ABSTRACT

This chapter argues 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. The chapter shows that plural anarchies are much less violent than hierarchical anarchies. The chapter also argues that the real question libertarians must solve is not whether minimalism or anarchy, but which type of anarchy, market or political, hierarchical or plural, is most conducive to the maximization of freedom. Anarchy is a social order without Government, subject only to the economic laws of the market. The anarchic relations of government officials can be illustrated in the following example: Suppose that a congressman manages to divert streams of moneys from the government's flows to his private estate.