Anarchy Question for Statists

[iustitia]

I'd steal me a $#@!ing tank.

[Codename Section]

I'd do like I always do. I'm pretending like the government doesn't exist now and living accordingly so I'll be prepared for a collapse.

[nic34]

The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It

(Germany is finally going to win the "world war" via economics)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Crash-2016.../dp/0446584835

[Codename Section]

I have made friends with food producers, I have no debt, and I provide needed services. People should do the same.

[Cthulhu]

I have made friends with food producers, I have no debt, and I provide needed services. People should do the same.

That is a good way to be.

[nathanbforrest45]

If government were to disappear tomorrow we would all meet down at the square and elect a new government. Its the natural state of mankind.

[nathanbforrest45]

I'd steal me a $#@!ing tank.

Why would you need a $#@!ing tank? Wouldn't a bedroom do as well?

[iustitia]

Mutually assured destruction.

[Chris]

If government were to disappear tomorrow we would all meet down at the square and elect a new government. Its the natural state of mankind.

Perhaps evolved state, but its origins require forms of social order that probably didn't evolve till fairly recent times in the evolution of man.

What are the four most common explanations for the origin of government?

There are a wide range of theories about the reasons for establishing governments. The four major ones are briefly described below. Note that they do not always fully oppose each other - it is possible for a person to subscribe to a combination of ideas from two or more of these theories.

1)Force Theory

Many political philosophies that are opposed to the existence of a government (such as Anarchism, Nihilism, and to a lesser extent Marxism), as well as others, emphasize the historical roots of governments - the fact that governments, along with private property, originated from the authority of warlords and petty despots who took, by force, certain patches of land as their own (and began exercising authority over the people living on that land). Thus, it is argued that governments exist to enforce the will of the strong and oppress the weak, maintaining and protecting the privilege of a ruling class. It states that the government emerged when all the people of an area were brought under the authority of one person or group.

2)Order and tradition

The various forms of conservatism, by contrast, generally see the government as a positive force that brings order out of chaos, establishes laws to end the "war of all against all", encourages moral virtue while punishing vice, and respects tradition. Sometimes, in this view, the government is seen as something ordained by a higher power, as in the divine right of kings, which human beings have a duty to obey.

3)Natural rights

Natural rights are the basis for the theory of government shared by most branches of liberalism (including libertarianism). In this view, human beings are born with certain natural rights, and governments are established strictly for the purpose of protecting those rights. What the natural rights actually are is a matter of dispute among liberals; indeed, each branch of liberalism has its own set of rights that it considers to be natural, and these rights are sometimes mutually exclusive with the rights supported by other liberals. As a result, there is some debate between natural rights theorists, ranging from modern writers such as Tibor Machan to Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke, Kant, or Jefferson.

4)Social contract

One of the most influential theories of government in the past two hundred years has been the social contract, on which modern democracy and most forms of socialism are founded. The social contract theory holds that governments are created by the people in order to provide for collective needs (such as safety from crime, poverty, illiteracy) that cannot be properly satisfied using purely individual means. Governments thus exist for the purpose of serving the needs and wishes of the people, and their relationship with the people is clearly stipulated in a "social contract" (a constitution and a set of laws) which both the government and the people must abide by. If a majority is unhappy, it may change the social contract. If a minority is unhappy, it may persuade the majority to change the contract, or it may opt out of it by emigration or secession. This theory is based on the idea that all men live in a state of nature which is not ideal to perfect harmony. It is also an agreement among the members of an organized society or between the governed and the government defining and limiting the rights and duties of each. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau are three of the most famous philosophers of contractarianism.