ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some readers will object that the institutions that provide the "governmental" functions are by definition governments. Government is an agency of legitimized coercion. The special characteristic that distinguishes governments from other agencies of coercion is that most people accept government coercion as normal and proper. Government is distinguished from other criminal gangs by being legitimized. It is distinguished from legitimate nongovernmental groups which may serve some of the same functions by the fact that it is coercive. Under a system of private protection agencies, the actual agencies, like the ideal government, are merely acting as agents for willing clients who have employed the agencies to enforce their own rights. In spite of popular myths about capitalism oppressing the poor, the poor are worst off in those things provided by government, such as schooling, police protection, and justice.
