Minarchism

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The minarchism is a political mindset, the government to restrict his scope, his influence and his political task on a "necessary minimum" in a free society. The state should only be strong enough to protect the freedom and property of every individual, to a certain extent limit itself to a “ night watchman state ”. Minarchism follows the tradition of classical liberalism . Some minarchists in the US consider themselves to be libertarian (such as the Libertarian Party ).

General

The mindset has a certain range. Some minarchists want to restrict the state to a minimal state that is only responsible for parliaments, courts, police, prisons and armed forces, while others leave it to public infrastructure such as currency , road construction or much more extensive facilities such as schools and hospitals. Like anarcho-capitalists , the minarchists are opposed to conscription , compulsory schooling , the prohibition of drugs and the prosecution of victimless crimes .

Some minarchists, such as Robert Nozick, derive their convictions from considerations of principle about the role of the state, while others base them on utilitarian arguments. The following should be noted in particular:

  • Voluntariness : Minarchists are generally against compulsory or coercive measures (from the three basic state institutions)
  • Effectiveness : private institutions could usually cope with problems more effectively and unbureaucratically
  • Maturity : the individual is intelligent and sensible enough to decide for himself what his money is used for and what purposes he considers sensible.

social benefits

Minarchists generally advocate the privatization of social services that are to be provided by charitable associations instead of a welfare state .

Tax policy

Many Minarchisten favor a flat tax , others a poll tax , and still others reject any taxation from.

Minimal State and Adam Smith

The Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith , who is considered the founder of classical economic liberalism, is often associated with the minimal state. However, this is countered by the fact that Smith saw further government tasks in addition to protecting external and internal security, such as the provision of public goods (e.g. roads) for which no private investor could be found and public services (e.g. schools) that serve the social balance.

Minimal state with Robert Nozick

In his main work “ Anarchy, State and Utopia ”, Nozick tries to establish a minimal state on the basis of a modern design. This minimal state, which is limited to protecting citizens against violence, theft and fraud, to the enforcement of contracts, etc., is differentiated from the "ultra minimal state", in which this protection is only available to customers who are willing to pay ("insurance state"). Nozick later distanced himself from the libertarian program and professed a republican- communitarian position.

literature

  • Robert Nozick: Anarchy State Utopia. Translated by Hermann Vetter. Moderne Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 1976 (new edition: Olzog, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7892-8098-4 ).
  • Bodo Knoll: Minimal State: An examination of Robert Nozick's arguments . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-16-149604-2 .
  • Roland Chr. Hoffmann-Plesch: From the minimal state to the world state: A legal-philosophical investigation into the Minarcho-Libertarian justice utopia (= writings on jurisprudence, vol. 165) Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86573-721-2 .
  • No government . In: Jens Fromm, Mike Weber (eds.): ÖFIT trend show: Public information technology in the digitized society. Competence Center Public IT, Berlin, 2016, accessed on October 11, 2016 ISBN 978-3-9816025-2-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anthory Gregory. The Minarchist's Dilemma . Strike The Root . 10 May 2004.
  2. ^ Helga Grebing , Walter Euchner : History of social ideas in Germany . VS Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3531147528 , p. 797.
  3. ↑ E.g. Hermann Adam: Building blocks of politics - An introduction , VS-Verlag, 2007, p. 215.
  4. ↑ Klaus-Peter Kruber: Theory history of the market economy. Münster, 2002, ISBN 3825862887 , p. 18.
  5. ↑ Manfred E. Streit: Theory of Economic Policy . Lucius & Lucius DE 2005. ISBN 3825282988 . p.50
  6. ^ Frank R. Pfetsch, Thomas Kreihe: Theoreticians of politics: from Plato to Habermas . UTB 2003. ISBN 382528252X , p. 228 f.
  7. ↑ Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, state, utopia. Munich: Olzog, 2011. P. 52f.
  8. ↑ Bodo Knoll: Minimalstaat - An examination of Robert Nozick's arguments, The Unit of Social Sciences Volume 142, Mohr Siebeck, 2008, ISBN 3161496043 , pp. 251f
  9. ↑ Hermann-Josef Große Kracht: Renaturalization of social inequalities? To Wolfgang Kersting's futile hope of arriving at a liberal welfare state philosophy on the way from John Rawls to Robert Nozick . In: Politische Vierteljahresschrift , 45 (3), 2004, pp. 395–413, here: p. 402.