] states that "anarcho-capitalism overlooks the egalitarian implications of traditional individualist anarchists like Spooner and Tucker."<ref name="Marshall 1992" /> Stephanie Silberstein states that "While Spooner was no free-market capitalist, nor an anarcho-capitalist, he was not as opposed to capitalism as most socialists were."<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Silberstein |first=Stephanie |title=Was Spooner Really an Anarcho-Socialist? |url=http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bright/Spooner/debate.html |access-date=29 June 2022 |publisher=Anarchy Archives |archive-date=25 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425080122/http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bright/Spooner/debate.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In "The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View", Rothbard explained his disagreements. Rothbard disagreed with Tucker that it would cause the money supply to increase because he believed that the money supply in a free market would be self-regulating. If it were not, then Rothbard argued inflation would occur so it is not necessarily desirable to increase the money supply in the first place. Rothbard claimed that Tucker was wrong to think that interest would disappear regardless because he believed people, in general, do not wish to lend their money to others without compensation, so there is no reason why this would change just because banking was unregulated.<ref name="Rothbard 2000" /> Tucker held a labor theory of value and thought that in a free market people would be paid in proportion to how much labor they exerted and that exploitation or usury was taking place if they were not. As Tucker explained in ''State Socialism and Anarchism'', his theory was that unregulated banking would cause more money to be available and that this would allow the proliferation of new businesses which would, in turn, raise demand for labor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=Benjamin |url=https://archive.org/details/statesocialisman00tuck/page/n5 |title=State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree & Wherein They Differ |year=1911 |publisher=A. C. Fifield |edition=6th |location=London}}</ref> This led Tucker to believe that the labor theory of value would be vindicated and equal amounts of labor would receive equal pay. As an Austrian School economist, Rothbard did not agree with the labor theory and believed that prices of goods and services are proportional to [[marginal utility]] rather than to labor amounts in the free market. As opposed to Tucker he did not think that there was anything exploitative about people receiving an income according to how much "buyers of their services value their labor" or what that labor produces.<ref name="Rothbard 2000" />

[[File:BenjaminTucker.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Benjamin Tucker]], another individualist anarchist, who identified as a socialist and his individualist anarchism as [[anarchistic socialism]] versus [[state socialism]], said to have influenced anarcho-capitalism]]
Without the labor theory of value,<ref name="Avrich 1996" /> some argue that 19th-century [[individualist anarchists]] approximate the modern movement of anarcho-capitalism,<ref name="Miller 1987" /><ref name="Bottomore 1991" /><ref name="Outhwaite 2003" /> although this has been contested<ref name="Franks 2013" /> or rejected.<ref>[[Wieck, David]] (1978). [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-wieck-anarchist-justice "Anarchist Justice"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928054827/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-wieck-anarchist-justice |date=28 September 2020 }}. In Chapman, John W.; Pennock, J. Roland Pennock, eds. ''Anarchism: Nomos XIX''. New York: New York University Press. pp. 227–228. "Out of the history of anarchist thought and action Rothbard has pulled forth a single thread, the thread of individualism, and defines that individualism in a way alien even to the spirit of a Max Stirner or a Benjamin Tucker, whose heritage I presume he would claim – to say nothing of how alien is his way to the spirit of Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Malatesta, and the historically anonymous persons who through their thoughts and action have tried to give anarchism a living meaning. Out of this thread, Rothbard manufactures one more bourgeois ideology." Retrieved 7 April 2020.</ref><ref name="Peacott 1985">Peacott, Joe (18 April 1985). [http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/mcelroy2.html "Reply to Wendy Mc Elroy"]. ''New Libertarian'' (14, June 1985. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207212416/http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/mcelroy2.html|date=7 February 2017}}. Retrieved 4 September 2020. "In her article on individualist anarchism in October 1984, ''New Libertarian'', Wendy McElroy mistakenly claims that modern-day individualist anarchism is identical with anarchist capitalism. She ignores the fact that there are still individualist anarchists who reject capitalism as well as communism, in the tradition of Warren, Spooner, Tucker, and others. [...] Benjamin Tucker, when he spoke of his ideal 'society of contract,' was certainly not speaking of anything remotely resembling contemporary capitalist society. [...] I do not quarrel with McElroy's definition of herself as an individualist anarchist. However, I dislike the fact that she tries to equate the term with anarchist capitalism. This is simply not true. I am an individualist anarchist and I am opposed to capitalist economic relations, voluntary or otherwise."</ref><ref>Baker, J. W. "Native American Anarchism". ''The Raven''. '''10''' (1): 43‒62. Retrieved 4 September 2020. "It is time that anarchists recognise the valuable contributions of individualist anarchist theory and take advantage of its ideas. It would be both futile and criminal to leave it to the capitalist libertarians, whose claims on Tucker and the others can be made only by ignoring the violent opposition they had to capitalist exploitation and monopolistic 'free enterprise' supported by the state."</ref> As economic theory changed, the popularity of the labor theory of [[classical economics]] was superseded by the [[subjective theory of value]] of [[neoclassical economics]] and Rothbard combined Mises' Austrian School of economics 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 Tucker and Spooner.<ref>Miller, David, ed. (1987). ''The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought''. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 290. {{ISBN|0-631-17944-5}}.</ref> In the mid-1950s, Rothbard wrote an unpublished article named "Are Libertarians 'Anarchists'?" under the pseudonym "Aubrey Herbert", concerned with differentiating himself from communist and socialistic economic views of anarchists, including the individualist anarchists of the 19th century, concluding that "we are ''not'' anarchists and that those who call us anarchists are not on firm etymological ground and are being completely unhistorical. On the other hand, it is clear that we are not archists either: we do not believe in establishing a tyrannical central authority that will coerce the non-invasive as well as the invasive. Perhaps, then, we could call ourselves by a new name: ''non-''archist."<ref name="Are Libertarians">Rothbard, Murray (1950s). [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard167.html "Are Libertarians 'Anarchists'?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113130534/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard167.html |date=13 January 2017 }} Lew Rockwell.com. Retrieved 4 September 2020.</ref> Joe Peacott, an American individualist anarchist in the [[Mutualism (economic theory)|mutualist]] tradition, criticizes anarcho-capitalists for trying to hegemonize the individualist anarchism label and make appear as if all individualist anarchists are in favor of [[capitalism]].<ref name="Peacott 1985" /> Peacott states that "individualists, both past and present, agree with the communist anarchists that present-day capitalism is based on economic coercion, not on voluntary contract. Rent and interest are the mainstays of modern capitalism and are protected and enforced by the state. Without these two unjust institutions, capitalism could not exist."<ref name="Peacott 1985" />

