Why Ancapism Will Never be Achieved

I recently interned for my uncle during a special election. He’s not full Ancap, more of a minarchist, but our views are broadly aligned. He believes in severely limited government.

But that was not a winning proposition. The district is in a poor rural area and the only people who vibed with his message were the rich. They really loved the idea of the government leaving them alone.

But the rest of the people (95% plus), didn’t like his message at all. Every time he told them that the solution to almost all their problems was less government intervention instead of more, they assumed he didn’t care about them. He was called heartless and stupid and evil and all sorts of names.

Crowds got so angry, we had stones thrown at us at one event. People, especially the ones struggling economically, don’t want a government that leaves them alone. They want a government that gives them whatever they want.

These people are still proud rural farmers. They didn’t want handouts, but they still wanted the government to build irrigation canals, lower the price fertilizer, and guarantee high prices for their farm produce.

They wanted the government to actively intervene in the free market for their own benefit, regardless of how it would affect everybody else, like in the form of high food prices, which we already have because the government already guarantees above market prices for corn and wheat. They wanted a higher guaranteed price and an expansion of price guarantees to other crops instead of just corn and wheat.

Needless to say, my uncle lost horribly. He got 519 votes, a measly 2% of the ballots cast. He is a local celebrity, but even unknown nobodies who promised to “fight for the people” did better than him.

Our best week of the campaign happened when my uncle promised to pursue legislation banning cows from a neighbouring country from the cattle markets because their government has bigger feed subsidies than we do. The farmers really loved us that week. We even got a few hugs instead of the usual angry shouts. But then an opponent copied the same promise and stole our thunder.

It turns out that a surprising number of people like using the government as a weapon against their perceived enemies. This is why demagogues win.

I also saw that the selection pressure favoured politicians who promised more rather than less. The more you promise to do for the people, the more votes you get, as long as those promises remain believable. This is why democracy always slides into more and more socialism. It’s bidding war of promises, and you only win by promising more than the last guy.

Most people do not want a government that gives them independence. They want the government to be a sugar daddy. They will happily trade freedom for security ten times a day, every day of the week.

This has led me to the conclusion that cannot achieve an Ancap society democratically. We will have to pursue other means.