Iceland
Published by Yazad Jal October 26th, 2004 in Anarcho CapitalismA brief post by Tom Palmer on Iceland reminded me of Jesse Byock’s excellent book Viking Age Iceland. As a sidelight, Palmer gives an interesting minimalist definition of libertarianism in a comment on his post.
For the more academically inclined, David Friedman has a paper on the legal and political institutions of Iceland from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries. It’s perhaps a unique case in history where there was a private creation and enforcement of law for a society through an extended period in time (around 400 years).
Yo Yazad,
May I second any recommendations about Iceland (and also Tom Palmer’s mention of Thingvellir)? What a strange, beautiful land. I went 3.5 years ago, I long to go back.
Here’s something I wrote about Iceland
Rebuttal
claiming that Iceland was far from a capitalistic system and actually featured (god forbid) the socialistic system of communal pricing of good (no free market). Also details how the political system eventually broke down because it as just not sustainable in the long run.