Types of Anarcho-capitalism
| Insular | Pluralist | |
|---|---|---|
| Freehold |
Unstable due to bad neighbor problem? ↓ |
Competing non-territorial PDAs Tannahill, Rothbard, David Friedman |
| Leasehold | Proprietary Community Spencer Heath, Hans-Hermann Hoppe |
↑ Unstable due to conformity problem? |
Some definitions:
Freehold means owning something outright, like a private home. Leasehold is holding only some usage rights, like in an apartment or gated community.
PDA = Private Defense Agency
The PDA model has mainly private ownership of homes and businesses, with people hiring PDAs in a freed market. Thus, any PDA's jurisdiction is its customers' land, only while they remain customers. Your next door neighbor might have different laws applying on his land than you have on yours (since he subscribes to a different PDA or different plan.) In short, PDA rights protection works like home or auto insurance - you pay a fee to be on the plan of your choice.
The Heathian anarchist model, in contrast, would have one firm providing police, streets, law, and all other "public" services. A gated community is the quintessential example of this. Hoppe argues that only this Heathian model which enforces strict family and cultural values can possibly sustain a libertarian culture. (I think libertarianism is much more robust than that.) For example, he would physically remove communists, democrats, and homosexuals from his ideal community.
What this means for different anarchists ...
If in-group loyalty and purity are big values for you, then you probably prefer a more insular living arrangement and identify as a conservative. You would likely prefer what Hans-Hermann Hoppe calls a covenant community or a proprietary community that will conform to your values.
If you like diversity and are open to new experiences, and values like sanctity and in-group loyalty sound like conformity and subservience to you, then you will likely prefer a pluralist society, with outright ownership of homes and land (freehold.) You probably identify as libertarian or liberal, but definitely not conservative.
Page 2: Non-Territorial PDAs vs. Heathean Anarchism
Further reading:
- Murray Rothbard's Private Defense Services on a Free Market.
- Hans-Hermann Hoppe's On Conservatism and Libertarianism.
- Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of political beliefs.
