Anarchism
As a radical theory, anarchism is a very controversial and often misunderstood topic. Before drastically changing anything on this page, you might want to consult the talk page.
Anarchism is a generic name given to political and philosophical theories which advocate the abolition of governmental authority. As Benjamin Tucker put it, anarchism is the philosophy that "all the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and that the state should be abolished." Variants may also oppose social hierarchy, the aristocracy, capitalism, industrialism, productivism, scientism, totalitarianism and militarism.
While it is very difficult to characterize all anarchists' opinions, most are thought to categorically oppose monopoly and war in particular, and opposition to various 'isms' is usually due to the perception that they are inherently tied to monopoly or war activities.
The word 'anarchy' derives from the Greek roots an- (without, not) and -arch (ruler, authority, first; cf. -archy). More precisely, the term comes from New Latin anarchia, which is from Greek anarkhia, from anarkhos ("without a ruler": an-, without; + arkhos, ruler).
In English, the term anarchism is taken to mean "without rulers", "without government", or "without hierarchy" -- as opposed to "no rules", which some might see as the more correct translation. The first known usage of the word can be traced to the French Revolution, when it was used as a derogatory term against the left; the French philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon then became the first to call himself an "anarchist", the first positive use of the term.
What is anarchism?
Because there is no central definition or authority on what anarchism is, there are a number of different versions of anarchist theory; while two people may both call themselves anarchists, their ideologies may differ immensely. Although anarchists (as libertarians) can generally be divided into "left" and "right", occupying positions in the conventional political spectrum, there are many different branches of anarchist thought.
To add to the confusion, the word "anarchist" is often used to describe a "trouble-maker" or violent individual -- a usage that stems from the French Revolution of the 1790s. Today, this comes partly form the popular meaning of anarchy as absolute chaos and disorder -- what some scholars call by Durkheim's sociological term "anomie" (absence of standards, values or order) -- and partly from the use of political violence and "propaganda by the deed" which a minority of anarchists have used and advocated to further their cause. Most anarchists today disagree with the more extreme tactics that have been used in the past, such as assassination, and will only advocate violence against property or in extreme circumstances, particularly in self defence. Other anarchists advocate pacifism and non-violence as the means of resisting state violence and working towards a peaceful revolution.
Anomie is not advocated by any of the anarchist traditions discussed below; they think that government is actually a source of disorder, and that society would be more orderly -- and less violent -- without any. Anarchy and anomie in this context are most often not intended situations, and are more an extension of what the opponents of anarchy imagine would result if an anarchist revolution were to succeed. This usage has strong negative connotations, and has historically been used as a slur by political groups against their opponents, most notably by monarchists against republicans in past centuries. Anomie has, however, been embraced by some countercultural elements in, for example, the punk rock movement.
While it might seem that "anarchism" implies a total lack of law, most anarchists believe that organised structures should exist in society, but that these should be created in a way that no coercive hierarchies develop. This is reflected in the phrase: Anarchy means no rulers, not no rules. This is why anarchist legal systems exist de facto in anarchies functioning today.
Anarchist theories
This page will give a summary overview of the various anarchist theories and their interaction. For a more in-depth look at the principles, history and development of an individual theory, see the article specifically on that theory.
- libertarian socialists intend anarchism to mean the replacement of all forms of hierarchy (political, economic, and otherwise) by democratically-controlled and collectively-owned organizations;
- anarcho-capitalists envision a capitalist society with government functions replaced by capitalist institutions;
- individualist anarchists insist above all on individual freedom from the state.
- Green anarchists accept some restrictions on individual freedom to preserve natural capital, e.g. farmland, water - they often form the anarchist wing of formal Green parties or promote limited forms of social ecology.
- eco-anarchists are more extreme and advocate a sort of fusion with nature, with organizing units of village scale, i.e. the eco-village. They reject or ignore the Green parties and particularly reject social ecology ideals.
- cyberpunks see information technology as the way to replace hierarchy, defeat monopoly, and prevent war, and support culture jamming in particular as a way to do so.
While they all clearly support political decentralization, it's hard to see how these paradigms could happily coexist. That is not a problem for most anarchist theorists, who see the diversity as an advantage, akin to biodiversity, that strengthens the community as a whole.
Among these major branches there are sub-branches of theory, mainly divided up by their focus on certain issues or tactics. One of the most significant of these, historically, is the labour-oriented anarcho-syndicalist movement, which focuses on labour issues, workers' rights, and unionization as strategies that will bring about an anarchist society.
There are other anarchist tendencies which deal with special forms of repression -- for example, as noted above, some anarchists focus on environmental issues, and are known as eco-anarchists or Green anarchists - these are not quite the same thing as the political label 'Green' has implications beyond ecology); Some feminist anarchists talk specifically of anarchofeminism (or anarchafeminism). A variant, called "tribal feminism", combines feminist and eco-village approaches.
