Voluntary society

A voluntary society, voluntary community or voluntary city is one in which all property (including streets, parks, etc.) and all services (including courts, police, etc.) are provided through voluntary means, such as private or cooperative ownership. In a voluntary society, 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 organizations; 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.^[1]

Anarcho-capitalists as well as anti-capitalist market anarchists 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 (e.g. Food Not Bombs), 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.^[2] Prominent anarcho-capitalists such as Stefan Molyneux suggest that in a voluntary society, dispute resolution organizations and pollution insurance companies would prevent problems such as pollution.^[3]

See also

• Free society
• Intentional community
• Private community
• Gated community
• Homeowners association
• Planned community
• Private place
• Spencer Heath
• Stateless society
• Voluntaryism

References

1. David T. Beito, Peter Gordon, Alexander Tabarrok, editors, The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society, The Independent Institute, 2002.
2. Jonathan Liem, The Voluntary Community, LewRockwell.com.
3. http://archive.lewrockwell.com/orig6/molyneux5.html

External links

• The Voluntary Society
• Libertarian International Organization Registers e.g. pilot Libertarian eco-communities with a goal of one in each major area
• Robert P. Murphy: Chaos 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.