Neocapitalism

Neocapitalism is an ideology which appeared in the early 20th century with the development of modern capitalism and after the failed communist revolutions.

Ideology

Neocapitalism (literally, "New capitalism") states that everything should be made private property (privatized) and the rule of the state should be as minimal as possible. In some circles, Neocapitalism is seen as similar to anarchism, although in parctice the two are quite different.

Neocapitalism, according to its supporters, should be implemented in several stages - gradually - rather than all at once. They recommend privatizing various institutions. E.g. at the first stages of the implementination of neocapitalism, Education and Medical Sectors should be privatized if they aren't already; in the next stage - roads and highways, in the latter stages more and more functions of the police would be given to private security agencies, the police becoming a supervisory agency of the security agencies themselves, and so on.

A Neocapitalist utopia would also have a functioning system of direct democracy, where the state would be partitioned into small administrative units, consisting of a single village or city district; people of those administrative units could meet and decide local policy together.

Modern neocapitalists advocate the use of technology, such as a direct computer connection, allowing all citizens of a nation state to attend the same meeting, thus participating in policy creation on the state level. Other neocapitalists suggest that shares of the state would be sold just as stocks or shares of companies are. They argue that the state would thus be in capable hands, and those who were disinterested in ruling, incapable of ruling, or financially indigent would not. At the onset, all would be given an equal share. Under the tenets of neocapitalism, there would be no taxes and hence no profits of ruling the state, and therefore shares wouldn't be needed or of any value.

Criminals would be tried by the citizens of the administrative unit where the alleged crime was perpetrated, assisted by the unit of the victim(s). Civil order would be kept by the people themselves, who would be armed. In territories and companies needing additional security mercenary security could be hired from private security agencies.

Is neocapitalism possible?

Neocapitalism is more or less implemented and still exists in Free Lithuania. There are neocapitalist parties in other states too, but they are usually considered radical, and minorities.

While with the existance of Free Lithuania critics of neocapitalism are unable to completely denounce the possibility of a neocapitalist society they claim that neocapitalist society is only possible where there is egalitarianism that is hardly changable (due to such things as climate, lack of foreign relations or natural resources). Also a united political opinion and isolation are sometimes considered a prerequisite for a functioning neocapitalist society by them. They claim that in case egalitarianism would be challenged in a neocapitalist market more capable people would accumulate wealth while without social guarantees the remaining people would starve and as they would be larger in numbers they would destroy neocapitalism.

Proponents of neocapitalism denounce such claims by noting that a neocapitalist society would itself remove people incapable of contributing by such means as expulsion. In a complete neocapitalism which is not yet implemented anywhere (where the country would be owned by shareholders) this would be a natural process as ones who would be unwilling to live in the society would sell their shares and move elsewhere for the money received, whereas the shares would be bought by those willing to live in the society (hence safeguarding a uniform positive opinion on neocapitalism inside the society).

"The Demise of an Antartactic Adventure" is a novel that depicts the discovery of large amounts of oil in Free Lithuania which eventually leads to the destruction of the neocapitalist society and the state both due to inner conflicts among people with regards to the distribution of the newly acquired wealth and due to foreign intrigues (from Scandinavian Realm, Republic of the Two Crowns and other countries). Praised by some leftists this novel is criticised by most neocapitalists who claim that it is based on misconceptions of a neocapitalist society. Free Lithuanian state council passed a decision inviting the authors of this book to visit the country for themselves and "experience the friendly atmosphere" there.

Other criticism

Critics see neocapitalism as an impossible utopic doctrine, and say that in practice it would become immediately corrupt. Some neocapitalist proponents agree with this criticism and suggest the creation of various systems to avoid corruption. Several versions of these suggestions exist.

Critics suggest that such a system would create huge disparities, ballooning the number of poor persons. Another frequent complaint is that such a state without an army would be quickly occupied by other surrounding states. Proponents counter that with an armed populace, such invasion would be easily deterred.

This page was created by Abdul-aziz.