Kevin Carson
Free-market anti-capitalism
Mutualism for the internet age.
Reformist MutualistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Mutualist hall →- Role
- Theorist
- Era
- b. 1963
- Region
- United States
- Social band
- Reformist
- Placement
- −34 · −78 · +50
§ Where Kevin Carson stands
3 axesCarson is pro-market but anti-capitalist. Studies in Mutualist Political Economy (2004) combines a labour theory of value with Austrian insights to argue that, without state-enforced privileges such as patents, land monopoly and credit restrictions, competition would drive profit, rent and interest towards zero and favour worker-owned firms. His embrace of markets keeps him only modestly left of centre.
Carson wants a stateless, decentralised society of cooperatives and voluntary networks. Organization Theory: A Libertarian Perspective (2008) argues that large hierarchical firms survive only through state support, and The Desktop Regulatory State (2016) contends that networked communities can enforce standards and hold power to account without government.
Carson's left-libertarianism ties free markets to traditionally left-wing causes such as labour solidarity, opposition to corporate power and resistance to hierarchy at work and in society. His essays in the anthology Markets Not Capitalism (2011) present economic freedom and social liberation as parts of a single anti-authoritarian project rather than as rivals.
How close are you to Kevin Carson?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
LivingKevin Carson (b. 1963) is an American mutualist anarchist writer and one of the best-known contemporary advocates of free-market anti-capitalism. Writing outside the academy, he revived the individualist anarchism of Benjamin Tucker and Josiah Warren in Studies in Mutualist Political Economy (2004), and he became a leading writer for the Center for a Stateless Society, a left market-anarchist think tank, publishing a steady stream of books and essays on economics, organisation and technology.
Carson argues that what passes for free-market capitalism is in fact a system of state privilege, built on historic land enclosures, patents, licensing and subsidies to large corporations. Studies in Mutualist Political Economy drew a symposium of critiques from Austrian-school economists in the Journal of Libertarian Studies in 2006, and later books such as Organization Theory (2008) and The Homebrew Industrial Revolution (2010) made him a reference point for left-libertarians and for advocates of decentralised, small-scale production.
Notable for
- 01'Studies in Mutualist Political Economy'
- 02Free-market anti-capitalism
- 03Decentralised-production theory
Key works & moments
- 2004Publishes Studies in Mutualist Political Economy, reviving Tucker's free-market anti-capitalism.
- 2006The Journal of Libertarian Studies devotes a symposium to critiques of his book.
- 2008Publishes Organization Theory: A Libertarian Perspective.
- 2010Publishes The Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low-Overhead Manifesto.
- 2011Contributes to Markets Not Capitalism, an anthology of left market anarchism.
- 2016Publishes The Desktop Regulatory State.
§ Minds closest to Kevin Carson
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§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Kevin Carson's political ideology?
Kevin Carson is a mutualist and left market anarchist: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reformist Mutualist. Economically he sits modestly left of centre (−34), embracing markets and competition but arguing that without state privilege they would dissolve capitalist profit and favour worker ownership. On governance he is strongly libertarian (−78), seeking a stateless society of cooperatives and voluntary networks. Socially he is clearly progressive (+50), linking economic freedom with left-wing causes.
Is Kevin Carson left-wing or right-wing?
Left-wing, but in a way that borrows from the libertarian right. Carson shares the American libertarian movement's faith in free markets and hostility to the state, and he draws on Austrian-school economics. But he turns those tools against capitalism, arguing that corporate power, inequality and wage labour are products of state intervention. That places him on the left-libertarian or market-anarchist left, closer in aims to socialists and in methods to libertarians.
What is free-market anti-capitalism?
Free-market anti-capitalism is the view that a genuinely free market would undermine capitalism rather than sustain it. Its advocates, from Benjamin Tucker in the nineteenth century to Kevin Carson in the twenty-first, argue that large fortunes and corporate power depend on state-granted privileges such as land monopoly, patents and copyrights, restrictions on credit and protective regulation. Remove those privileges, they claim, and competition would push profit, rent and interest towards zero, leaving an economy of the self-employed, cooperatives and small firms.
Which minds are closest to Kevin Carson?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Kevin Carson are Benjamin Tucker (97% alike), The Time-Store Keeper (archetype) (96% alike) and Josiah Warren (95% alike). The furthest is Adam Sutler (0% alike).