Minarchism

Minarchism, sometimes clumsily called minimal statism, is the view that government should be as small as possible. It is usually stems from classical liberal philosophy.

Radical minarchists usually agree that government should be restricted to its "guardian state" functions of government (police, justice). Some other minarchists include in the role of government the management of essential common infrastructure (roads); some, by what is sometimes reproached to them as a slippery slope, include quite a lot in such essential infrastructure (schools, hospitals, money). Actually, these minarchists conservatively accept as valid some of current government's domain, and consider it more urgent to stop the expansion of government than to reduce its domain to any particular size.

See:

• classical liberalism, capitalism.
• Ayn Rand's brand of [radical minarchist capitalism].
• The related anarcho-capitalism, that claims to do away with governments altogether. (Radical minarchists such as Ayn Rand oppose anarcho-capitalism.)