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Agorism is a radical left-libertarian form of anarchist political philosophy popularized by the late Samuel Edward Konkin III, whose goal was a society in which all "relations between people are voluntary exchanges — a free market."^[1]. The term comes from the Greek word "agora" meaning "open marketplace". Ideologically, it is a term representing a revolutionary type of free market anarchism.^[2]

Agorists are anarcho-capitalists who 1) consider intellectual property to be illegitimate, and 2) are soft propertarians i.e. are not opposed in principle to collectively held property if acquired in accordance with Rothbardian/Lockean property ethics. Agorists consider their ideas to be an evolution and superation of those of Murray Rothbard. Konkin describes agorists as "strict Rothbardians...and even more Rothbardian than Rothbard."^[3]

Strategically, agorists are advocates or conscious practitioners of counter-economics (peaceful black and grey markets). Konkin's Agorism, as expounded in the New Libertarian Manifesto^[1], advocates achieving a market anarchist society through advocacy and growth of the underground economy or "black market" — the "counter-economy" as Konkin put it — until such a point that the State's perceived moral authority and outright power have been so thoroughly undermined that revolutionary market anarchist legal and security enterprises are able to arise from underground and ultimately suppress government as a criminal activity (with taxation being treated as theft, war being treated as mass murder, et cetera).

Agorists consider their ideas a leftward evolution and superation of those of Murray Rothbard. They describe themselves as left libertarian, though this is non-standard usage - by "left" they mean revolutionary rather than socialist.

Contents 1 Counter-economics as revolutionary theory 2 Views on Property 3 Three types of capitalists 4 Political action 5 See also 6 In fiction 7 Notes 8 External links

According to a short summary of the agorist conception of market anarchist revolution, "Agorist Revolution in a Nutshell" from Agorism.info^[4]:

Agorism is revolutionary market anarchism.

In a market anarchist society, law and security will be provided by market institutions, not political institutions. Agorists recognize, therefore, that those institutions can not develop through political reform. Instead, they will come about as a result of market processes.

As government is banditry, revolution culminates in the suppression of government by market providers of security and law. Market demand for such service providers is what will lead to their emergence. Development of that demand will come from economic growth in the sector of the economy that explicitly shuns state involvement (and therefore can not turn to the state in its role as monopoly provider of security and law). That sector of the economy is the counter-economy — black and grey markets.

By preferring the term "free market" agorists feel they are not bound by the implications of the term capitalism. Government-favored 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.

Many agorists, like all anarcho-capitalists, refer to the free market as capitalism. However, according to Konkin, agorists make a 3-part distinction between participants in capitalism.

entrepreneur (although an entrepreneur is not necessarily a capitalist) or venture capitalist	non-statist capitalist	pro-statist capitalist
(good)	(neutral)	(bad)
innovator, risk-taker, producer the strength of a free market	holders of capital not necessarily ideologically aware "relatively drone-like non-innovators"	"the main Evil in the political realm"

Konkin claimed that anarcho-capitalists tend to conflate the first and second types, and implies that "Marxoids and cruder collectivists" conflate all three. ^[5]

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. They support education and direct action, with a particular focus on counter-economics.

• Counter-economics
• Market anarchism
• Economic secession
• Left-Libertarianism
• Anarcho-capitalism
• Individualist anarchism
• Mutualism
• Geolibertarianism

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

1. ^ ^{a b} Konkin, Samuel Edward. New Libertarian Manifesto
2. ^ Agorism is revolutionary market anarchism. Agorism.info
3. ^ "Interview With Samuel Edward Konkin III" [1]
4. ^ http://agorism.info/
5. ^ Interview with Samuel Edward Konkin III.

• Agorism.info
• Agorist Action Alliance (A3)
• The New Libertarian Manifesto
• Interview With Samuel Edward Konkin III
• http://127.0.0.1:8888/SSK@Ly3m~RoTy6qxyGMYTKyziSmAPb8PAgM,88PHE2a2FK2kYfxGUpbnJg/MLL/5// — You must be running Freenet 0.5 for this link to work.