Portal:Politics/Selected article/2006, week 41

Anarcho-capitalism (also known by other names, such as free market anarchism) is an individualist political philosophy that advocates the provision of all goods and services—including systems of justice, law enforcement, and national defence—by competitors in a free market. Anarcho-capitalists argue that a pure free market system, based on private property, would maximise individual liberty and prosperity. For them, the only just way to acquire property is through trade, gift, or original appropriation. Anarcho-capitalism rejects the state as an aggressive entity that steals property through taxation, initiates physical force, uses its coercive powers to benefit some businesses and individuals at the expense of others, creates monopolies, and restricts trade. This embrace of unfettered capitalism leads to considerable tension between anarcho-capitalists and those anarchists who believe that capitalism is inherently authoritarian and hence incompatible with anarchism.