Avoluntary society,voluntary community orvoluntary city is a term used inright-libertarianism to describe an entity in which all property (including streets, parks, etc.) and all services (including courts, police, etc.) are provided through what the proponents of the term call "voluntary means" and in which they includeprivate or cooperative ownership.
In a "voluntary society", as described byDavid Beito,Peter Gordon andAlexander Tabarrok, the notion of something being "privately" or "cooperatively" owned would be "radically different" from "monopolistic privatization with state subsidies", or "monopolistic control of public resources by the state", respectively. Instead, courts might be replaced withdispute resolution organizations; police with volunteer-based community defense organizations orprivate security agencies and crime insurers; transportation authorities with community road associations and rail counterparts; etc. These services were the subject of the book,The Voluntary City, which dealt with them chapter-by-chapter.[1]
Anarcho-capitalists view "voluntary societies" as the solution to the conflict between those who favor government allowing behaviors and arrangements such as non-violent drug use, free stores, sexual liberation, voluntary communal sharing, etc., and those who favor government restrictions on such activities. Those who want to live under a certain code of conduct can move to a community that supports and protects it.[2] Anarcho-capitalists such asStefan Molyneux believe that in a "voluntary society", dispute resolution organizations andpollution insurance companies would prevent problems such as pollution.[3]