Anarchist activists and scholars do not consider anarcho-capitalism as a part of the anarchist movement, arguing that anarchism has historically been an [[anti-capitalist]] movement and see it as incompatible with capitalist forms.{{refn|<ref name="Marshall 1992" /><ref name="Goodway 2006" /><ref name="Newman 2010" /><ref>Sabatini, Peter (Fall/Winter 1994–1995). [http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-sabatini-libertarianism-bogus-anarchy "Libertarianism: Bogus Anarchy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107105115/http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-sabatini-libertarianism-bogus-anarchy |date=7 January 2020 }}. ''[[Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed]]'' (41). Retrieved 4 September 2020. "Within [capitalist] Libertarianism, Rothbard represents a minority perspective that actually argues for the total elimination of the state. However, Rothbard's claim as an anarchist is quickly voided when it is shown that he only wants an end to the public state. In its place, he allows countless private states, with each person supplying their own police force, army, and law, or else purchasing these services from capitalist vendors [...] so what remains is shrill anti-statism conjoined to a vacuous freedom in hackneyed defense of capitalism. In sum, the "anarchy" of Libertarianism reduces to a liberal fraud."</ref><ref name=":0"/>}} Although some regard anarcho-capitalism as a form of individualist anarchism,<ref name="Miller 1987" /><ref name="Bottomore 1991" /><ref name="Outhwaite 2003" /> many others disagree or contest the existence of an individualist–socialist divide.<ref name="Franks 2013" /><ref>{{Cite book |title=An Anarchist FAQ |publisher=AK Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-84935-122-5 |editor-last=McKay |editor-first=Iain |volume=II |location=Stirling}}</ref> In coming to terms that anarchists mostly identified with [[socialism]], Rothbard wrote that individualist anarchism is different from anarcho-capitalism and other capitalist theories due to the individualist anarchists retaining the labor theory of value and socialist doctrines.<ref name="Are Libertarians"/> Similarly, many writers deny that anarcho-capitalism is a form of anarchism or that capitalism is compatible with anarchism.{{refn|<ref name="Marshall 1992" /><ref name="Jennings 1993" /><ref name="Gay & Gay 1999, p. 15" /><ref name="Morriss 2008" /><ref name="Franks 2013" />}}

''The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism'' writes that "[a]s Benjamin Franks rightly points out, individualisms that defend or reinforce hierarchical forms, such as the economic-power relations of anarcho-capitalism, are incompatible with practices of social anarchism based on developing immanent goods which contest such as inequalities." Laurence Davis cautiously asks "[I]s anarcho-capitalism really a form of anarchism or instead a wholly different ideological paradigm whose adherents have attempted to expropriate the language of anarchism for their own anti-anarchist ends?" Davis cites [[Iain McKay]], "whom Franks cites as an authority to support his contention that 'academic analysis has followed activist currents in rejecting the view that anarcho-capitalism has anything to do with social anarchism{{'"}}, as arguing "quite emphatically on the very pages cited by Franks that anarcho-capitalism is by no means a type of anarchism." McKay writes that "[i]t is important to stress that anarchist opposition to the so-called capitalist 'anarchists' does ''not'' reflect some kind of debate within anarchism, as many of these types like to pretend, but a debate between anarchism and its old enemy capitalism. ... Equally, given that anarchists and 'anarcho'-capitalists have fundamentally ''different'' analyses and goals it is hardly 'sectarian' to point this out."<ref name="Davis 2019, p. 64" />

