Portal:Libertarianism/Selected article/8
Minarchism is a libertarian political ideology which maintains that the state's only legitimate function is the protection of individuals from aggression, theft, breach of contract and fraud (such states are sometimes called night watchman states). Some minarchists defend the existence of the state as a necessary evil. Minarchism is closely associated with right-libertarianism, propertarianism and classical liberalism.
Samuel Edward Konkin III, an agorist, coined the term in 1971 to describe libertarians who defend some form of compulsory government. Konkin invented the term "minarchism" because he initially felt dismayed of using the cumbersome phrase "limited-government libertarianism".