Let me begin by noting that even we conservatives believe that marketplaces need at least some policing. No one believes in complete and total laissez-faire. From the father of the Chicago School, Milton Friedman, to the father of the Austrian School, Friedrich Hayek, those of us on the right agree that our markets need a legal framework that must include at least three prohibitions: no breaching contracts, no fraud, and no price fixing.

The question is how to enforce these legal rules. The answer is not federal agencies. For all the same reasons we prefer other private-sector solutions to problems, for most of the 20th century, conservatives preferred private enforcement of the law as well.

Drawing on the privatization literature that became popular during the tenures of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, I think there are six reasons for this: smaller government is better than bigger, self-help is better than government dependence, the profit motive leads the private sector to perform better, the private sector has greater resources, the private sector is less comprised by special interests (such as the Chamber), and the private sector is less centralized.