Anarcho-capitalism is a form of individualist anarchism that advocates the elimination of the state and the elevation of the sovereign individual in a free market. Anarcho-capitalists argue for a society based in voluntary trade of private property in order to maximize individual liberty and prosperity. In the place of the state's tax-funded, centrally controlled security, infrastructure, banking and other services, an anarcho-capitalist society relies on individuals to voluntarily fund socially desirable services through the self-regulated free market.
Developed by Murray Rothbard in the latter half of the 20th century, anarcho-capitalist thought is derived from the American individualist anarchism of people like Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker, the neo-classical economic theory of people like Gustave de Molinari and Ludwig von Mises, and the anti-imperialist ideas of people like Albert Jay Nock and Frank Chodorov. Some, particularly anti-propertarian anarchists, deny that anarcho-capitalism is a type of anarchism at all. (read more...)