Knowra Minarchism Minarchism Minarchism is a political philosophy that supports a state restricted to a small set of functions, typically national defense, policing, and courts. It holds that government should not extend beyond those limited duties.
Classical liberalism : A political tradition that emphasizes individual liberty, limited government, private property, and the rule of law. Minarchism carries classical liberal limits on government to a particularly strict conclusion.
Night-watchman state : A state limited to protecting people against force, theft, and fraud and enforcing contracts. This is the standard institutional model associated with minarchism.
Anarcho-capitalism : A political philosophy that seeks to replace the state with voluntary institutions and market-based services. It rejects the state functions minarchists consider necessary, including courts and defense.
Robert Nozick : An American philosopher whose book Anarchy, State, and Utopia defended a minimal state. His account is the best-known philosophical defense of a state limited to protective functions.
Taxation : The compulsory collection of money or other resources by public authorities. Minarchists disagree over whether taxation can fund necessary state functions without violating rights.
Natural rights : Rights understood as belonging to people independently of laws or government. Many minarchists treat natural rights as constraints that government must protect, not override.
State monopoly on violence : The state's claim to be the sole legitimate authorizer of physical force within a territory. Minarchism assigns defense and law enforcement to a state with bounded coercive authority.
Social anarchism : Anarchist traditions that oppose both the state and systems of social or economic domination. It rejects state authority while also criticizing forms of private hierarchy minarchism may permit.
Ayn Rand : A novelist and philosopher who defended individual rights and a government limited to protecting them. Her objectivist politics provides a prominent defense of restricted government, though not identical to every minarchist view.
Private defense agency : A privately operated organization that provides protective services outside direct state control. Its feasibility challenges the claim that defense requires a public state.
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