Davis writes that "Franks asserts without supporting evidence that most major forms of individualist anarchism have been largely anarcho-capitalist in content, and concludes from this premise that most forms of individualism are incompatible with anarchism" and that "the conclusion is unsustainable because the premise is false, depending as it does for any validity it might have on the further assumption that anarcho-capitalism is indeed a form of anarchism. If we reject this view, then we must also reject the individual anarchist versus the communal anarchist 'chasm' style of argument that follows from it."<ref name="Davis 2019, p. 64" /> Davis maintains that "the ideological core of anarchism is the belief that society can and should be organised without hierarchy and domination. Historically, anarchists have struggled against a wide range of regimes of domination, from capitalism, the state system, patriarchy, heterosexism, and the domination of nature to colonialism, the war system, slavery, fascism, white supremacy, and certain forms of organised religion." According to Davis, "[w]hile these visions range from the predominantly individualistic to the predominantly communitarian, features common to virtually all include an emphasis on self-management and self-regulatory methods of organisation, voluntary association, decentralised society, based on the principle of free association, in which people will manage and govern themselves."<ref name="Davis 2019, p. 64" /> Finally, Davis includes a footnote stating that "[i]ndividualist anarchism may plausibly be regarded as a form of both socialism and anarchism. Whether the individualist anarchists were ''consistent'' anarchists (and socialists) is another question entirely. ... McKay comments as follows: 'any individualist anarchism which supports wage labor is ''inconsistent'' anarchism. It ''can'' easily be made ''consistent'' anarchism by applying its own principles consistently. In contrast 'anarcho'-capitalism rejects so many of the basic, underlying, principles of anarchism ... that it cannot be made consistent with the ideals of anarchism{{'"}}.<ref name="Davis 2019, p. 64" />

== Historical precedents ==
Several anarcho-capitalists and [[right-libertarians]] have discussed historical precedents of what they believe were examples of anarcho-capitalism.{{refn|<ref name="Rothbard" /><ref name="ANCAP FAQ" /><ref name="Friedman-79" /><ref name="Long-Vikings" /><ref name="tabarroki" />}}

=== Free Cities of Medieval Europe ===
Economist and libertarian scholar [[Bryan Caplan]] considers the free cities of medieval Europe as examples of "anarchist" or "nearly anarchistic" societies,<ref name="ANCAP FAQ">{{Cite web |title=Anarchist Theory FAQ Version 5.2 |url=http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/anarfaq.htm |access-date=23 August 2020 |publisher=George Mason University |archive-date=4 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804000944/http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/anarfaq.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> further arguing:
{{blockquote|One case that has inspired both sorts of anarchists is that of the free cities of medieval Europe. The first weak link in the chain of feudalism, these free cities became Europe's centers of economic development, trade, art, and culture. They provided a haven for runaway serfs, who could often legally gain their freedom if they avoided re-capture for a year and a day. And they offer many examples of how people can form mutual-aid associations for protection, insurance, and community. Of course, left-anarchists and anarcho-capitalists take a somewhat different perspective on the free cities: the former emphasize the communitarian and egalitarian concerns of the free cities, while the latter point to the relatively unregulated nature of their markets and the wide range of services (often including defense, security, and legal services) which were provided privately or semi-privately.<ref name="ANCAP FAQ" />}}

=== Medieval Iceland ===
[[File:Law speaker.jpg|thumb| 19th-century interpretation of the [[Althing]] in the [[Icelandic Commonwealth]] which authors such as David D. Friedman believe to have some features of anarcho-capitalist society]]
According to the libertarian theorist [[David D. Friedman]], "medieval Icelandic institutions have several peculiar and interesting characteristics; they might almost have been invented by a mad economist to test the lengths to which market systems could supplant government in its most fundamental functions."<ref name="Friedman-79">Friedman, David D. (1979). "[http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Iceland/Iceland.html Private Creation and Enforcement of Law: A Historical Case] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418213059/http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Iceland/Iceland.html |date=18 April 2021 }}". Retrieved 12 August 2005.</ref> While not directly labelling it anarcho-capitalist, Friedman argues that the legal system of the [[Icelandic Commonwealth]] comes close to being a real-world anarcho-capitalist legal system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Friedman |first=David D. |title=The Machinery of Freedom |year= 2015 |isbn=978-1-5077-8560-7 |edition=3rd |pages=203–204 |chapter=Private Law Enforcement, Medieval Iceland, and Libertarianism|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform}}</ref> Although noting that there was a single legal system, Friedman argues that enforcement of the law was entirely private and highly capitalist, providing some evidence of how such a society would function. Friedman further wrote that "[e]ven where the Icelandic legal system recognized an essentially 'public' offense, it dealt with it by giving some individual (in some cases chosen by lot from those affected) the right to pursue the case and collect the resulting fine, thus fitting it into an essentially private system."<ref name="Friedman-79" />

Friedman and [[Bruce L. Benson]] argued that the Icelandic Commonwealth saw significant economic and social progress in the absence of systems of criminal law (which the Commonwealth [[Gray Goose Laws|actually had]]), an executive, or bureaucracy. This commonwealth was led by chieftains, whose position could be bought and sold like that of private property. Being a member of the chieftainship was also entirely voluntary.<ref name=":8" />

