Agorism is a radical libertarian political philosophy popularized by Samuel Edward Konkin III, who defined an agorist as a conscious practitioner of Counter-Economics ; older terms include Left Libertarian and New Libertarian.

The term was coined or popularized by Samuel Edward Konkin III and comes from the Greek word "agora" meaning "open marketplace." Ideologically, it is a term representing a type of free market anarchist. It might be considered an attempt to reconcile anarcho-capitalism with Individualist anarchism and even libertarian socialism where possible.

Views on Property

By preferring the term "free market" agorists are not bound by the implications of the term capitalism. While some anarcho-capitalists may believe in replacing all public property with private property, Agorists argue that non-state common property can be legitimate and should be respected. Though unlike some libertarian socialists, they believe that private property may extend beyond current possession. Private property, particularly in land would not continue infinitely, but must actually be used in some regular capacity to avoid being considered abandoned.

Government sanctioned corporations are viewed by agorists to link the illegitimacy of the state to many such businesses. State restrictions that limit liability on corporations are believed to corrupt those businesses such that the upper management acts irresponsibly with corporate assets. For example, if such businesses excessively pay executives and are then unable to meet contractual debts, many state laws protect the wages of those responsible for the bankruptcy. Agorists argue that liability cannot simply disappear by act of government and so legitimate business will always have managers or owners who will be held responsible for any actions taken.

Agorists tend to oppose copyrights and patents as an illegitimate monopoly as argued by Benjamin Tucker. They may promote and argue for reconciliation between writings by authors as different as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and David Friedman in part by acknowledging terminological differences, most evident by the word "property" itself.

Political action

Agorists tend to oppose voting and political participation, and at least do not believe that such could ever be an effective means to bring about a free society.

In Fiction

Science Fiction writer J. Neil Schulman promoted the ideas in his novel Alongside Night.

External link

• Agorist Institute