II — Why this libertarian libertarianism?

Chapitre II

WHY THIS LIBERTARIAN LIBERTARIANISM?

Why this Libertarian Libertarianism?

Libertarianism is not a monolithic bloc. It’s a family of thought ranging from limited State to total absence of State. Where does this document stand, and why?

Classical libertarianism (Hayek, Friedman) accepts a limited but relatively flexible State. It tolerates certain interventions – monetary policy, temporary safety nets, sometimes even a negative income tax. The risk: without strict constitutional lock-in, the State expands inexorably. Each exception becomes a precedent. This is the history of Western democracies for a century.

Minarchism (Nozick, Bastiat) reduces the State to the strictly sovereign: justice, police, army. Nothing else. It’s more coherent, but leaves two unresolved problems. First, fundamental research – no private actor will finance work whose return on investment is counted in decades or centuries. Second, the ultimate safety net – what do we do with those who have lost everything and whom the market cannot absorb? Letting them die in the street is neither ethical nor politically stable.

Anarcho-capitalism (Rothbard, David Friedman, Hoppe) goes all the way: zero State, not even sovereign functions. Private justice, private police, private defense. Intellectually pure, but economically fragile. Without a monopoly on legitimate violence, competing security agencies risk armed conflict. Transaction costs explode: every interaction requires verifying the other party’s reputation, negotiating applicable rules, planning recourse. Legal insecurity slows long-term investments. And anarcho-capitalism is probably unstable: it tends either toward chaos, or toward the emergence of a proto-State when the dominant security agency becomes de facto sovereign.

Figure 2.1 — Spectrum of libertarianisms

This document proposes a fourth path: Libertarian Libertarianism, constitutionally locked in. It retains from minarchism the sovereign State. It adds fundamental research (as classical libertarianism tolerated) and Autonomous Collectivities – a self-funded safety net that costs the taxpayer nothing. It locks everything at four-fifths of each chamber to prevent drift. And it borrows from anarcho-capitalism currency competition, eliminating the State’s power over monetary creation.

It’s a practical optimum. It captures 90% of the benefits of economic freedom while retaining State functions with positive returns. Better to start from a locked minimal State than to arrive there by accident – or never arrive at all.

Symbiosis is this: different organisms living together, each gains, none parasitizes the other. Solidarity without spoliation: neither dependents nor abandoned.