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{{Anarchism}} | ||
'''Democracy''' (literally "rule by the people", from the Greek δῆμος ''demos'', "people," and κράτος ''kratos'', "rule") is a ] for a nation state, or for an organization in which all the citizens have a voice in shaping policy. Today democracy is often assumed to be ], but there are many other varieties and the methods used to govern differ. While the term democracy is often used in the context of a political ], the principles are also applicable to other bodies, such as universities, labor unions, public companies, or civic organizations. | |||
{{Forms of government}} | |||
'''Anarchism''' is the name of a ] or a group of doctrines and attitudes that are centered on rejection of any form of compulsory ] (such as the ])<ref>Some differentiate government from state: "A distinction that is relevant to the anarchist ideal is the difference between ''the government'', referring to the state, and ''government'', referring to the administration of a political system. Anarchists, like everyone, tend to use the word government as a synonym for state, but what is rejected by anarchism's ''a priori'' opposition to the state is not the concept of government as such but the idea of a sovereign order that claims and demand obedience, and if necessary the lives, of its subjects. Anarchism rejects the form of imposed, centralized authority enshrined and made material in the state." -Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, Reaktion Books 2004, p. 25-26</ref> and support its elimination.<ref name=definitions> | |||
==Varieties== | |||
*''Anarchism''. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclop{{IPA|æ}}dia Britannica Premium Service. ] ] <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9117285>. Anarchism is "a cluster of doctrines and attitudes centred on the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary." | |||
{{Democracy}} | |||
*''Anarchism''. The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. P. 14 "Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable."</ref> The term "anarchism" is ] the ] '']'' ("without ]s" or "without rulers"). Thus "anarchism," in its most general meaning, is the belief that all forms of ] are undesirable and should be abolished. | |||
{{Main|Democracy (varieties)}} | |||
The definition of democracy is made complex by the varied concepts used at different periods of history in different contexts. Political systems, or proposed political systems, claiming or claimed to be democratic have ranged very broadly. For example: | |||
*] contrasted rule by the many (democracy/]), with rule by the few (]/]), and with rule by a single person (]/] or today ]). He also thought that there was a good and a bad variant of each system.. | |||
*]/] have formed the basis of systems randomly selecting officers from the population: For example, Aristotle described the law courts in Athens which were selected by lot as democratic<ref>Aristotle, Politics 2.1273b</ref> and described elections as oligarchic.<ref>Aristotle, Politics 4.1294b</ref> | |||
*Certain tribes organised themselves using forms of participatory democracy. | |||
*Democracy is used to describe systems seeking ] (see ]). | |||
*Many socialists have argued that socialism necessarily implies democracy (see ]). For this reason Socialist governments of the Communist East block often called themselves democratic. This use of democratic is however strongly disputed because most of these governments were De facto dictatorships kept in power by "sham" elections {{fact}} (for example, the former ]). | |||
There are a variety of types and traditions of anarchism with various points of difference.<ref>Kropotkine, Petr Alekseevich. ''Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings'', Courier Dover Publications, 2002, p.5</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=R.B. Fowler|title=The Anarchist Tradition of Political Thought|year=1972|journal=Western Political Quarterly|volume=25|issue=4|pages=738-752|doi=10.2307/446800}}</ref> Other than being opposed to the state, "there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance."<ref>Anarchism. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 31</ref> Preferred economic arrangements are one of the many areas of disagreement for anarchists.<ref>Esenwein, George Richard "Anarchist Ideology and the Working Class Movement in Spain, 1868-1898" </ref> | |||
Main varieties include: | |||
== |
==Origins== | ||
===Pre-Nineteenth Century=== | |||
] is a political system where the citizens vote on all major policy decisions. It is called ''direct'' because, in the classical forms, there are no intermediaries or representatives. Current examples include many small civic organizations (like college faculties) and town meetings in New England (usually in towns under 10,000 population). Critics note that it sometimes emphasises the act of voting more than other democratic procedures such as free speech and press and civic organisations. That is, these critics argue, democracy is more than merely a procedural issue.<ref> Jane J. Mansbridge. ''Beyond Adversary Democracy'' (1983)</ref> | |||
{{main|Origins of anarchism}} | |||
Opposition to the state and hierarchical authority had a long history prior to the formation of the anarchist movement in nineteenth century Europe. Many claim that anarchist themes can be detected in works as old as those of the ] sage ]<ref name="EB1910">Peter Kropotkin, .</ref>, though this is a controversial topic<ref></ref>, and ], the founder of ].<ref name="EB1910"/> | |||
All direct democracies to date have been relatively small communities; usually ]s. Today, a limited direct democracy exists in some ] ] that practice it in its literal form. Direct democracy obviously becomes difficult when the electorate is large--for example some 30,000 or more citizens were eligible in ]. However, the extensive use of ], as in ], is akin to direct democracy in a very large polity with over 20 million potential voters.<ref>John M. Allswang. ''The Initiative and Referendum in California, 1898-1998'' (2000) (ISBN 0804738211) </ref> Modern direct democracy tries accommodate this problem and sees a role for strictly controlled representatives. It is characterised by three pillars; ]s (initiated by governments or legislatures or by citizens responding to legislation), ]s (initiated by citizens) and ]s (on holders of public office). | |||
