A voluntary society, voluntary community or voluntary city is a term used in
right-libertarianism 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 or cooperative ownership.
In a "voluntary society", as described by
David Beito
David T. Beito (born 1956) is a historian and professor of history at the University of Alabama.
Beito is the founder and one of the key contributors to the group weblog Liberty and Power, which is located at the History News Network. He manages t ...
,
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 organization
Dispute may refer to:
* an act of physical violence; combat
* Controversy
** Lawsuit
** Dispute resolution
* Dispute (credit card)
* ''La Dispute'', a 1744 prose comedy by Pierre de Marivaux
* La Dispute (band)
La Dispute is an American ...
s; 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'', which dealt with them chapter-by-chapter.
Anarcho-capitalists 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
*
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 Commun ...
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. MurphyChaos 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, Slightly amended by the author, June 2004.
* Georg Glasze, Chris Webster, Klaus Frantz
''Private Cities'' Routledge, 2006.
{{Libertarianism, state=autocollapse
Types of communities
Libertarian theory
Anarcho-capitalism