Samuel Edward Konkin III
Counter-economics
Agorism: trade your way out of the state.
Heterodox AgoristOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Agorist hall →- Role
- Founder & theorist
- Era
- 1947–2004
- Region
- United States
- Social band
- Heterodox
- Placement
- +8 · −96 · +35
§ Where Samuel Edward Konkin III stands
3 axesKonkin sits just right of the economic centre. He championed free markets but drew a sharp line between the agorist free market and capitalism, which he saw as a system of state-privileged corporations; his agorist class theory set counter-economic entrepreneurs against the statist ruling class and its allies in big business.
He wanted no state at all and rejected voting and party politics as complicity. The New Libertarian Manifesto (1980) set out a strategy in which growing black and grey markets would draw people and resources away from the state until it could no longer function, with libertarian activists helping to defend and spread the counter-economy.
Konkin was a counter-cultural individualist who sought allies on the New Left as well as the right, and he treated the drug trade, tax evasion and unlicensed work as acts of resistance rather than vice. His interest lay in freedom from coercion rather than in a programme of cultural reform, which places him only mildly on the progressive side.
How close are you to Samuel Edward Konkin III?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
HistoricalSamuel Edward Konkin III (1947–2004) was a Canadian-born libertarian theorist who spent most of his career in the United States, especially Los Angeles. Active in the libertarian movement from the late 1960s, he placed himself on its radical left, founding the Movement of the Libertarian Left and editing the magazine New Libertarian, and he coined the term minarchism for libertarians who wanted a minimal state rather than none.
His New Libertarian Manifesto (1980) founded agorism, from the Greek agora, the open marketplace: the idea that a stateless society would be reached not through elections but through counter-economics, the spread of peaceful trade outside state control. He scorned the Libertarian Party as partyarchy and clashed with Murray Rothbard, who criticised the manifesto in the early 1980s. Little known beyond the movement in his lifetime, he gained a wider posthumous following after Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road market, cited his ideas.
Notable for
- 01Founded agorism
- 02'New Libertarian Manifesto'
- 03Theory of counter-economics
Key works & moments
- 1971Coins the term minarchism for libertarians who accept a minimal state.
- 1970sFounds the Movement of the Libertarian Left and edits the magazine New Libertarian.
- 1979J. Neil Schulman's novel Alongside Night dramatises his idea of counter-economics.
- 1980Publishes the New Libertarian Manifesto, founding agorism.
§ Minds closest to Samuel Edward Konkin III
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§ Also in the Agorist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat was Samuel Edward Konkin III's political ideology?
Samuel Edward Konkin III was the founder of agorism, a revolutionary form of market anarchism: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Heterodox Agorist. Economically he sat just right of centre (+8), defending free markets while condemning state-backed corporate capitalism. On governance he was at the libertarian extreme (−96), rejecting the state, voting and political parties, and socially he leaned mildly progressive (+35), a counter-cultural individualist more concerned with coercion than with cultural reform.
Was Samuel Edward Konkin III left-wing or right-wing?
He called himself a left-libertarian, and that is the best fit. Konkin's economics were pro-market, which links him to the libertarian right, but he rejected capitalism as a state-corporate alliance, built a Movement of the Libertarian Left and sought allies among radicals and the counter-culture. Above all he was an anarchist: he scorned the Libertarian Party and all electoral politics, which put him at odds with figures such as Murray Rothbard as well as with the conventional left.
What is agorism?
Agorism is the strategy and philosophy Konkin set out in his New Libertarian Manifesto (1980). Taking its name from the agora, the open marketplace of ancient Greece, it holds that libertarians should not seek power through elections but should withdraw their cooperation from the state by trading peacefully outside its control, in the black and grey markets he called the counter-economy. As that counter-economy grows, agorists argue, the state is starved of taxes and legitimacy until a free, stateless market society replaces it.
Which minds are closest to Samuel Edward Konkin III?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Samuel Edward Konkin III are J. Neil Schulman (98% alike), The Crypto-Trader (archetype) (98% alike) and The Grey-Market Smuggler (archetype) (96% alike). The furthest is Adam Sutler (3% alike).