The Rise and Fall of the Nation State

Aggression Is a Luxury, Not a Necessity
by Mary J. Ruwart
Aggression and the state are neither necessary nor inevitable.

Anarchy, Order, and Functions Performed by Government
by Richard O. Hammer
Contains a list of human needs that can be provided by the state. Different people think government should fill different needs from the list, so they support the state. But all of these needs could be provided voluntarily. We can have order without the state.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
reviewed by Richard O. Hammer
As a source of insight into how we might create a free nation, this novel is not very helpful, despite the libertarian beliefs of its heroes.

Climbing Off the Bandwagon
by Wendy McElroy
An argument against the Libertarian Party on the grounds that, "Voluntaryists observe that politics will not bring freedom any more than violence will bring peace."

Continued Dialog on the Origin of the State
by Roderick Long and Phil Jacobson
Was the state inevitable or merely more likely to arise in times of famine?

Dialogue: Electronic Democracy and the Prospects for a Free Nation
by Richard O. Hammer and Phil Jacobson
An exchange of letters regarding Phil Jacobson's article Glorious Revolution for an American Free Nation.

Dismantling Leviathan from Within, Part I: Can We? Should We?
by Roderick T. Long
Argues that seizing political power could be justified as a form of self-defense.

Dismantling Leviathan from Within, Part II: The Process of Reform?
by Roderick T. Long
Argues that "those aspects of government whose immediate cessation is ethically mandatory are distinct from the aspects which must for practical reasons be phased out over time, so that an effective state-dismantling program can take an abolitionist attitude toward the former and a gradualist attitude toward the latter, consistent with both libertarian moral scruples and pragmatic requirements."

Dismantling Leviathan from Within, Part III: Is Libertarian Political Action Self-Defeating?
by Roderick T. Long
This part challenges the following three arguments: "first, that reliance on political rather than educational solutions flies in the face of libertarian recognition that the bottom-up approaches are more effective than top-down ones; second, that trying to put libertarians in power ignores the fact that power tends to corrupt its holders, even if those holders are libertarian; and third, that by engaging in political action libertarians would be perceived as hypocritical and so would undermine their own effectiveness."

Dismantling Leviathan from Within, Part IV: The Sons of Brutus
by Roderick T. Long
Argues that those who believe they stand to lose from the establishment of a libertarian regime will obstruct it, and they can only be overcome if libertarians use a bottom-up and a top-down approach simultaneously.

Does Freedom Need to Be Organized?
by Carl Watner
An argument for self-improvement as the only strategy to achieve a better world.

Elections, Libertarians, and State Power
by Calvin Stacy Powers
"If we want to gain power to dismantle the state, we must start by working for good in our own communities."

Embracing the New World Order: Libertarians and Terrorism
by Phil Jacobson
An optimistic analysis of the terrorism problem. The failure of the imperial, statist approach to the problem will lead to opportunities for libertarian entrepreneurs.

Food Wars and the Origin of the State
by Philip Jacobson
The state originated in food wars. Such wars are now obsolete and so is the state.

Glorious Revolution for an American Free Nation
by Philip E. Jacobson
Raises the possibility of a bloodless, libertarian revolution, which may already be underway in America.

The Good News: Tyrants Always Fail
by Richard O. Hammer
"When we comprehend, and communicate successfully, the pattern which underlies the evil of the state, then we will defeat it."

How Can Governments Be Abolished
by Lyof N. Tolstoy
Cease to give governments soldiers and money.

Ideas on Taking Apart Government
by Richard O. Hammer
Can government dismantle government?

Is It Wise to Vote? Getting My Head Ready for Freedom
by Richard O. Hammer
Voting wastes time and energy that could be better spent working to create a free nation.

Libertarianism's stealthy triumph
by Bill Winter
"Quietly, without much fanfare, many free-market, libertarian-style alternatives to government-run systems--even ones considered hopelessly radical, like private roads and money--have been implemented around the country."

The Mechanism of Mind by Edward de Bono
reviewed by Richard Hammer
"He gives a model of what we are up against, ingrained patterns of thought, and suggests ways of overcoming adversely ingrained patterns."

Nations by Consent: Decoupling the Nation-State
by Murray N. Rothbard
This is a PDF file. You need Adobe Acrobat(TM) or an equivalent program to handle PDF files.

The Origins of States
by Roy Halliday
Describes what experts have learned about how primary states arose.

A Pessimistic View of Legitimizing the Institutions of a Free Nation
by Roy Halliday
"Our [libertarian] views are not wrong, they are just not likely to be popular with the stupid masses or with their more intelligent but evil rulers."

The Power of Non-Violent Resistance
by Jerry M. Tinker
How non-violent resistance works as a radical alternative to electoral politics.

Reply to Roderick Long's "Was the State Inevitable?"
by Phil Jacobson
"The state was formed when bands of conquering warriors found it was more expedient to treat the conquered as cattle than to simply kill them and/or steal from them."

Roll Back U.S. Government? Not This Time
by Marc D. Joffe
We can't count on the "Republican Revolution" or the Libertarian Party to transform the USA into a free nation. The best prospects for liberty remain somewhere outside the United States.

The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically by Franz Oppenheimer
reviewed by Candice I. Copas
A positive review and summary of Oppenheimer's theory of the origin of the state, the stages of its development, its history, and its future.

The state: Its rise and decline
by Martin van Creveld
In the future, independent organizations can be expected to emancipate themselves from state control and to play an independent role. Depending on the issue and on the moment, they may cooperate with governments, exercise pressure on governments, oppose governments, and even wage war on governments.

Thoughts on Dismantling Government
by Richard O. Hammer
When the state monopolizes an essential service, it is important to establish a market alternative before entirely dismantling the government service.

The twisting of blame
by Joseph Rowlands
Who is to blame for "business controlling and manipulating government?" Rowlands says that the argument is twisted because government is the ultimate corrupting force.

Was the State Inevitable?
by Roderick T. Long
The state was not inevitable, although the material scarcity before the industrial revolution made the creation of the state more likely.

Why Government Doesn't Work by Harry Brown
reviewed by Marc D. Joffe
This book does an excellent job of explaining libertarian ideas to newcomers. It will also appeal to libertarian activists, whether they are advocates of pragmatism or consistency.

You Can't Do That
by Bobby Yates Emory
An argument that trying to use government to reduce government is counterproductive.

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This page was last updated on March 7, 2004.