=== American Old West ===
According to [[Terry L. Anderson]] and P. J. Hill, the [[Old West]] in the United States in the period of 1830 to 1900 was similar to anarcho-capitalism in that "private agencies provided the necessary basis for an orderly society in which property was protected and conflicts were resolved" and that the common popular perception that the Old West was chaotic with little respect for property rights is incorrect.<ref>Anderson, Terry L. and Hill, P. J. "[http://invisiblemolotov.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/wild-west3.pdf An American Experiment in Anarcho-Capitalism: The Not So Wild, Wild West] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017182618/https://invisiblemolotov.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/wild-west3.pdf |date=17 October 2021 }}", ''The Journal of Libertarian Studies''</ref> Since [[squatter]]s had no claim to western lands under federal law, extra-legal organizations formed to fill the void. Benson explains:

{{blockquote|The land clubs and claim associations each adopted their own written contract setting out the laws that provided the means for defining and protecting property rights in the land. They established procedures for registration of land claims, as well as for the protection of those claims against outsiders, and for adjudication of internal disputes that arose. Reciprocal arrangements for protection would be maintained only if a member complied with the association's rules and its court's rulings. Anyone who refused would be ostracized. A boycott by a land club meant that an individual had no protection against aggression other than what he could provide himself.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benson |first= Bruce L. |url=https://archive.org/details/toserveprotectpr00bens |title=To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8147-1327-3 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/toserveprotectpr00bens/page/n129 101] |chapter=Private Justice in America |url-access=limited}}</ref>}}

According to Anderson, "[d]efining anarcho-capitalist to mean minimal government with property rights developed from the bottom up, the western frontier was anarcho-capitalistic. People on the frontier invented institutions that fit the resource constraints they faced."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The minimal state is your friend because Lawlessness, or Reagan as anarchocapitalist |url=https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/11/27/1347928/-The-minimal-state-is-your-friend-because-Lawlessness-or-Reagan-as-anarchocapitalist |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=Daily Kos |language=en}}</ref>

=== Gaelic Ireland ===
[[File:Ireland900.png|thumb|Provinces of [[Ireland]] in 900]]
In his work ''[[For a New Liberty]]'', [[Murray Rothbard]] has claimed ancient [[Gaelic Ireland]] as an example of nearly anarcho-capitalist society.<ref name="Rothbard" /> In his depiction, citing the work of Professor Joseph Peden,<ref>Peden [https://peacerequiresanarchy.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/stateless-societies-ancient-ireland/ Stateless Societies: Ancient Ireland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805235244/https://peacerequiresanarchy.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/stateless-societies-ancient-ireland/ |date=5 August 2019 }}</ref> the basic political unit of ancient Ireland was the ''[[túath]]'', which is portrayed as "a body of persons voluntarily united for socially beneficial purposes" with its territorial claim being limited to "the sum total of the landed properties of its members."<ref name="Rothbard" /> Civil disputes were settled by private arbiters called ''[[brehon]]s'' and the compensation to be paid to the wronged party was insured through voluntary surety relationships. Commenting on the "kings" of ''túaths'',<ref name="Rothbard" /> Rothbard stated:
{{blockquote|The king was elected by the ''túath'' from within a royal kin group (the [[derbfine]]), which carried the hereditary priestly function. Politically, however, the king had strictly limited functions: he was the military leader of the ''túath'', and he presided over the ''túath'' assemblies. But he could only conduct war or peace negotiations as an agent of the assemblies, and he was in no sense sovereign and had no rights of administering justice over ''túath'' members. He could not legislate, and when he himself was party to a lawsuit, he had to submit his case to an independent judicial arbiter.<ref name="Rothbard" />}}

=== Law merchant, admiralty law, and early common law ===
Some libertarians have cited [[law merchant]], [[admiralty law]] and early [[common law]] as examples of anarcho-capitalism.<ref>Rothbard. "[http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/anarchism/library/DefenseServicesFreeMarket.html Defense Services on the Free Market] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314014824/http://ozarkia.net/bill/anarchism/library/DefenseServicesFreeMarket.html |date=14 March 2016 }}".</ref><ref>Benson. "[https://mises.org/library/enterprise-customary-law The Enterprise of Customary Law] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419041444/https://mises.org/library/enterprise-customary-law |date=19 April 2021 }}".</ref>{{failed verification|date=August 2019}}<ref>Hasnas. "[http://faculty.msb.edu/hasnasj/GTWebSite/Obvious.pdf The Obviousness of Anarchy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311103309/http://faculty.msb.edu/hasnasj/GTWebSite/Obvious.pdf |date=11 March 2016 }}".</ref>

In his work ''Power and Market'',<ref name="Rothbard-P&M" /> Rothbard stated:
{{blockquote|The law merchant, admiralty law, and much of the common law began to be developed by privately competitive judges, who were sought out by litigants for their expertise in understanding the legal areas involved. The fairs of Champagne and the great marts of international trade in the Middle Ages enjoyed freely competitive courts, and people could patronize those that they deemed most accurate and efficient.<ref name="Rothbard-P&M" />{{rp|1051}}}}

