Anarcho-capitalism

A society with private property and free markets but no state: courts, police and defence are provided by private agencies under voluntary contracts.

Murray Rothbard (For a New Liberty, 1973) grounded it in natural rights; David Friedman in consequences. Both reject taxation as coercive and see the state as an unnecessary monopoly.

• The Republic of Minerva (1972) tried to found a libertarian state on reefs in the South Pacific and was ended by Tonga within months.
• Seasteading proposals aim at ocean communities outside existing jurisdictions.

Critics question whether rights can be defended without a final enforcer, whether unequal wealth translates into unequal justice, and how public goods like defence would be funded without free riding.

Every documented attempt to found an anarcho-capitalist polity on unclaimed or disputed territory has failed or remained unrecognised.