I've seen this Somalia argument appear again and again, I do not know who started it, but it is fundamentally flawed. It takes the notion of respecting civil liberties and providing minimal federal government and replaces it with a failed state ruled by war lords.
Nobody started it that I know of, it's just an obvious example since Somalia hasn't had a functional government for a while now. It's the nearest thing to an anarchic society going at present (as opposed to a small community within a wider society).
I don't really know level of minimal government you have in mind; I'm guessing defense and courts and police, but I can't help feeling that much of what government does in the name of regulation is to agglomerate court precedents. As any society with writing progresses, refinements to their civil code are going to accumulate.
I think liberatarians would do better to provide examples of economically diverse societies and show how a minimalist approach provides better results over the long run.