=== Somalia from 1991 to 2012 ===
{{main|History of Somalia (1991–2006)}}

Economist [[Alex Tabarrok]] argued that Somalia in its stateless period provided a "unique test of the theory of anarchy", in some aspects close to that espoused by anarcho-capitalists [[David D. Friedman]] and [[Murray Rothbard]].<ref name="tabarroki">{{Cite web |last=Tabarrok |first=Alex |author-link=Alex Tabarrok |date=21 April 2004 |title=Somalia and the theory of anarchy |url=http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/04/somalia_and_the.html |access-date=13 January 2008 |website=Marginal Revolution |archive-date=31 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231183541/https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/04/somalia_and_the.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Nonetheless, both anarchists and some anarcho-capitalists argue that Somalia was not an [[anarchist society]].<ref name="knight">{{Cite web |last=Knight |first=Alex R. III |date=7 October 2009 |title=The Truth About Somalia And Anarchy |url=https://c4ss.org/content/1201 |access-date=24 December 2016 |publisher=Center for a Stateless Society |archive-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215030144/https://c4ss.org/content/1201 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Block |first=Walter |year=1999 |volume=2 |issue=3 (Fall)|title=Review Essay |url=http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae2_3_3.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae2_3_3.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |journal=[[The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics]] |access-date=28 January 2010 |quote=But if we define anarchy as places without governments, and we define governments as the agencies with a legal right to impose violence on their subjects, then whatever else occurred in Haiti, Sudan, and Somalia, it wasn't anarchy. For there were well-organized gangs (e.g., governments) in each of these places, demanding tribute, and fighting others who made similar impositions. Absence of government means absence of government, whether well established ones, or fly-by-nights.}}</ref>

== Analysis and criticism ==
=== Rights and freedom ===
[[Negative and positive rights]] are rights that oblige either action (positive rights) or inaction (negative rights). Anarcho-capitalists believe that negative rights should be recognized as legitimate, but positive rights should be rejected as an intrusion. Some critics reject the distinction between positive and negative rights.<ref>Sterba, James P. (October 1994). "From Liberty to Welfare". Ethics. Cambridge: Blackwell). 105 (1): 237–241.</ref> [[Peter Marshall (author, born 1946)|Peter Marshall]] also states that the anarcho-capitalist definition of freedom is entirely [[Negative liberty|negative]] and that it cannot guarantee the [[positive freedom]] of individual autonomy and independence.<ref name="Marshall 1992" /> [[Anarcho-syndicalist]] and anti-capitalist intellectual [[Noam Chomsky]] argues that anarcho-capitalism would be highly oppressive rather than guaranteeing freedom:

{{blockquote|Anarcho-capitalism, in my opinion, is a doctrinal system that, if ever implemented, would lead to forms of tyranny and oppression that have few counterparts in human history. There isn't the slightest possibility that its (in my view, horrendous) ideas would be implemented because they would quickly destroy any society that made this colossal error. The idea of "free contract" between the potentate and his starving subject is a sick joke, perhaps worth some moments in an academic seminar exploring the consequences of (in my view, absurd) ideas, but nowhere else.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 December 1996 |title=On Anarchism: Noam Chomsky interviewed by Tom Lane |url=https://chomsky.info/19961223/ |access-date=9 January 2016 |website=chomsky.info |archive-date=6 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170306035307/https://chomsky.info/19961223/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

American philosopher [[Jason Brennan]], a supporter of anarcho-capitalism, argues that common anarcho-capitalist arguments based solely on citing the non-aggression principle fail, as they [[beg the question]]. A [[statist]] could argue that a state does not violate the non-aggression principle by collecting taxes, as the money rightfully belongs to the state.<ref>{{cite web |last=Brennan |first=Jason |date=December 2013 |title=The NAP Isn't a Knock-Down Argument for Libertarianism |url=https://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2013/12/the-nap-isnt-a-knock-down-argument-for-libertarianism/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250119095301/http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2013/12/the-nap-isnt-a-knock-down-argument-for-libertarianism/ |archive-date=19 January 2025 |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=Bleeding Heart Libertarians}}</ref> Similarly, a socialist could argue that to adhere to the non-aggression principle, capitalist property owners must relinquish their property to the public, as the capitalist property owners violate the principle by withholding property from its rightful owners. As such, a libertarian, statist, and socialist would agree on the non-aggression principle, but disagree on what constitutes aggression or who is the rightful owner of something.<ref>{{cite web |last=Brennan |first=Jason |title=The Dialectical Impotence of the Non-Aggression Principle (Redux)  |url=https://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2013/12/the-dialectical-impotence-of-the-non-aggression-principle-redux/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250221095148/https://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2013/12/the-dialectical-impotence-of-the-non-aggression-principle-redux/ |archive-date=21 February 2025 |website=Bleeding Heart Libertarians |date=December 2013 |access-date=2025-02-23 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Economics and property ===
Social anarchists argue that anarcho-capitalism allows individuals to accumulate significant power through free markets and private property.<ref name=":2" /> Friedman responded by arguing that the Icelandic Commonwealth was able to prevent the wealthy from abusing the poor by requiring individuals who engaged in acts of violence to compensate their victims financially.<ref name=":8" />