The diversity of anarchist movements seems very likely to increase, as advocates of particular strains find each other and interact in various ways, facilitated by modern communications technology and transport. Paradoxically, these facilities are often opposed by anarchist purists.
The development of anarchism
Rejection of coercive authority can be traced as far back as Ancient China, where Taoism is declared by some to have been the oldest example of anarchist doctrine[1]. In the West, a similar tendency can be traced to the philosophers of Ancient Greece, such as Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy, and Aristippus, who said that the wise should not give up their liberty to the state[2]. Later movements -- such as the Free Spirit in the Middle Ages, the Anabaptists and The Diggers -- have also expounded ideas that have been interpreted as anarchist.
In fact, some anarchists assert that anarchism is not so much a movement as an historical tendency; indeed, Bakunin saw thought and rebellion as the principal tenets of human nature as well as of anarchism. However, there was certainly no coherent ideology that called itself "anarchism" until the nineteenth century, when anarchism -- then often referred to simply as "Revolutionary Socialism" -- sprouted from the growth of socialism and communism. This line of anarchist thought can be more accurately called libertarian socialism.
Libertarian socialism
Libertarian socialism calls for a system of socialism or communism, with the means of production held collectively and democratic control of all organizations, without the need for any government authority, coercion or written law. Adherents of this view sometimes call themselves libertarian socialists, libertarian communists, left-anarchists or anarcho-communists.
There is no consensus on what type of socialism libertarian socialists advocate. Many libertarian socialists employ criticisms of capitalism which are similar to those advocated by Marxists. Others focus on mutual aid from an anthropological perspective. Anarcho-syndicalists see labor unions as the critical organizing structures of an anarchist economy.
The theory and ideas behind libertarian socialism developed in Russia and Europe, and then extended to the Americas including Cuba and the United States, most notably through the migration of Spaniards, Italians and Russians. Since then the movement has grown, with anarchist groups and individuals appearing all over the world, in locations as far apart as Japan, South Africa and Argentina.
Major advocates of anarchism in the period before World War I included Leo Tolstoy (though he never called himself an anarchist), Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (the first to call himself an anarchist), Peter Kropotkin and Mikhail Bakunin. Their writings revolved around atheism (with a few exceptions, like Tolstoy), and co-operative economics based on mutual aid. Anarchist labor unions were a significant element in the social struggles of that era, and many experiments in cooperative living, education and other institutions were made. Mikhail Bakunin, one of the first and most prominent libertarian socialists, instigated a split in the First International (an organisation of anarchist, communist and socialist groups) by his disagreements with Karl Marx. This began a long-lasting split between left-anarchists and authoritarian communists.
Libertarian socialism had what some historians regard to have been its last outburst in the Spanish Civil War, when anarchist groups like the CNT (a workers' organisation) took part in a revolution triggered by an attempted fascist coup. The anarchists, a mixture of anarcho-syndicalists and anarcho-communists, played a major part in the following events, and had significant popular support (the CNT's membership was well over one million). However, by the end of the war, anarchist groups were regarded as enemies by both the Soviet Union-supported Spanish Communist Party, whom they were allied with against the fascist Rebel General Franco, and the fascist forces themselves. The loyalists (anarchists, communists and socialists) had lost the war by 1939, and Franco's government reigned until his death 1975. Anarchism in Spain was consequently suppressed, although various groups survive today, including the CNT.
There are many libertarian socialist elements in the "anti-globalisation" movement (which has been growing since the last decade of the 20th century), such as the WOMBLES in London, the North Eastern Anarchist Communist Federation (NEFAC) in North America and "anarchist federations" in many countries, to mention but a few. There is also libertarian socialist activity in Argentina, Venezuela and other regions of South America, where political and economic strife has resulted in almost revolutionary tendencies - and opposition to same, as in the 2002-03 demonstrations against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Proponents of this theory believe the theory of anarchism, based on individualism and natural law, calls for the abolition of any government control or regulation, and promote capitalist private businesses to replace all of current government's activities. Adherents of this theory of anarchism call themselves anarcho-capitalists, and are particularly trusting of market systems to make decisions.
The anarcho-capitalist movement has existed in its modern form at least since Gustave de Molinari in the 1840s, but has mostly flourished since it organized in the 1950s in the USA. Anarcho-capitalists consider themselves as radical members of the classical liberal tradition ('libertarianism' as it is now called in the USA), and trace their explicit roots back to Locke and the seventeenth century English Whigs. All classical liberals believe in 'as little government as possible'; anarchists among them believe governments can and must be done away with completely, whereas minarchists believe or accept that some government be necessary -- to enforce law and order, for example.
Anarcho-capitalists, like classical liberals in general, tend to loathe violent action and revolutions as a "normal" way to promote or impose their views, even in the presence of governments they hate. However, they do support situations such as the American Revolution, that precisely consisted of individuals sharing common views fighting together against people trying to impose their views on them.
