Minarchism
Description
"Minarchism is the view that the size, role and influence of government in a free society should be minimal – only large enough to protect the liberty of each and every individual, without violating the liberty of any individuals itself, thus maximizing individual liberty. The term is perhaps most often used to differentiate libertarians that believe it is possible to have a state that protects individual liberty without violating it itself, from the anarchists who believe that any state is inherently a violation of individual liberty.
Minarchism originally stemmed from the anarchist movement, and was borne out of many anarchists’ disillusionment with the ideology. Minarchism was created as a result of the realisation that the state is a “necessary evil” if individual liberties are to be protected and maximised, and the term “minarchism” was coined by the famous anarchist turned Left-Libertarian Samuel Edward Konkin III.
Minarchists agree that the guiding principle in determining what should or should not fall into the domain of the government is the maximization of individual liberty and that government should be restricted to its “minimal” or “night watchman” state functions of government (e.g., courts, police, prisons, defense forces). In general, minarchists favor expansion of power in a government of a small jurisdiction (like a city or county) over a larger jurisdiction (like a state or nation). This leaves individuals who wish to avoid living or working under the expansion more options (it’s easier to move to another city or county than to move to another state or country).
Such a framework was created, modified and extended by many authors, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s; however, it was following the work of political philosopher Robert Nozick that minarchism received popular and widespread support. In his seminal 1974 work Anarchy, State and Utopia, Nozick discussed anarchism and its viability, concluding that it was impossible for a strictly anarchist society to flourish since it offered no protections against violations of liberty — theft, murder, invasion by a foreign power etc. What was both needed and justified, concluded Nozick, was a minarchist or “nightwatchman state”, having just enough power to prevent the violation of individual rights. Nozick went on to state that minarchism was the ultimate natural government; he claimed that a system of anarchism (Social/Communistic/Syndaclist/Market/ et ctera)/voluntaryism/mutualism would inevitably develop into a minarchist system, and so — given a tabula rasa— minarchism is not only needed and justified but in fact inevitable." (http://murphreport.com/2010/01/26/minarchism-an-introduction-to-limited-goverment-libertarianism/)