Well are you?
What is anarchism?
How would it "work"?
Could it "work"?
If a magic wand was waved now and there was anarchy globally, could humanity adjust and retain anarchy?
And other questions.
So I read a chapter from my ancap book called “Law and Order”. It covers the theoretical creation of private defense insurance agencies (DIA) in a stateless free market society. This is what I’ll explain for starters. More chapters to read though!
First off, 2 things.
1. Economists universally agree that all monopolies are bad for the consumer.
2. The state has a monopoly on the production of security, law and order.
Think of all the non violent offenders in the U.S. prison system.
so with all things ancap, this is all theoretical.
In the absence of a state providing policemen and law, a new industry would arise. This is
Defense Insurance Agencies. DIA’s would offer clientele protection, as well promise of legal protection, and restitution for any lost goods in the event of a crime. The client would pay a monthly premium, as well as agree to stipulations on his conduct. Criminal behavior may result in higher premiums or DIA’s refusing to cover an individual at all. Economic pressure would incentive peaceful interactions in this way.
Incentive is the key to the free market society. Competing defense agencies would all have the incentive to provide socially acceptable justice and law.
Okay I’ll try to be as concise and non confusing as possible, but I’m still learning this so bear with me
Hypothetical time
Let’s say Bob is covered by the DIA,
Shield, and gets mugged and loses his bike. His DIA sends private defense agents to the scene, but unfortunately the mugger got away. The DIA would likely offer restitution for the lost good, and would proceed to investigate the case. Their investigation leads them to believe Terry was the culprit. Agents of the DIA confront Terry and demand he pay restitution for the value of the bike, as well as the cost of the investigation. Terry refuses, claiming he is innocent. Because the viability of a DIA is dependent on reputation in a market system in which there are competing DIAs,
Shield would be
incentivized to act in accordance to society’s preference of justice. So, they would not falsely prosecute Terry. Let’s say after cross referencing Terry’s testimony, Shield still believes him to be guilty. The DIA would likely get a neutral third party to arbitrate the case. these judicial third parties would likewise be competing with one another. They would be incentivized to arbitrate impartially and fairly. DIA’s reputation would be dependent on which judicial parties they associate with as well. So, if Terry is uninsured and refuses to cooperate, the DIA would be within their legal right to auction off Terry’s private property for restitution. The DIA would be incentivized to only do this if Terry is for sure guilty, as if they act in the wrong and wrongly punish an innocent man, this would damage their reputation and they would lose clientele as well as associations with reputable parties. If Terry had no means to pay, the DIA can put him in a privately owned work camp until restitution is paid. Work camps would be dependent on reputation as well, and would be incentivized to be humane, as to get business from various DIA’s.
Let’s say, however, Terry is covered by a DIA,
Hammer Defense, and calls them to say he has been falsely accused. After their investigation, they conclude that he is not guilty. They share their findings with Shield, but they remain unconvinced. Both DIA’s would agree on a neutral third party to arbitrate the case.
Let’s say Terry and Bob were both covered by Shield. They would have both had to agree to standards of conduct when signing up for Shield, so Shield would be free to prosecute Terry and get restitution for his criminal behavior.
I can go on but I think I’ve said enough to illustrate how law would work in theory.
A key point is that there is no victimless crimes unlike the current system. Nobody would pay for protection against a victimless crime.
More chapters to read, but I felt law and order was a good start for this discussion. The next chapter is
Defense and Security, which goes into detail on how exactly DIA’s would offer this. I’ll keep adding to this thread I think about the theoretical world of Ancapistan.
Feel free to attack this hypothetical