Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Phi losopher Robert Nozick, as we have seen in
Chapter I, maintains that the system of competing protect
ion agencies will give way to single "dominant protection
agencies," or DPAs, operating in geographically
distinct areas. This is due to the nature of the service
being offered. Nozick believes that the degree of
protection any agency can provide varies positively
with the s i zeof the agency. Thus, as one agency
begins to prosper, individuals will clamor to join. As
the income of the compet ing agencies declines, the
scope and qual i ty of the protect ion they can offer
likewise declines. The competing agencies, he says,
get "caught in a declining spiral," and the result is
the emergence of a DPA.
Nozick believes that the DPA should proceed to
provide protection services to everyone in its geographical
area. It would therefore become a minimal,
or "nightwatchman," state.(64) But philospher John
Hospers argues that the agency could also use its
dominant pos i t ion to victimize rather than to protect
"its" clients. "Perhaps the most important assumption
of all," says Hospers,
is that there would continue to be a group of
defense agencies (and courts) which would
remain competitive. This is indeed one way
in which the scenario could be written. But
there are other ways. Suppose that one
agency became so superbly efficient•.• that
it became la rger than any of the other agencies,
and continued to grow larger with time,
until it had, say 99% of the business for a
thousand miles around••• We would then have
a defense agency grown so swollen with success
that it could do just what it liked: it
co u I d t urn in t 0 a c rim ina I g an g. • • Th is
wou'ld be in fact, if not in name, a military
takeover. And the result would be again in
fact if not in name, a government -- an
aggressive bandit government.(65)
In response, the anarchists note that Nozick and
Hospers envision the emergence of a number of dominant
agencies whose areas of operation are geographically
distinct. But if the advantages of being a client of
the dominant agency are so irresistable, and if, as
N0 z i c k commen t s, "e con 0 m i e s 0 f sea 1e U are posit i vel y
correlated with increased size, the Uthe protection
agency of optimal size will include the whole world."
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