Voluntary Governance

Written by Michael McConkey for The Libertarian Standard.

As illegitimate as the involuntary nature of the state is, many people consider a wide range of what the state does to be thoroughly necessary. Some people value Pareto optimal outcomes, some don’t; some are willing to absorb more transaction costs than others; some worry about free riding and social dilemmas and some don’t. Surely the variety of resulting preference-based choices will be part of the diversity that must be tolerated in a genuinely voluntary society. Some will want to be involved in groups that hire enforcement agencies in the free market to prevent free riding; some will rely upon fluid tit-for-tat equilibrium strategies; some will want a government with a geo-monopoly on the use of force to protect their interests. These are all equally legitimate choices in the genuinely voluntary society. There is no escaping governance, and in the voluntary society its manifestation will be multiple and many.
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