Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

thereby protecting indIviduals from "being discriminated
against in their economic activities for reasons
that are irrelevant to their productivity -- whether
these are associated with their views or color."(35)
A related confusion is the role of leaders in an
anarchist society. One view seems to be that anarchism
impl i es the absence of leaders. This is only partially
true. Individualist anarchists reject political
leaders, not because they are leaders but because their
f·unction is to exercise the use of coercion over
others. They not only have no objection to leaders who
have the voluntary assent of their followers, they recognize
that such leaders are necessary. Their position
is that
Because of the uneven distribution of abiliti
es, el i tes wi II tend to emerge from the
ranks of the better qualified through a natural
process of emerging hierarchy in all
are a s 0 f hum a n act i v i t y. • • The f r e e rna r ke t
society, then, is a society of evolving
(ascending and descending) elites, or, as
Vi I fredo Pareto put it, a 'ci rcula"tion of
el i tes.' Since change is the fundamental
c h a r act e r i s tic 0 f the f r e e rna r ke t soc i e t y ,
the emergence of elites and their continuing
circulation is both natural and desirable for
it promotes optimization of both economic efficiency
and social harmony.(36)
I tis f eItthat the I e a d e r sand dec i s ion rna ke r sin
a la i ssez fa i re society would be able to retain their
pos i t ions only by continued service to their followers.
The moment a leader ceased such service the rank-andfile
would take their support elsewhere and that partie
u I a r I e a d e r wo u 1d los e his posit ion. Wh i leitis r ecog
n i zed t hat a I a iss e z fa ire s y stem, as in fa c tany
soc i a I s ystern, r e qui res dec i s ion rna ke r s, the a narchis t s
bel i eve t hat i tis 0 n 1 y the rna r k e t, wit hit s constraint
of serving the consumers, that prevents the
leaders from using their leadership positions for purposes
of exploitation.
c. Freedom Defined.
Freedom, as defined by the libertarians, is simply
the absence of interpersonal violence, i.e., the use of
initIated force or violence, or its threat, against the
person or property of another. In this sense it is not
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