The Voluntaryist Constitution
A theoretical framework for constitutional governance based on voluntary association, consent, and the protection of individual rights.
Originally published on Mises Wire.
This essay presents a theoretical framework for what a constitution designed around purely voluntary principles might look like. It explores how governance structures can be built on consent rather than coercion, and how individual rights can be protected through institutional design rather than mere parchment barriers.
The core insight is that legitimate authority must derive from actual consent—not hypothetical consent, not tacit consent, not the consent of ancestors, but real, ongoing consent from the governed. This has profound implications for how we think about constitutional design.
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