Do We Ever Really Get Out of Anarchy?

"A major point of dispute among the libertarian theorists and thinkers today as always revolves around the age-old question of whether man can live in total anarchy or whether the minimal state is absolutely necessary for the maximization of freedom. Lost in this dispute is the question of whether man is capable of getting out of anarchy at all. Can we really abolish anarchy and set up a government in its place? Most people, regardless of their ideological preferences simply assume that the abolition of anarchy is possible, that they live under Government and that anarchy would be nothing but chaos and violence. The purpose of this paper is to question this venerated assumption and to argue that the escape from anarchy is impossible, that we always live in anarchy, and the real question is what kind of anarchy we live under, market anarchy, or non-market (political) anarchy. Further, it is argued that political anarchies are of two types--hierarchical or plural. The more pluralist political anarchy is, the more it resembles market anarchy. The performance of hierarchical and plural anarchies is evaluated in terms of their ability to minimize the level of force in society. It is shown that plural anarchies are much less violent than hierarchical anarchies. We conclude that the real question libertarians must solve is not whether to have minimalism or anarchy, but which type of anarchy, market or political, hierarchical or plural, is the most conducive to the maximization of freedom." (PDF)