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Anarchy is a form of society without rulers. As a type of stateless society, it is commonly contrasted with states, which are centralised polities that claim a monopoly on violence over a permanent territory. Beyond a lack of government, it can more precisely refer to societies that lack any form of authority or hierarchy. While viewed positively by anarchists, the primary advocates of anarchy, it is viewed negatively by advocates of statism, who see it in terms of social disorder.
The word "anarchy" was first defined by Ancient Greek philosophy, which understood it to be a corrupted form of direct democracy, where a majority of people exclusively pursue their own interests. This use of the word made its way into Latin during the Middle Ages, before the concepts of anarchy and democracy were disconnected from each other in the wake of the Atlantic Revolutions. During the Age of Enlightenment, philosophers began to look at anarchy in terms of the "state of nature", a thought experiment used to justify various forms of hierarchical government. By the late 18th century, some philosophers began to speak in defence of anarchy, seeing it as a preferable alternative to existing forms of tyranny. This lay the foundations for the development of anarchism, which advocates for the creation of anarchy through decentralisation and federalism.
As a concept, anarchy is commonly defined by what it excludes. [1] Etymologically, anarchy is derived from the Greek : αναρχία, romanized: anarchia; where "αν" ("an") means "without" and "αρχία" ("archia") means "ruler". [2] Therefore, anarchy is fundamentally defined by the absence of rulers. [3]
While anarchy specifically represents a society without rulers, it can more generally refer to a stateless society, [4] or a society without government. [5] Anarchy is thus defined in direct contrast to the State, [6] an institution that claims a monopoly on violence over a given territory. [7] Anarchists such as Errico Malatesta have also defined anarchy more precisely as a society without authority, [8] or hierarchy. [9]
Anarchy is also often defined synonymously as chaos or social disorder, [10] reflecting the state of nature as depicted by Thomas Hobbes. [11] By this definition, anarchy represents not only an absence of government but also an absence of governance. This connection of anarchy with chaos usually assumes that, without government, no means of governance exist and thus that disorder is an unavoidable outcome of anarchy. [12] Sociologist Francis Dupuis-Déri has described chaos as a "degenerate form of anarchy", in which there is an absence, not just of rulers, but of any kind of political organization. [13] He contrasts the "rule of all" under anarchy with the "rule of none" under chaos. [14]
Since its conception, anarchy has been used in both a positive and negative sense, respectively describing a free society without coercion or a state of chaos. [15]
When the word "anarchy" (Greek : αναρχία, romanized: anarchia) was first defined in ancient Greece, it initially had both a positive and negative connotation, respectively referring to spontaneous order or chaos without rulers. The latter definition was taken by the philosopher Plato, who criticised Athenian democracy as "anarchical", and his disciple Aristotle, who questioned how to prevent democracy from descending into anarchy. [16] Ancient Greek philosophy initially understood anarchy to be a corrupted form of direct democracy, although it later came to be conceived of as its own form of political regime, distinct from any kind of democracy. [17] According to the traditional conception of political regimes, anarchy results when authority is derived from a majority of people who pursue their own interests. [18]
During the Middle Ages, the word "anarchia" came into use in Latin, in order to describe the eternal existence of the Christian God. It later came to reconstitute its original political definition, describing a society without government. [15]
Christian theologists came to claim that all humans were inherently sinful and ought to submit to the omnipotence of higher power, with the French Protestant reformer John Calvin declaring that even the worst form of tyranny was preferable to anarchy. [19] The Scottish Quaker Robert Barclay also denounced the "anarchy" of libertines such as the Ranters. [20] In contrast, radical Protestants such as the Diggers advocated for anarchist societies based on common ownership. [21] Although following attempts to establish such a society, the Digger Gerard Winstanley came to advocate for an authoritarian form of communism. [22]
During the 16th century, the term "anarchy" first came into use in the English language. [23] It was used to describe the disorder that results from the absence of or opposition to authority, with John Milton writing of "the waste/Wide anarchy of Chaos" in Paradise Lost . [24] Initially used as a pejorative descriptor for democracy, the two terms began to diverge following the Atlantic Revolutions, when democracy took on a positive connotation and was redefined as a form of elected, representational government. [25]
Political philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment contrasted the state with what they called the "state of nature", a hypothetical description of stateless society, although they disagreed on its definition. [26] Thomas Hobbes considered the state of nature to be a "nightmare of permanent war of all against all". [27] In contrast, John Locke considered it to be a harmonious society in which people lived "according to reason, without a common superior". They would be subject only to natural law, with otherwise "perfect freedom to order their actions". [28]
In depicting the "state of nature" to be a free and equal society governed by natural law, Locke distinguished between society and the state. [29] He argued that, without established laws, such a society would be inherently unstable, which would make a limited government necessary in order to protect people's natural rights. [30] He likewise argued that limiting the reach of the state was reasonable when peaceful cooperation without a state was possible. [31] His thoughts on the state of nature and limited government ultimately provided the foundation for the classical liberal argument for laissez-faire . [32]
