ABSTRACT
Randall G. Holcombe's article "Government: Unnecessary but Inevitable" offers excellent insights into the sustainability of anarchy and the creation of government. He argues that because the stronger individuals will always get their way and form a government, the relevant debate among advocates of liberty should be about how weaker individuals can "create and sustain pre-emptively a liberty-preserving government." the international sphere remains anarchic and shows few signs of coming under the rule of formal government. The pre-emptive creation of limited government in Holcombe's argument faces another serious problem as well. Holcombe's argument represents an advance over the argument of public-choice economists who analyze the formation of government as a voluntary social contract. Holcombe's pessimistic anarchism, with its recognition that government is unnecessary, is a welcome improvement over the offerings of other advocates of limited government.
