Libertarianism

A brief and random thought. Plato proposed that the best system of government is a benevolent tyrant, to which I would also attach 'competent' as a prerequisite as well. It occurs to me that libertarianism, when you boil it down to its ultimate precepts, is a call for exactly this situation. The smaller you make government, the less it is able to restrain the actions of its citizens. If you place all the decision-making power in the hands of individuals without effective oversight, then inevitably some people will start asserting control over the system, via economic or physical means. Libertarianism thus boils down to a thoroughly unsubstantiated belief that people who achieve power in an unregulated system will exert that power benevolently.