A voluntary society, voluntary community or voluntary city is one in which all property (including streets, parks, etc.) and all services (including courts, police, etc.) are provided through voluntary means, such as private or cooperative ownership. In a voluntary society, the notion of something being "privately" or "cooperatively" owned would be radically different than monopolistic "privatization" with state subsidies, or monopolistic control of public resources by the state, respectively. Instead, courts might be replaced with dispute resolution organizations; police with volunteer-based community defense organizations or private 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 as well as anti-capitalist market anarchists 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 (e.g. Food Not Bombs), 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-capitalist activist Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio suggested that in a voluntary society, dispute resolution organizations would prevent problems such as pollution.[3]
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