Hi there!
I’m relatively new to anarchism, so I’d like to ask a few questions. I was very inspired by the book by F. Hayek (The Road to Serfdom) which changed my mind and convinced me why regulation doesn’t work. Before this book I believed in the world trend towards regulation for the common good. Now I’m looking for a more general book on why government doesn’t work at all. What can you recommend? I’m an engineer and prefer more economic and less philosophical books (like one by F. Hayek). Is there anything like that?
And more generally, what is the general opinion on private property in the anarchist community? I tried to google it but found controversial views. I know there are left-wing (Geoism/Georgism?) and right-wing (anarcho-capitalism?), but I think there should be something common about the property question…
Thanks in advance!
Generally, anarchists dislike Hayek, though some anarchists like those with the Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS) actually have a lot of writing subverting the right-wing libertarians for an authentic or classical libertarian perspective. See C4SS’s section on Hayek. They also have a dedicated section on anarchist economics, so that’s helpful. Samuel Edward Konkin III’s New Libertarian Manifesto also brings back a lot of right-libertarian theory back towards classical libertarianism.
If you’re looking for specific books, you could try the anthology The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics. Kevin Carson is a big economics brain in anarchist thought, so checking his section on the Anarchist Library might be helpful. He wrote Studies in Mutualist Political Economy and Exodus: General Idea of the Revolution in the XXI Century which might be of interest to you.
For other anarchists in this thread, I know we don’t like Hayek and the right-wingers, but the work of C4SS proves there’s a lot of opportunity for those who do read right-wing libertarians to become real anarchists. So let’s not just ban this person or remove the post.