Agorism
Agorism is a social philosophy that advocates creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics, engaging with aspects of peaceful revolution. It was first proposed by American libertarian philosopher Samuel Edward Konkin III at two conferences, CounterCon I in October 1974 and CounterCon II in May 1975.
Etymology
The term was coined by Samuel Edward Konkin III and comes from the word agora, referring to an open place for assembly and market in a polis.Origins
According to Konkin, agorism and counter-economics were originally fighting concepts forged in the revolutionary atmosphere of 1972 and 1973. Konkin credits the Austrian School and particularly Ludwig von Mises as the base of economic thought leading to agorism and counter-economics.In the 1960–1970s, there was an abundance of political alienation in the United States, particularly for those in favor of libertarian ideologies. Whereas Murray Rothbard chose to create political alliances between the Old Right and the New Left, Robert LeFevre and his West Coast followers pursued a non-participatory form of civil disobedience.
LeFevre's anti-collaboration methods ultimately lost favor and faded away. After the creation of the Libertarian Party in 1971, the debate shifted from anarchy vs. minarchism to partyarchy vs. agorism.
Ideology
Konkin characterized agorism as a form of left-libertarianism and generally that agorism is a strategic branch of left-wing market anarchism. Although this term is non-standard usage, agorists identify as part of left-wing politics in the general sense and use the term left-libertarian as defined by Roderick T. Long, i.e. as "an integration, or I'd argue, a reintegration of libertarianism with concerns that are traditionally thought of as being concerns of the left. That includes concerns for worker empowerment, worry about plutocracy, concerns about feminism and various kinds of social equality".Counter-economics
The concept of counter-economics is the most critical element of agorism. It can be described as such:Profitable civil disobedience
Agorism believes gradual withdrawal of state support through what Konkin described as "Profitable Civil Disobedience". Starving the state of its revenue and purpose by transferring these responsibilities over to decentralized institutions is the most feasible way to achieve free markets according to agorism:Opposition to political parties
Agorism does not support political engagement in the form of political party promotion as a means to transition to a free-market anarchism. The methods of the Libertarian Party are not compatible with agorist principles. Konkin referred to these attempts to fight for free markets through state approved channels of operation as "partyarchy":Voluntary association
As with voluntaryists, agorists typically oppose electoral voting and political reform and instead they stress the importance of alternative strategies outside political systems to achieve a free society. Agorists claim that such a society could be freed more readily by employing methods such as education, direct action, alternative currencies, entrepreneurship, self sufficiency, civil disobedience and counter-economics.Konkin's class theory
Konkin developed a class theory which includes entrepreneurs, non-statist capitalists and statist capitalist:| Entrepreneur | Non-statist capitalist | Statist capitalist |
| Good | Neutral | Bad |
| Innovator, risk-taker, producer The strength of a freed market | Holders of capital Not necessarily ideologically aware "Relatively drone-like non-innovators" | The primary beneficiaries of government controls "The main Evil in the political realm" |
Konkin claimed that while agorists see these three classes differently, anarcho-capitalists tend to conflate the first and second types while "Marxoids and cruder collectivists" conflate all three.
Concept of property
The agorists prefer the term "free market" to "capitalism", mostly because it bears no ties to the implications the latter term has in history. The term "capitalism" originally referred to mercantilism, the use of public chartering and corporations to let the political class dominate and plunder important industries. It was first used by Louis Blanc in Organisation du Travail, later in 1861 by anarchist Pierre Proudhon and notably making it popular in 1867 by Karl Marx in a more specific sense to refer to control of industry by the political class. It only later came to be conflated with actual free markets. The favoritism of the government towards determined corporations is seen by agorists as the characteristic that renders much more illegitimate the intervention of the state in various sectors. According to agorists, state-imposed restrictions in favor of certain companies distort the market, making the aforementioned businesses less responsible and less capable. The agorists claim that the debts of businesses cannot be cleared through a government's decree and that every manager has to be responsible for every act taken.Konkin opposed the concept of intellectual property and wrote in an article entitled "Copywrongs" in support of such a thesis. J. Neil Schulman criticized this thesis in "Informational Property: Logorights". Whereas Konkin was opposed to the laws of the state in the cases of patents and copyright, seen as creators of monopolies and distortion, Schulman agreed with Konkin that the state could not be a foundation for any class of rightful property yet sought to demonstrate that exclusive ownership rights could apply to what he ultimately termed "Media Carried Property"—created objects that exist independent of the subjective human mind yet are not themselves made of atoms or molecules.