A night-watchman state, or minarchy, whose proponents are known as minarchists, is a model of a state that is limited and minimal, whose functions depend on

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

theory.

Right-libertarians Right-libertarianism,Rothbard, Murray (1 March 1971)"The Left and Right Within Libertarianism" ''WIN: Peace and Freedom Through Nonviolent Action''. 7 (4): 6–10. Retrieved 14 January 2020.Goodway, David (2006). '' Anarchist Seeds Beneath the ...

support it only as an enforcer of the non-aggression principle by providing citizens with the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

, the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

, and courts, thereby protecting them from

aggression Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...

, theft,

breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

, and enforcing

property law Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land) and personal property. Property refers to legally protected claims to resources, such as land and personal property, including intellectual pro ...

s.Gregory, Anthony (May 10, 2004)
"The Minarchist's Dilemma"
''Strike the Root: A Journal of Liberty''. . Retrieved February 1, 2020.Peikoff, Leonard (March 7, 2011)
"What role should certain specific governments play in Objectivist government?"
Peikoff.com. Retrieved January 2, 2020. In the United States, this

form of government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

is mainly associated with

and

Objectivist Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement ...

political philosophy. In other countries, minarchism is also advocated by some non-anarchist libertarian socialists and other left-libertarians.Hain, Peter (July/August 2000)
"Rediscovering our libertarian roots"
''Chartist''. . Retrieved February 1, 2020.Marshall, Peter (2009)

991 Year 991 (Roman numerals, CMXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events * March 1: In Rouen, Pope John XV ratifies the first Peace and Truce of God, Truce of God, between ...

'' Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism'' (POLS ed.). Oakland, California: PM Press
p. 641
"Left libertarianism can therefore range from the decentralist who wishes to limit and devolve State power, to the syndicalist who wants to abolish it altogether. It can even encompass the Fabians and the social democrats who wish to socialize the economy but who still see a limited role for the State." . A night-watchman state has also been popularized by

Robert Nozick Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University,

in '' Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' (1974). The

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in the

19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...

has been described by historian

Charles Townshend Charles Townshend (28 August 1725 – 4 September 1767) was a British politician who held various titles in the Parliament of Great Britain. His establishment of the controversial Townshend Acts is considered one of the key causes of the Ame ...

as a standard-bearer for this form of government.

Origin

As a term, ''night-watchman state'' (german: Nachtwächterstaat) was coined by German

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

Ferdinand Lassalle Ferdinand Lassalle (; 11 April 1825 – 31 August 1864) was a Prussian-German jurist, philosopher, socialist and political activist best remembered as the initiator of the social democratic movement in Germany. "Lassalle was the first man in Ger ...

in an 1862 speech in Berlin wherein he criticized the

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

-liberal limited government state, comparing it to a night-watchman whose sole duty was preventing theft, playing on the double meaning of the German term '' Nachtwächter'' to mean someone who was incompetent or stupid. The phrase quickly caught on as a description of

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

government, even as

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

began to mean a more involved state, or a state with a larger sphere of responsibility.

Ludwig von Mises Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (; 29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973) was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and Sociology, sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberali ...

later opined that Lassalle tried to make limited government look ridiculous though it was no more ridiculous than governments that concerned themselves with "the preparation of sauerkraut, with the manufacture of trouser buttons, or with the publication of newspapers". Proponents of the night-watchman state are ''minarchists'', a portmanteau of ''minimum'' and ''-archy''. '' Arche'' (; grc, ἀρχή) is a Greek word which came to mean "first place, power", "method of government", "empire, realm", "authorities" (in plural: ), or "command". The term ''minarchist'' was coined by

Samuel Edward Konkin III Samuel Edward Konkin III (8 July 1947 – 23 February 2004), also known as SEK3, was an American libertarian philosopher and Austrian school economist. As the author of the publication '' New Libertarian Manifesto'', he was a proponent of a polit ...

in 1980.

Philosophy

Right-libertarian Right-libertarianism,Rothbard, Murray (1 March 1971)"The Left and Right Within Libertarianism" ''WIN: Peace and Freedom Through Nonviolent Action''. 7 (4): 6–10. Retrieved 14 January 2020.Goodway, David (2006). '' Anarchist Seeds Beneath the ...

minarchists generally justify the state as a logical consequence of the non-aggression principle. They argue that

anarcho-capitalism Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforce ...

is impractical because it is not sufficient to enforce the non-aggression principle, as the enforcement of laws under

anarchy Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted ...

would be open to competition. Another common objection to anarchism is that private defense and court firms would tend to represent the interests of those who pay them enough. Left-libertarian minarchists justify the state as a temporary measure on the grounds that social safety net benefits the working class. Some anarchists, such as

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

, are in agreement with social democrats on the

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...

and

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

measures, but prefer using non-state authority. Left-libertarians such as Peter Hain are

decentralist Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. Conce ...

s who do not advocate abolishing the state, but do wish to limit and devolve state power, stipulating that any measures favoring the wealthy be prioritized for repeal before those which benefit the poor.Richman, Sheldon (February 3, 2011)
"Libertarian Left: Free-market anti-capitalism, the unknown ideal"
''The American Conservative''. . Retrieved March 5, 2012. " eft-libertariansprefer that corporate privileges be repealed ''before'' the regulatory restrictions on how those privileges may be exercised." Some minarchists argue that a state is inevitable because

is futile.

Robert Nozick Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University,

, who publicized the idea of a minimal state in '' Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' (1974), argued that a night-watchman state provides a framework that allows for any political system that respects fundamental individual rights. It therefore morally justifies the existence of a state.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Machan, Tibor R. (December 2002). "Anarchism and Minarchism. A Rapprochement". ''Journal des Economists et des Estudes Humaines''. 14 (4): 569–588. * Nozick, Robert (1974). ''Anarchy, State, and Utopia''. New York City: Basic Books. * Ostrowski, Marius S. (2014). "Towards libertarian welfarism: protecting agency in the night-watchman state". ''Journal of Political Ideologies''. 13 (1): 107–128. * Wolff, Jonathan (1991). ''Robert Nozick: Property, Justice, and the Minimal State''. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.

External links

"Market Anarchism as Constitutionalism"
by Roderick T. Long
"Chaos Theory: Two Essays on Market Anarchy"
by Robert P. Murphy
''Robert Nozick and the Immaculate Conception of the State''
by Murray Rothbard {{libertarianism Criticism of capitalism Ferdinand Lassalle Libertarian terms Libertarian theory

Minarchism A night-watchman state, or minarchy, whose proponents are known as minarchists, is a model of a state that is limited and minimal, whose functions depend on libertarian theory. Right-libertarians support it only as an enforcer of the non-aggres ...

Libertarianism in the United States Minarchism Political terminology Political systems