Immanuel Kant defined "anarchy", in terms of the "state of nature", as a lack of government. He discussed the concept of anarchy in order to question why humanity ought to leave the state of nature behind and instead submit to a "legitimate government". [33] In contrast to Thomas Hobbes, who conceived of the state of nature as a "war of all against all" which existed throughout the world, Kant considered it to be only a thought experiment. Kant believed that human nature drove people to not only seek out society but also to attempt to attain a superior hierarchical status. [34]
While Kant distinguished between different forms of the state of nature, contrasting the "solitary" form against the "social", he held that there was no means of distributive justice in such a circumstance. He considered that, without law, a judiciary and means for law enforcement, the danger of violence would be ever-present, as each person could only judge for themselves what is right without any form of arbitration. He thus concluded that human society ought to leave the state of nature behind and submit to the authority of a state. [35] Kant argued that the threat of violence incentivises humans, by the need to preserve their own safety, to leave the state of nature and submit to the state. [36] Based on his "hypothetical imperative", he argued that if humans desire to secure their own safety, then they ought to avoid anarchy. [37] But he also argued, according to his "categorical imperative", that it is not only prudent but also a moral and political obligation to avoid anarchy and submit to a state. [38] Kant thus concluded that even if people did not desire to leave anarchy, they ought to as a matter of duty to abide by universal laws. [39]
In contrast, Edmund Burke's 1756 work A Vindication of Natural Society , argued in favour of anarchist society in a defense of the state of nature. [40] Burke insisted that reason was all that was needed to govern society and that "artificial laws" had been responsible for all social conflict and inequality, which led him to denounce the church and the state. [41] Burke's anti-statist arguments preceded the work of classical anarchists and directly inspired the political philosophy of William Godwin. [42]
In his 1793 book Political Justice , Godwin proposed the creation of a more just and free society by abolishing government, concluding that order could be achieved through anarchy. [43] Although he came to be known as a founding father of anarchism, [44] Godwin himself mostly used the word "anarchy" in its negative definition, [45] fearing that an immediate dissolution of government without any prior political development would lead to disorder. [46] Godwin held that the anarchy could be best realised through gradual evolution, by cultivating reason through education, rather than through a sudden and violent revolution. [47] But he also considered transitory anarchy to be preferable to lasting despotism, stating that anarchy bore a distorted resemblance to "true liberty" [45] and could eventually give way to "the best form of human society". [46]
This positive conception of anarchy was soon taken up by other political philosophers. In his 1792 work The Limits of State Action , Wilhelm von Humboldt came to consider an anarchist society, which he conceived of as a community built on voluntary contracts between educated individuals, to be "infinitely preferred to any State arrangements". [48] The French political philosopher Donatien Alphonse François, in his 1797 novel Juliette , questioned what form of government was best. [49] He argued that it was passion, not law, that had driven human society forward, concluding by calling for the abolition of law and a return to a state of nature by accepting anarchy. [50] He concluded by declaring anarchy to be the best form of political regime, as it was law that gave rise to tyranny and anarchic revolution that was capable of bringing down bad governments. [51] After the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson suggested that a stateless society might lead to greater happiness for humankind and has been attributed the maxim "that government is best which governs least". Jefferson's political philosophy later inspired the development of individualist anarchism in the United States, with contemporary right-libertarians proposing that private property could be used to guarantee anarchy. [52]
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first person known to self-identify as an anarchist, adopting the label in order to provoke those that took anarchy to mean disorder. [53] Proudhon was one of the first people to use the word "anarchy" (French : anarchie) in a positive sense, to mean a free society without government. [54] To Proudhon, as anarchy did not allow coercion, it could be defined synoymously with liberty. [55] In arguing against monarchy, he claimed that "the Republic is a positive anarchy [...] it is the liberty that is the MOTHER, not the daughter, of order." [54] While acknowledging this common definition of anarchy as disorder, Proudhon claimed that it was actually authoritarian government and wealth inequality that were the true causes of social disorder. [56] By counterposing this against anarchy, which he defined as an absence of rulers, [57] Proudhon declared that "just as man seeks justice in equality, society seeks order in anarchy". [58] Proudhon based his case for anarchy on his conception of a just and moral state of nature. [59]
Proudhon posited federalism as an organizational form and mutualism as an economic form, which he believed would lead towards the end goal of anarchy. [60] In his 1863 work The Federal Principle, Proudhon elaborated his view of anarchy as "the government of each man by himself," using the English term of "self-government" as a synonym for it. [61] According to Proudhon, under anarchy, "all citizens reign and govern" through direct participation in decision-making. [62] He proposed that this could be achieved through a system of federalism and decentralisation, [63] in which every community is self-governing and any delegation of decision-making is subject to immediate recall. [62] He likewise called for the economy to be brought under industrial democracy, which would abolish private property. [64] Proudhon believed that all this would eventually lead to anarchy, as individual and collective interests aligned and spontaneous order is achieved. [65]
