With the swearing-in on Sunday of Javier Millei as president of Argentina, many people are confused as to political economic categories. All sorts of terms are being tossed around: liberal, classical-liberal, monarchist, anarcho-capitalist. It is difficult to tell the ball players apart from one another without a scorecard. So, pay attention: here’s who’s who.
First, a quote on this matter from the man of the hour himself, President Milei:
“The best example was given by [Milton] Friedman, a classical liberal. He thinks there are three types of liberals. There are the classical ones; the minarchists, which is what I am in real life; and the anarchists or anarcho-capitalists, which is what I am philosophically.”
“Minarchists believe in the minimal state [which exists] only for security and justice,” he continued. “So, for example [Ludwig von] Mises is a minarchist. [Friedrich] Hayek oscillates between a minarchist and a classical [liberal], Adam Smith is a classical liberal. [Robert] Nozick is a minarchist, Ayn Rand is a minarchist. [Murray Newton] Rothbard, [Walter] Block or [Hans-Hermann] Hoppe are anarcho-capitalists.”
Got all that? If not, read on!
So what do anarcho-capitalists believe? According to their theories, no government whatsoever is justified, since all governments engage in taxation. This, in turn is a rights violation; it is robbery whenever money changes hands unless both parties have consented to the arrangement, and no one has ever signed a contract with any government agreeing to pay anything to it. This is sharply distinguished from left-wing or socialist anarchists, the bomb-throwers, who also oppose the state but reject profits, money, private property, commerce, contracts, the right of free association, charging interest, speculating, investing, etc. — all of which the an-caps love.
Where does minarchism diverge from this viewpoint? (So unusual is this word that our word processors continually try to exchange “monarchism” for it). Advocates of this viewpoint maintain that government is indeed justified despite the arguments for the injustice of taxation. (Nozick maintains this on the basis of his claim that free market anarchism would naturally evolve into strictly limited government).
But here, government is extremely limited. Its only proper function is to protect the residents of the country. To this end there are only three licit functions: armies, to defend against foreign invasion but not to export democracy to other lands; police, to guard against criminals but not to prohibit victimless crimes pertaining to drugs, sex, gambling, etc.; and finally, courts, to determine guilt or innocence and support contracts. Some minarchists might, if pushed, hard, include government roads and highways as legitimate state functions.
What is a classical liberal? That is someone who favors free enterprise, alright, but would add a few more functions such as a very limited welfare state, anti-trust legislation, public schooling (via a voucher plan), public parks, and dealing with externalities and public goods — but very little else.
In Europe and for most of the world, this is called liberalism. In the U.S., however, the leftist socialists stole that nomenclature from its originators. They so besmirched it, however, that they gave it up in favor of what they now call themselves: “progressives.” But they are actually regressive, desiring to return to the world of mercantilism with gargantuan government control of the economy. Think of Bernie Sanders as an exemplar of this position.
With this clarification, we are now ready to return to Mr. Milei. He is a philosophical anarcho-capitalist, which means he greatly admires this position, but would not end the Argentinian government holus bolus. This holds even if he had entire control of the political situation in that country, which he decidedly will not. Rather, he would whittle down the state to the extent possible, while leaving licit state functions intact, or even strengthening them.
Milei has been compared to Donald Trump, but the latter is no minarchist. He favors government health care, social security, tariffs, education, etc. Milei, on the other hand, is a free trader and would privatize all those other state functions.
Walter E. Block is the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Chair in Economics in the College of Business at Loyola University, New Orleans. He is the author of multiple books, including “The Privatization of Roadways” and “Space Capitalism.”
Frank J. Tipler is a physicist and cosmologist who teaches at Tulane University. He is the author of multiple books, including “The Physics of Immortality.”