[embolism]

Actually we do have a overall decrease in the number of states over the past few centuries. The USSR is a special case because it was actually based on ideology and not just strength.

We can equally ask why, if your libertarian philosophy is so naturally stable, it has not emerged into the world yet?

[eatitraw]

> Actually we do have a overall decrease in the number of states over the past few centuries.

It doesn't really affect my argument(if all states didn't collapse into one over past couple of centuries, then multi-government system is quite stable), but I am quite interested in the source(out of pure curiousity).

> The USSR is a special case because it was actually based on ideology and not just strength

Almost all states utilize some sort of ideology. In fact, I agree that ideological component was really strong in the USSR, but the USSR did use raw power - it annexed baltic states for example.

Also, there are other examples: Czechoslovakia, South & North Sudan.

> We can equally ask why, if your libertarian philosophy is so naturally stable, it has not emerged into the world yet?

I would define stable as "won't collapse once established". The problem of stability is orthogonal to the problem of establishing. It is not easy to organize a market anarchy when all territory is occupied by the state(note: you cannot easily organize another state either, though existing states are relatively stable). In past there were more or less "anarcho-capitalist" societies which lasted for thousands of years: medieval iceland, medieval ireland.

Iceland: http://wiki.mises.org/wiki/Iceland#Medieval_Iceland_and_Anar...

Ireland: http://pucksmith.blogspot.ru/2013/02/libertarian-ancient-ire...