contract enforcement wrote:
Even libertarians would say that government needs to exist for the purpose of contract enforcement.
Libertarians would agree that we need governance -- a way to punish the wicked. They would not agree that government is the only or even the best way to do that.
Contract enforcement is a perfect example. People have all sorts of ways of punishing people who cheat on contracts besides going to court. These range from not doing business with the cheater to ruining the cheater's reputation, so that others don't do business with him, to reporting him to a trade association, to sending over "some guys my cousin knows."
There are now hundreds of studies of real contracting around the world showing that these "informal" methods are often much more important than courts in enforcing contracts.