Anarchists argue that certain capitalist transactions are not voluntary and that maintaining the class structure of a capitalist society requires [[coercion]], which violates anarchist principles.<ref name="AFAQinfoshop">{{Cite web |author=Iain McKay |display-authors=etal |date=21 January 2010 |title=Section F – Are 'anarcho'-capitalists really anarchists? |url=https://libcom.org/files/Iain%20McKay%20-%20Anarchist%20FAQ.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://libcom.org/files/Iain%20McKay%20-%20Anarchist%20FAQ.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=21 August 2013 |publisher=An Anarchist FAQ |website=[[Infoshop.org]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| last = Mckay | first = Iain | title = An Anarchist FAQ – Section F – Is "anarcho"-capitalism a type of anarchism? | year = 2008 | publisher = AK Press | location = Edinburgh and Oakland | url = https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionF.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250506011347/https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionF.html | archive-date = 6 May 2025 | access-date = 19 May 2025 | url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=Andrew Fiala |date=3 October 2017 |title=Anarchism |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anarchism/ |publisher=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=18 June 2020 |archive-date=28 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200828210847/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anarchism/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author1=Anthony J. II Nocella |title=Anarchism and Animal Liberation: Essays on Complementary Elements of Total Liberation |author2=Richard J. White |author3=Erika Cudworth |publisher=McFarland & Co. |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-7864-9457-6 |quote=Anarchism is a socio-political theory which opposes all systems of domination and oppression such as racism, ableism, sexism, anti-LGBTTQIA, ageism, sizeism, government, competition, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism and punitive justice, and promotes direct democracy, collaboration, interdependence, mutual aid, diversity, peace, transformative justice and equity.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Paul McLaughlin |title=Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism |publisher=Ashgate Publishing Ltd. |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-138-27614-7 |page=48 |quote=Thus, as David Miller puts it, capitalism is regarded by anarchists as 'both coercive [though this word may be too strong] {{sic}} and exploitative – it places workers in the power of their bosses, and fails to give them a just return for their contribution to production.'}}</ref>

Some critics argue that the anarcho-capitalist concept of voluntary choice ignores constraints due to both human and non-human factors, such as the need for food and shelter, as well as active restriction of both used and unused resources by those enforcing property claims.<ref name="marketfailure">{{Cite web |last=Friedman |first=David D. |author-link=David D. Friedman |title=Market Failure: The Case for and Against Government |url=http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/mps_iceland_talk/Iceland%20MP%20talk.htm |access-date=14 July 2010 |publisher=Do We Need a Government? |website=daviddfriedman.com |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415071540/http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/mps_iceland_talk/Iceland%20MP%20talk.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> If a person requires employment to feed and house himself, the employer-employee relationship could be considered involuntary. Another criticism is that employment is involuntary because the economic system that makes it necessary for some individuals to serve others is supported by the enforcement of coercive private property relations.<ref name=marketfailure/> Some philosophies view any ownership claims on land and natural resources as immoral and illegitimate.<ref name="wendymcelroy">[[Wendy McElroy|McElroy, Wendy]] (1995). "[http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/libhe/libhe014.htm Intellectual Property: The Late Nineteenth Century Libertarian Debate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102150720/http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/libhe/libhe014.htm |date=2 January 2021}}". ''Libertarian Heritage'' No. 14 {{ISBN|1-85637-281-2}}. Retrieved 24 June 2005.</ref> Objectivist philosopher [[Harry Binswanger]] criticizes anarcho-capitalism by arguing that "capitalism requires government", questioning who or what would enforce treaties and contracts.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harry Binswanger |title=Sorry Libertarian Anarchists, Capitalism Requires Government |work=[[Forbes]] |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/harrybinswanger/2014/01/24/sorry-libertarian-anarchists-capitalism-requires-government-2 |access-date=16 June 2020 |archive-date=16 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616152808/https://www.forbes.com/sites/harrybinswanger/2014/01/24/sorry-libertarian-anarchists-capitalism-requires-government-2/ }}</ref>

