Towards a company without State

Towards a company without State is a test written by the economist libertarien David Friedman, translated into French by Francoise Liégeois and published in France in 1992. It is one of the most influential books in the literature anarchist-capitalist.

Principal thesis

The book seeks to prove not only feasibility practical, but also the desirability of a company functioning without the least State, definite as agency of a government type profiting from a monopoly of legal violence and sometimes various other exclusive rights.

In the first part, the author shows using examples based on the economic history of the the United States of America that the State makes use systematically of sound Monopole on certain rights to acquire others of them, and to penetrate in all the aspects of the life of the Nation, and that its intervention, instead of improving the access to the services which it controls, deteriorates it on the contrary.

In the second part, the author provides the basic concepts of the economy to the reader, like the Private property, various the theories of value used during the History, as well as the mechanisms of the Praxéologie. He explores from a utilitarian point of view the consequences of these mechanisms and concepts on the Morale and the organization of the company to draw some the libertariennes conclusions.

In the third part, David Friedman calls with a progressive Privatization of all the functions of the Gouvernement to create a company where each function traditionally allotted in a Central state is filled by a unit of private companies in competition on an open market. It gives suggestions for many specific functions, exploring the consequences of the thought libertarienne, and giving examples of companies libertariennes (like the Althing of the Icelandic), and offering the personal point of view of the author on the reasons which led it to become libertarien.

The subjects of the book include the privatization of the Justice (at the same time the Législation and the police force), of the monetary Système, and the delicate problem to purely provide public services (like the National defense) in a company libertarienne. The approach of Friedman and its conclusions could be described, of the consent even of the author, like anarchist-capitalist S.

Utilitarian approach of anarchy

Whereas many libertariens has a deontologic approach and argues on related aspects with the right, Friedman proposes the Utilitarisme. According to him, the consequences anarchist-capitalists would be beneficial for the vast majority, including the poor. Although often seen like the extremism of a movement extremist, the points of view of Friedman on the way of passing from a company organized around a Central state to a company anarchist-capitalist want to be pragmatic, with a concrete application by stages. For example, it supports the introduction of the good of education in prelude to a privatization of the school system, and the decentralization of the police force like first step towards a privatized defense.

The author also criticizes the American movement libertarien, in particular the minarchists and the defenders of a Parti libertarien, implying that the presence of a State even minimalist having a monopoly on a right involves inevitably, for praxeologic reasons supported by examples, the corruption of this government with more or less long run. Nevertheless it defends an approach reformist instead of the revolutionary approach preached by Murray Rothbard, by suggesting that instead of subverting the wheels of State, the introduction of a company without State is done by the development of a competition of the citizens on each abundant service by the government, by quoting the companies of arbitration used more and more by the large American companies like alternative to the legal system, and the example of Lysander Spooner which had created successfully a haulage company of mail, the American Letter Mail Company, in direct competition with the state monopoly of the United States Postal Service .

Some chapters are available free on the site of David Friedman (in English).

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