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Are Anarcho-Capitalists Insane? Medieval Icelandic Conflict Institutions in Comparative Perspective

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  • Vincent Geloso
  • Peter T. Leeson

Abstract

Anarcho-capitalists argue that private governance institutions could profitably replace government and often appeal to medieval Iceland, which was governed privately. Conventional wisdom regards this as insane: medieval Iceland was poor, and every rich society has government. While that is true, every society in medieval Europe was poor by modern standards, and whether living standards would have been higher in medieval Iceland under government is an empirical question that has not been evaluated empirically. We provide such an evaluation by exploiting the fact that, in contrast to Iceland, other territories in medieval Europe were governed partly by government. We use historical data on human height, wages, and population growth to compare living standards across medieval European territories. Living standards in state-governed medieval Europe do not seem to have been higher than they were in Iceland. Anarcho-capitalists, it seems, are not insane. Classification JEL: P51, N30, N40, N33, N43, 057

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent Geloso & Peter T. Leeson, 2020. "Are Anarcho-Capitalists Insane? Medieval Icelandic Conflict Institutions in Comparative Perspective," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 130(6), pages 957-974.
    • Handle: RePEc:cai:repdal:redp_306_0115
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Medieval Iceland; Conflict Institutions; Anarchy; living standard; Anarcho-Capitalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • N40 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N43 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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