Is government really necessary in a free society at all?

We have assumed that legal justice in a free society would be provided through a government, limited to the sole function of defending the rights of individuals within its geographical area from internal and external aggression, and prohibited from itself invading those rights through the initiation of force. Alternatively, some advocates of freedom, such as the late economist Murray Rothbard, have proposed that the defense of rights should instead be provided by what they call a "competitive free market" of justice providers, which would supposedly eliminate any need for government at all. Many students of this course will quickly recognize the practical difficulties in this view, often called anarcho-capitalism, and may not find it worthy of discussion. Nevertheless, because the argument has been offered with intellectual seriousness, a fifteen-page examination of it is presented here and can be seen by clicking the "Details" box.