Proudhon thus came to be known as the "father of anarchy" by the anarchist movement, which emerged from the libertarian socialist faction of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA). [66] Until the establishment of IWA in 1864, there had been no anarchist movement, only individuals and groups that saw anarchy as their end goal. [67]
One of Proudhon's keenest students was the Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin, who adopted his critiques of private property and government, as well as his views on the desirability of anarchy. [68] During the Revolutions of 1848, Bakunin wrote of his hopes of igniting a revolutionary upheaval in the Russian Empire, writing to the German poet Georg Herwegh that: "I do not fear anarchy, but desire it with all my heart". Although he still used the negative definition of anarchy as disorder, he nevertheless saw the need for "something different: passion and life and a new world, lawless and thereby free." [69]
Bakunin popularised "anarchy" as a term, [70] using both its negative and positive definitions, [71] in order to respectively describe the disorderly destruction of revolution and the construction of a new social order in the post-revolutionary society. [72] Bakunin envisioned the creation of an "International Brotherhood", which could lead people through "the thick of popular anarchy" in a social revolution. [73] Upon joining the IWA, in 1869, Bakunin drew up a programme for such a Brotherhood, in which he infused the word "anarchy" with a more positive connotation: [74]
We do not fear anarchy, we invoke it. For we are convinced that anarchy, meaning the unrestricted manifestation of the liberated life of the people, must spring from liberty, equality, the new social order, and the force of the revolution itself against the reaction. There is no doubt that this new life – the popular revolution – will in good time organize itself, but it will create its revolutionary organization from the bottom up, from the circumference to the center, in accordance with the principle of liberty, and not from the top down or from the center to the circumference in the manner of all authority. It matters little to us if that authority is called Church, Monarchy, constitutional State, bourgeois Republic, or even revolutionary Dictatorship. We detest and reject all of them equally as the unfailing sources of exploitation and despotism.
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is against all forms of authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. A historically left-wing movement, anarchism is usually described as the libertarian wing of the socialist movement.
Individualist anarchism is the branch of anarchism that emphasizes the individual and their will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. Although usually contrasted with social anarchism, both individualist and social anarchism have influenced each other. Some anarcho-capitalists claim anarcho-capitalism is part of the individualist anarchist tradition, while others disagree and claim individualist anarchism is only part of the socialist movement and part of the libertarian socialist tradition. Economically, while European individualist anarchists are pluralists who advocate anarchism without adjectives and synthesis anarchism, ranging from anarcho-communist to mutualist economic types, most American individualist anarchists of the 19th century advocated mutualism, a libertarian socialist form of market socialism, or a free-market socialist form of classical economics. Individualist anarchists are opposed to property that violates the entitlement theory of justice, that is, gives privilege due to unjust acquisition or exchange, and thus is exploitative, seeking to "destroy the tyranny of capital,—that is, of property" by mutual credit.
Anarchist communism is a political ideology and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retention of personal property and collectively-owned items, goods, and services. It supports social ownership of property and the distribution of resources "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".
Anarcho-primitivism, also known as anti-civilization anarchism, is an anarchist critique of civilization that advocates a return to non-civilized ways of life through deindustrialization, abolition of the division of labor or specialization, abandonment of large-scale organization and all technology other than prehistoric technology, and the dissolution of agriculture. Anarcho-primitivists critique the origins and alleged progress of the Industrial Revolution and industrial society. Most anarcho-primitivists advocate for a tribal-like way of life while some see an even simpler lifestyle as beneficial. According to anarcho-primitivists, the shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural subsistence during the Neolithic Revolution gave rise to coercion, social alienation, and social stratification.
Green anarchism, also known as ecological anarchism or eco-anarchism, is an anarchist school of thought that focuses on ecology and environmental issues. It is an anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian form of radical environmentalism, which emphasises social organization, freedom and self-fulfillment.
Anarcha-feminism, also known as anarchist feminism or anarcho-feminism, is a system of analysis which combines the principles and power analysis of anarchist theory with feminism. It closely resembles intersectional feminism. Anarcha-feminism generally posits that patriarchy and traditional gender roles as manifestations of involuntary coercive hierarchy should be replaced by decentralized free association. Anarcha-feminists believe that the struggle against patriarchy is an essential part of class conflict and the anarchist struggle against the state and capitalism. In essence, the philosophy sees anarchist struggle as a necessary component of feminist struggle and vice versa. L. Susan Brown claims that "as anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently feminist".
