A voluntary society, voluntary community or voluntary city is a term used in
right-libertarianism
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 ...
to describe an entity in which all property (including streets, parks, etc.) and all services (including courts, police, etc.) are provided through what the proponents of the term call "voluntary means" and in which they include
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
or cooperative ownership.
In a "voluntary society", as described by
David Beito,
Peter Gordon and
Alexander Tabarrok
Alexander Taghi Tabarrok (born November 11, 1966) is a Canadian-American economist. With Tyler Cowen, he co-authors the economics blog ''Marginal Revolution''. Tabarrok and Cowen have also ventured into online education with ''Marginal Revolutio ...
, the notion of something being "privately" or "cooperatively" owned would be "radically different" from "monopolistic privatization with state subsidies", or "monopolistic control of public resources by the state", respectively. Instead, courts might be replaced with
dispute resolution organizations; police with volunteer-based community defense organizations or
private security agencies and crime insurers; transportation authorities with community road associations and rail counterparts; etc. These services were the subject of the book, ''
The Voluntary City
''The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society'' is an Independent Institute-published book, edited by David T. Beito, about communities with voluntary society, private provision of municipal services. Contributors include Stephen Davi ...
'', which dealt with them chapter-by-chapter.
Anarcho-capitalist
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 enfo ...
s view "voluntary societies" as the solution to the conflict between those who favor government allowing behaviors and arrangements such as non-violent drug use, free stores, sexual liberation, voluntary communal sharing, etc., and those who favor government restrictions on such activities. Those who want to live under a certain code of conduct can move to a community that supports and protects it. Anarcho-capitalists such as
Stefan Molyneux believe that in a "voluntary society", dispute resolution organizations and
pollution insurance companies would prevent problems such as pollution.
See also
*
Voluntaryism
Voluntaryism (,["Voluntaryism"]
'' Mass voluntary society
Mass voluntary societies ( rus. Массовые добровольные общества) were a type of voluntary organization in the Soviet Union, which started appearing at beginning of the era of its New Economic Policy. Endorsed by the Com ...
References
External links
The Voluntary Society
Libertarian International OrganizationRegisters e.g. pilot Libertarian eco-communities with a goal of one in each major area
*
Robert P. Murphy
Robert Patrick Murphy (born May 23, 1976) is an American economist. Murphy is Research Assistant Professor with the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University. He has been affiliated with Laffer Associates, the Pacific Research Institute, ...
Chaos Theory*
Spencer H. MacCallum: "Suburban Democracy vs. Residential Community". ''Critical Review'', Vol 17, Nos. 3–4, 2006.
* Spencer H. MacCallum:
The Enterprise of Community: Market Competition, Land, and Environment", Journal of Libertarian Studies, Volume 17, no. 4, Fall 2003, 1–16, published by
Ludwig von Mises Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a libertarian nonprofit think tank headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, United States. It is named after the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).
It ...
, Slightly amended by the author, June 2004.
* Georg Glasze, Chris Webster, Klaus Frantz
''Private Cities'' Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...
, 2006.
{{Libertarianism, state=autocollapse
Types of communities
Libertarian theory
Anarcho-capitalism