Some right-libertarian critics of anarcho-capitalism, who support the full privatization of capital, such as [[geolibertarians]], argue that [[Land (economics)|land]] and the raw materials of nature remain a distinct [[factor of production]] and cannot be justly converted to private property because they are not products of human labor. Some [[socialists]], including [[Individualist anarchism|individualist anarchists]] and [[Mutualism (economic theory)|mutualist anarchists]] who advocate [[free-market anarchism|market anarchism]], adamantly oppose absentee ownership.<ref>{{cite web| last = McKay | first = Iain | year = 2012 | title = An Anarchist FAQ – section G.1 | location = Edinburgh and Oakland | publisher = AK Press | url =https://anarchism.pageabode.com/book/g-1-are-individualist-anarchists-anti-capitalist/ | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20250329074646/https://anarchism.pageabode.com/book/g-1-are-individualist-anarchists-anti-capitalist/ | archive-date = 2025-03-29 | url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last = McKay |first = Iain |year = 2008–2012 |title = An Anarchist FAQ – Appendix: Anarchism and "Anarcho"-capitalism – Replies to Some Errors and Distortions in Bryan Caplan's "Anarchist Theory FAQ" version 5.2 |url = https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/append11.html |publisher = AK Press |location = Edinburgh and Oakland |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20250815235504/https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/append11.html |archive-date = 15 August 2025 |access-date = 26 October 2025 |url-status = live}}</ref> Anarcho-capitalists have strong abandonment criteria, namely that one maintains ownership until one agrees to trade or gift it. Anti-state critics of this view posit comparatively weak abandonment criteria, arguing that one loses ownership when one stops personally occupying and using it, and that the idea of perpetually binding original appropriation is anathema to traditional schools of anarchism.<ref name="Libertarian Alliance">{{Cite journal |last=Birch |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Birch (writer) |year=1998 |title=Anarcho-capitalism Dissolves into City States |url=http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/legan/legan028.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/legan/legan028.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |journal=Libertarian Alliance |series=Legal Notes |volume=28 |page=4 |issn=0267-7083 |access-date=5 July 2010}}</ref>

=== Propertarianism ===
{{main|Propertarianism}}

Critics charge that the propertarianist perspective prevents freedom from making sense as an independent value in anarcho-capitalist theory:<ref name="AncapFreedom" />
{{Blockquote|text=Looking at Rothbard’s definition of "liberty" quoted above, we can see that freedom is actually no longer considered to be a fundamental, independent concept. Instead, freedom is a derivative of something more fundamental, namely the "legitimate rights" of an individual, which are identified as property rights. In other words, given that "anarcho"-capitalists and right libertarians in general consider the right to property as "absolute," it follows that freedom and property become one and the same. This suggests an alternative name for the right Libertarian, namely "Propertarian." And, needless to say, if we do not accept the right-libertarians’ view of what constitutes "legitimate" "rights," then their claim to be defenders of liberty is weak.|author=Iain Mckay.(2008/2012)|title=Appendix: Anarchism and "Anarcho"-capitalism.|source=}}

Matt Zwolinski has argued that scholars influenced by Rothbard could be called "propertarians" because the concept that really plays a central role in their research is property rather than liberty.<ref>{{cite web |last=Zwolinski |first=Matt |date=4 February 2013 |title=Liberty and Property |url=https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/liberty-property |website=Libertarianism.org |publisher=Cato Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829095839/https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/liberty-property |archive-date=29 August 2023 |access-date=21 May 2025  |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Zwolinski |first=Matt |date=11 February 2013 |title=Against Moralized Freedom |url=https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/against-moralized-freedom |website=Libertarianism.org |publisher=Cato Institute |access-date=6 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250504112628/https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/against-moralized-freedom |archive-date=4 May 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Theoretical literature ==
{|class="sortable wikitable" style="margin:1em auto; text-align:center;"
!Year
!Title
!Author(s)
!School of thought/Topic
!Fully free text
|-
|1849
|''Production of Security''
|[[Gustave de Molinari]]
|[[French liberal school]], [[Laissez-faire]]
|[https://mises.org/online-book/production-security]
|-
|1851
|''[[Social Statics]]''
|[[Herbert Spencer]]
|[[Classical liberalism]], [[Social Darwinism]]
|[https://archive.org/details/bwb_O8-BOW-420]
|-
|1884
|''[[The Man Versus the State]]''
|[[Herbert Spencer]]
|[[Classical liberalism]], [[Social Darwinism]]
|[https://archive.org/details/manversusstate00spen]
|-
|1949
|''[[Human Action: A Treatise on Economics]]''
|[[Ludwig von Mises]]
|[[Praxeology]], [[Methodological individualism]]
|[https://mises.org/library/book/human-action]
|-
|1962
|''[[Man, Economy, and State]]''
|[[Murray Rothbard]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://mises.org/library/book/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market]
|-
|1970
|''[[The Market for Liberty]]''
|[[Morris and Linda Tannehill]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://mises.org/library/book/market-liberty]
|-
|1962
|[[Man, Economy, and State|''Power and Market'']]
|[[Murray Rothbard]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://mises.org/library/book/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market]
|-
|1973
|''[[The Machinery of Freedom]]''
|[[David D. Friedman]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Consequentialist libertarianism]]
|[http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Machinery%203rd%20Edn.pdf]
|-
|1973
|''[[For a New Liberty]]''
|[[Murray Rothbard]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://mises.org/library/book/new-liberty-libertarian-manifesto]
|-
|1974
|''[[Anarchy, State, and Utopia]]''
|[[Robert Nozick]]
|[[Night-watchman state]]
|[https://archive.org/details/robert-nozick-anarchy-state-and-utopia]
|-
|1979
|''Justice Entrepreneurship in a Free Market''
|[[George H. Smith]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://cdn.mises.org/3_4_4_0.pdf]
|-
|1982
|''[[The Ethics of Liberty]]''
|[[Murray Rothbard]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://mises.org/library/book/ethics-liberty]
|-
|1988
|''A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism''
|[[Hans-Hermann Hoppe]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://cdn.mises.org/Theory%20of%20Socialism%20and%20Capitalism,%20A_4.pdf]
|-
|1990
|''[[The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State]]''
|[[Bruce L. Benson]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Consequentialist libertarianism]]
|''n/a''
|-
|1994
|''[[The Case Against the Fed]]''
|[[Murray Rothbard]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://mises.org/library/book/case-against-fed]
|-
|1995
|''Economic Science and the Austrian Method''
|[[Hans-Hermann Hoppe]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://mises.org/pdf/esam.pdf]
|-
|1998
|''[[To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice]]''
|[[Bruce L. Benson]]
|[[Consequentialist libertarianism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Consequentialist libertarianism]]
|''n/a''
|-
|2001
|''[[Democracy: The God That Failed]]''
|[[Hans-Hermann Hoppe]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://mises.org/library/book/democracy-god-failed]
|-
|2006
|''The Economics and Ethics of Private Property''
|[[Hans-Hermann Hoppe]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://mises.org/books/economicsethics.pdf]
|-
|2006
|''Money, bank credit and economic cycles''
|[[Jesús Huerta de Soto]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://www.jesushuertadesoto.com/libros/money-bank-credit-and-economic-cycles-en/]
|-
|2008
|''The Austrian School: Market Order and Entrepreneurial Creativity''
|[[Jesús Huerta de Soto]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://www.jesushuertadesoto.com/libros/the-austrian-school-en/]
|-
|2009
|''The Theory of Dynamic Efficiency''
|[[Jesús Huerta de Soto]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://www.jesushuertadesoto.com/libros/the-theory-of-dynamic-efficiency-en/]
|-
|2010
|''Socialism, economic calculation and entrepreneurship''
|[[Jesús Huerta de Soto]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://www.jesushuertadesoto.com/libros/socialism-economic-calculation-and-entrepreneurship-en/]
|-
|2013
|''[[The Problem of Political Authority]]''
|[[Michael Huemer]]
|[[Philosophical anarchism]], [[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]]
|''n/a''
|-
|2020
|''Sobre el anarcocapitalismo''
|[[Miguel Anxo Bastos]]
|[[Right-libertarianism#Anarcho-capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism]], [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
|[https://archive.org/details/bastos-miguel-anxo-sobre-el-anarcocapitalismo-2020]
|}

