Anarcho-capitalism

Anarcho-capitalism (colloquially: ANCAP, Ancap, AnCap, or An-Cap) is a political ideology and economic theory that advocates for the abolition of state monopolies and the expansion of economic liberalism and market economy through the promotion of a voluntary society.

Proponents argue that a society could function without a centralized state through voluntary exchange and private institutions that provide legal and security services relegating coercion to the collection of tortdamages, and refining recoupment in the context of a free and open marketplace. They contend that essential public services, including policing, courts, and defense can be effectively replaced by competing private defense agencies, subrogation markets, and insurance providers.

This synthesis of anti-statism and private property remains deeply controversial among anarchists in general, the overwhelming majority of whom reject anarcho-capitalism. They argue that the institutions advocated by anarcho-capitalists, including private land ownership, the wage system, law and contract enforcement and workplace hierarchy, are inherently hierarchical and governmentalist, and therefore incompatible with anarchist principles.

While the earliest documented use of the term anarcho-capitalism appears in Karl Hess's essay, "The Death of Politics", published in Playboy in March 1969, the American economist Murray Rothbard largely developed and popularized the concepts of anarcho-capitalists and anarcho-capitalism in the early 1970s.