Libertarian socialism vs. Anarcho-capitalism
Both libertarian socialists and anarcho-capitalists share an opposition to states and governments; but beyond that they disagree vehemently. Libertarian socialists consider that an employer-employee relationship is based on coercion by the employer, and that all coercion should be prevented, even if oppressed employees are passively consenting out of weakness and ignorance. Anarcho-capitalists consider an employer-employee relationship to be an elaborate and mutually profitable form of voluntary association, and that any external power capable of preventing it is itself oppression.
Some commentators frame this debate as follows:
- Anarcho-socialists (libertarian socialists) believe that all forms of hierarchy must be eliminated. Anarcho-capitalists believe that all coercive forms of hierarchy must be eliminated, thus employer / employee relationships may be preserved, as they are freely-entered-into contracts.
- Anarcho-socialists counter that as no ordinary (as opposed to someone who is independently wealthy) person can refuse to work, there is no freedom involved in the negotiation of a contract with an employer (the "weakness and ignorance" referred to above, or the wage slave concept referred to in socialist literature).
- Anarcho-capitalists in return argue that, no matter what social organization may or may not exist, social organizations will never eliminate the basic human requirement to work in order to support themselves. Therefore an objection based on a constraint that cannot be overcome is useless to argue about, and not a rational objection at all.
- Individualist anarchists, by contrast, do not generally have much interest in this debate. They believe the most important thing is to do away with government, and that how individuals choose to organise themselves and their social group economically is up to them. Debates such as this one, they feel, are a waste of time.
- Green anarchists think that without some provision for a centralized and organized concept of fairness, and for consensus decision making, social organizations will tend to fall apart in conflict with themselves. Debates such as this one, they feel, are central, and some limited form of deliberative democracy must exist to air these views.
- Eco-anarchists prefer lower-overhead processes and smaller-scale organizations, and at most would accept a very limited bioregional democracy to ensure that entities like watersheds had some respect from humans. But they would reject debates across such actual/natural boundaries, assuming that people living in different places will have different ideas, and in that sense are more like individual anarchists.
- Feminist anarchists would support some interventions to enable women to contribute, and specifically provide them with a voice men don't have. They would argue that male tendencies to strut, show off, fight, kill and interrupt women breaks up any male-run social organization in the long run, and subjects women and children to the risks of conflict.
There are several anarchist thinkers, such as Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner and Max Stirner, who are known as individualist anarchists. Beyond economic issues of collectivism versus capitalism, they insist on individual liberty and absence of coercion from states.
Like libertarian socialists, they loathe government-supported capitalism, and reject several essential principles of capitalism in general. Like anarcho-capitalists, they put an emphasis on individual rights and liberty, and on market-based approaches. They are thus acknowledged both by libertarian socialists and anarcho-capitalists, although each side accepts or criticizes differently the works of these thinkers. See individualist anarchism for a discussion of this issue.
On the debate of capitalism versus socialism, the reply of modern individualist anarchism is to let each individual choose the system he is willing to adhere to, and, with experience, each will choose what suits him best; to them, it doesn't matter which system will majoritarily prevail (which doesn't prevent each of them from making their own educated guess), as long as individual freedom is respected.
Anarchies functioning today
We define as anarchies the communities that operate using de facto anarchist law which does not use prison systems or violence, and in which enforcement generally happens by polite and rational discussion via media such as publicly archived mailing lists, so that even emotional coercion and manipulation are discouraged because they require secrecy in order to function.
According to this definition of anarchies, those functioning during the first decade of the 21st century include computer-based communities such as usenet, Indymedia, the GNU/Linux community, the Wikipedia community itself, and other sub-societies which are generally networked using the Internet.
Off the net, there are also many modern non-hierarchical movements and organizations that seem to be growing in popularity and participation. Some of these include the anti-globalization movement, Food Not Bombs, Reclaim the Streets, Infoshops (free and independent libraries), micro- and pirate radio (cf. LPFM), and other cooperative projects (food co-ops, housing co-ops, etc.).
Disclaimer: Of course, this topic has been grossly over-simplified for the purposes of creating a well-rounded, comprehensive, and encyclopedic article on anarchism. The discourse and dialogue in modern anarchist theory and thought is much more multi-facetted than the generalized trichotomy of anarcho-communism vs. anarcho-capitalism vs. individualist anarchism as presented in this article. A thorough understanding of the modern debate can only be grasped by going directly to the theoretical and philosophical texts themselves. Such activity is left as an exercise for the reader.
- See also: anarchist groups, anarchism in the arts, anarcho punk, green anarchism, eco-anarchism, nihilism, primitivism, syndicalism, situationists, social ecology, political models, anti-globalization movement
- Compare: libertarianism, statism