== See also ==
{{cols|colwidth=32em}}
* [[Agorism]]
* [[Anarchist communism]]
* [[Consequentialist libertarianism]]
* [[Counter-economics]]
* [[Creative disruption]]
* [[Crypto-anarchism]]
* [[Definition of anarchism and libertarianism]]
* [[Market anarchism]]
* [[Neo-feudalism]]
* [[Natural-rights libertarianism]]
* [[Privatization in criminal justice]]
* [[Voluntaryism]]
{{colend}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* [[L. Susan Brown|Brown, Susan Love]] (1997). [https://books.google.com/books?id=b8XHahfS0VsC "The Free Market as Salvation from Government: The Anarcho-Capitalist View]." In Carrier, James G., ed. ''Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture'' (illustrated ed.). Oxford: Berg Publishers. p.&nbsp;99. {{ISBN|978-1859731499}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Doherty |first=Brian |title=Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement |title-link=Radicals for Capitalism |publisher=Hachette UK |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7867-3188-6 |location=London |author-link=Brian Doherty (journalist)}}
{{Duplicated citations|reason=DuplicateReferences script detected:
* https://doi.org/10.4135%2F9781412965811.n8 (refs: 4, 143) - One has a quote, the other doesn't.
* https://archive.org/details/anarchism00albe (refs: 36, 54)
* https://doi.org/10.1093%2Foxfordhb%2F9780199585977.013.0001 (refs: 44, 156)
* https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market (refs: 61, 76)
* https://archive.org/details/toserveprotectpr00bens (refs: 121, 184)
|date=September 2025}}
== External links ==
{{Sister project links|n=no|v=no|s=no|voy=no}}
* [https://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/anarfaq.htm Anarchist Theory FAQ] – FAQ discussing anarchism by economist [[Bryan Caplan]]
* [http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/anarchism/faq.html Anarcho-capitalist FAQ]
* [https://jarick.works/freeblr/ Freeblr] – online textbook about Anarcho-Capitalism by Daniel Jarick, also known as JarickWorks
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150618044952/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/ LewRockwell.com] – website run by [[Lew Rockwell]]
* [https://www.mises.org/ Mises Institute] – research and educational center of classical liberalism, including anarcho-capitalism, Austrian School of economics and American libertarian political theory
* [https://propertyandfreedom.org/ Property and Freedom Society] – international anarcho-capitalist society

{{anarcho-capitalism}}
{{libertarianism}}
{{Murray Rothbard}}
{{Authority control}}

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