Directed by Chris Cofer, The Monopoly on Violence is a 2020 American documentary that sets out to explain anarchist political thought and its critique of the State to viewers who may never have encountered the subject before.
What is The Monopoly on Violence about?
Rather than following a single storyline, the film is built around a series of interviews with writers, academics, commentators and public figures who argue that society could be organised without a centralised government. The project was financed through crowdfunding, and its stated goal was to take ideas usually confined to niche books, podcasts and seminars and present them in a format suited to a general audience. Contributors include James C. Scott, David Friedman, Michael Huemer, Walter Block and Andrew Napolitano, alongside the figures credited as principal cast. Across its running time the documentary moves through questions of taxation, law, policing, security and voluntary cooperation, giving each speaker room to set out their reasoning in their own words.
About the cast
The principal credited participants are Dave Smith, Eric July, Ron Paul, Maj Toure, Scott Horton, Thaddeus Russell, Tom Woods and Peter Quinones. They appear as themselves, speaking as interviewees rather than performing roles, and their segments are interwoven with those of the wider group of academics and authors listed in the film's credits.
Context & significance
The title borrows a well-known phrase from political theory, which describes the State as the institution that claims exclusive authority over the legitimate use of force. The documentary takes that definition as its starting point and presents arguments from people who question it. Anarchism has a long and varied intellectual history, and the film concentrates on voices that approach the topic through economics, law and philosophy. As a crowdfunded independent production aimed at newcomers, it is structured as an introductory overview rather than a detailed academic survey. Viewers should treat it as a presentation of one school of thought: the film gathers people who share a broadly similar outlook, so it is best understood as a record of how those contributors frame their own case.
Watching The Monopoly on Violence on Ktime
The Monopoly on Violence is available to stream on K-Time, the Persian-focused streaming service built for the Iranian diaspora. Reading this page is free; to press play, sign in with a K-Time account. The service offers a Farsi interface alongside English.