Market anarchism is the branch of anarchism that advocates a free-market economic system based on voluntary interactions without the involvement of the state; a form of individualist anarchism and libertarian socialism.
Anarchists have employed certain symbols for their cause since the 19th century, including most prominently the circle-A and the black flag. Anarchist cultural symbols have become more prevalent in popular culture since around the turn of the 21st century, concurrent with the anti-globalization movement and with the punk subculture.
According to different scholars, the history of anarchism either goes back to ancient and prehistoric ideologies and social structures, or begins in the 19th century as a formal movement. As scholars and anarchist philosophers have held a range of views on what anarchism means, it is difficult to outline its history unambiguously. Some feel anarchism is a distinct, well-defined movement stemming from 19th-century class conflict, while others identify anarchist traits long before the earliest civilisations existed.
The nature of capitalism is criticized by left-wing anarchists, who reject hierarchy and advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical voluntary associations. Anarchism is generally defined as the libertarian philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful as well as opposing authoritarianism, illegitimate authority and hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations. Capitalism is generally considered by scholars to be an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange and wage labor, which have generally been opposed by most anarchists historically. Since capitalism is variously defined by sources and there is no general consensus among scholars on the definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category, the designation is applied to a variety of historical cases, varying in time, geography, politics and culture.
Joseph Déjacque was a French political journalist and poet. A house painter by trade, during the 1840s, he became involved in the French labour movement and taught himself how to write poetry. He was an active participant in the French Revolution of 1848, fighting on the barricades during the June Days uprising, for which he was arrested and imprisoned. He quickly became a target for political repression by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's government, which imprisoned him for his poetry and forced him to flee into exile. His experiences radicalised him towards anarchism and he regularly criticised republican politicians for their anti-worker sentiment.
Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought and anti-capitalist market socialist economic theory that advocates for workers' control of the means of production, a market economy made up of individual artisans and workers' cooperatives, and occupation and use property rights. As proponents of the labour theory of value and labour theory of property, mutualists oppose all forms of economic rent, profit and non-nominal interest, which they see as relying on the exploitation of labour. Mutualists seek to construct an economy without capital accumulation or concentration of land ownership. They also encourage the establishment of workers' self-management, which they propose could be supported through the issuance of mutual credit by mutual banks, with the aim of creating a federal society.
Anarchism without adjectives is a pluralist tendency of anarchism that opposes sectarianism and advocates for cooperation between different anarchist schools of thought. First formulated by the Spanish anarchists Ricardo Mella and Fernando Tarrida del Mármol, as a way to bridge the ideological divide between the collectivists and communist factions, it was later adopted by the Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta and the American individualist Voltairine de Cleyre.
Individualist anarchism in the United States was strongly influenced by Benjamin Tucker, Josiah Warren, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lysander Spooner, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Max Stirner, Herbert Spencer and Henry David Thoreau. Other important individualist anarchists in the United States were Stephen Pearl Andrews, William Batchelder Greene, Ezra Heywood, M. E. Lazarus, John Beverley Robinson, James L. Walker, Joseph Labadie, Steven Byington and Laurance Labadie.
Gary William Chartier is a legal scholar, philosopher, political theorist, and theologian. His work addresses anarchism and ethics. Chartier is a professor and serves as associate dean of La Sierra University's business school.
Social anarchism, also known as left-wing anarchism or socialist anarchism, is the branch of anarchism that sees liberty and social equality as interrelated.
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker was an American individualist anarchist and self-identified socialist. Tucker was the editor and publisher of the American individualist anarchist periodical Liberty (1881–1908). Tucker described his form of anarchism as "consistent Manchesterism" and "unterrified Jeffersonianism".
Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory and tendency within the anarchist movement that emphasizes insurrection as a revolutionary practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political program and periodic congresses. Instead, insurrectionary anarchists advocate informal organization and small affinity group based organization. Insurrectionary anarchists put value in attack, permanent class conflict and a refusal to negotiate or compromise with class enemies.
Prior to the rise of anarchism as an anti-authoritarian political philosophy in the 19th century, both individuals and groups expressed some principles of anarchism in their lives and writings.
Anarchism and libertarianism, as broad political ideologies with manifold historical and contemporary meanings, have contested definitions. Their adherents have a pluralistic and overlapping tradition that makes precise definition of the political ideology difficult or impossible, compounded by a lack of common features, differing priorities of subgroups, lack of academic acceptance, and contentious historical usage.