Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

T h us, for two reasons, the e conom i erea son 0 f the
absence of economic calculation in a socialist economy,
and the pol i tical reason of the inevitable reintroduct
ion 0 f the s tat e, the i nd i v i d ua listanarchis t rna i n ­
tains that even a moderately sized collectivist anarchIst
society is simply not possible. The only possible
alternative would be to establish communes so small
as to permit every individual to have both personal
contact with every other individual and complete knowled
g e 0 f eve r y f ace t 0 f the c omm un e • I nth i s wa y the
community would be small enough to permit every individual
to participate in every decision. The problem,
however, is that such a society would have to be so
small as to all but entirely eliminate the division of
labor. But without a division of labor, no capital
machinery could be utilized. While such a society
might funct ion as a collectivist anarchist community,
It would have to be almost solely agricultural using
primitive instruments and sUbsisting in grinding
poverty.(17)
Ins h 0 r t, the i n d i v i d u a lis tan archis t be lieve s
that a state is the sine qua non of a large scale
collectivist society and that while a small anarchist
commune might be possible, it would be most
unattractive.
2. LAISSEZ FAIRE, POWER AND FREEDOM
a. Power Defined.
Libertarians argue that a libertarian society
w0 u I d beeh a rae t e r i zed by the a bsenceof powe r rei ations.
But the libertarian definition of power and
freedom solely in terms of the presence or absence of
violent activities, and the threat of such activities,
has been criticized for disposing of the question of
power relations by means of a semantic sleight-of-hand.
Warren J. Samuels' critique of Rothbardian anarchism IS
a good example of this line of thought.
While anarchism would be a "system without a
state," Samuels says, it would not be a system without
power relationships, for "power, coercion and externalit
ies are ubiquitous." They exist in all social
sys terns. "The anarchist ideal, contemplated In terms
of strict or absolute autonomy, is impossible."(lS)
T h US, on e ca n l! sol veT! the prob I em 0 f powe r ina soc i e t y
only by arbitrarily defining it in terms of certain
types of coercion but not others. It is only through
230