Anarchism in the modern sense, however, has its roots in the secular political thought of the ], particularly ]'s arguments for the moral centrality of freedom.<ref name=Encarta>''Anarchism'', Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2006 (UK version) http://uk.encarta.msn.com © 1997-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved | |||
====Representative==== | |||
</ref> The word "anarchist" was originally used as a term of ], but by the ] some groups such as the ''Enragés'' had started to use the term in a positive sense,<ref>Sheehan, Sean. ''Anarchism'', London: Reaktion Books Ltd., 2004. pg. 85</ref> seeing the ] concept of a "revolutionary government" as an oxymoron. It was in this political climate that ] would develop his philosophy, which is considered by many to be the first expression of modern anarchist thought.<ref> Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, First published Sun Jan 16, 2000; substantive revision Sat May 20, 2006</ref> | |||
] is so named because the people select representatives to a governing body. Representatives may be chosen by the electorate as a whole (as in many ] systems) or represent a particular district (or ]), with some systems using a combination of the two. Some representative democracies also incorporate some elements of direct democracy, such as ]. Representative democracy is susceptable to various problems such ] of constituencies. | |||
] | |||
====Liberal==== | |||
] is a representative democracy (with free and fair elections) along with the protection of minorities, the ], a ], and protection of ] (thus the name ''liberal'') of speech, assembly, religion, and property. Conversely, an ] is one where the protections that form a liberal democracy are either nonexistent, or not enforced. The experience in some ] states drew attention to the phenomenon, although it is not of recent origin. ] for example used plebiscites to ratify his imperial decisions. | |||
æ | |||
===William Godwin=== | |||
==History== | |||
{{main| |
{{main|William Godwin}} | ||
According to Peter Kropotkin, ], in his ''Enquiry Concerning Political Justice'' (2 vols., 1793), was "the first to formulate the political and economical conceptions of anarchism, even though he did not give that name to the ideas developed in his work."<ref name="EB1910"/> Charles A. Madison writes, "The first modern systematic exponent of anarchism was William Godwin. . . . Strongly influenced by the sentiments of the French Revolution, he argued that since man is a rational being he must not be hampered in the exercise of his pure reason. Moreover, since all forms of government have irrational foundations and are consequently tyrannical in nature, they must be swept away."<ref name="Madison">{{cite journal|author=Madison, Charles A.|year=1945|title=Anarchism in the United States|journal = Journal of the History of Ideas|volume=6|issue=1|pages=46-66}}</ref> | |||
]. | |||
{{legend|#0000FF|Governments that claim to be democratic and allow the existence of opposition groups, at least in theory.}} | |||
{{legend|#00CC00|Governments that claim to be democratic but do not allow the existence of opposition groups.}} | |||
{{legend|#FF0000|Governments that do not claim to be democratic.}}]] | |||
===Ancient origins=== | |||
The word ''democracy'' was coined in ] and used interchangeably with ]<ref name=HerodotusLots>Herodotus. 3.80</ref> (equality of political rights). Although ] is today considered by many to have been a form of direct democracy originally it had two distinguishing features: firstly the allotment (selection by lot) of ordinary citizens to government offices and courts,<ref>Aristotle Book 6</ref><ref name=HerodotusLots /> and secondarily the assembly of all the citizens. In theory, all the Athenian citizens were eligible to speak and vote in the Assembly, which set the laws of the city-state, but neither political rights, nor citizenship, were granted to ], ], or ]. Of the 250,000 inhabitants only some 30,000 on average were citizens. Of those 30,000 perhaps 5,000 might regularly attend one or more meetings of the popular Assembly. Key to the development of Athenian democracy was its huge juries allotted from the citizenry <ref>Aristotle, Politics 2.1274a, c350BC</ref>. Most of the officers & magistrates of Athenian government were ]; only the generals (strategoi) and a few other officers were elected. <ref>Morgens Herman Hansen, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes, ISBN 1-85399-585-1, P.231-2)</ref> | |||
Godwin felt that the evil of man was the result of societal corruption, and his view was that government would become unnecessary as the human race is perfected. "Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind; and that, however we may be obliged to admit it as a necessary evil for the present, it behoves us, as the friends of reason and the human species, to admit as little of it as possible, and carefully to observe whether, in consequence of the gradual illumination of the human mind, that little may not hereafter be diminished."<ref>William Godwin, </ref> Godwin felt that discrimination on any grounds besides ability was intolerable. Godwin is also well known for marrying the feminist ]. Their daughter, ], achieved fame as the author of '']''. | |||
The seeds of representative democracy were arguably started in the ]. Democratic principles and elements were found in societies ranging from ]n ], ]s, ]s and ]s , to certain ] and ]s such as the ]. However, since usually only a minority had political rights they are often better described as ].<ref> For example, in the ] only the males of certain clans could be leaders and some clans were excluded. Only the oldest females from the same clans could chose and remove the leaders. This excluded most of the population. An interesting detail is that there should be consensus among the leaders, not majority support decided by voting, when making decisions.</ref> | |||
=== |
===Pierre-Joseph Proudhon=== | ||
{{main|Pierre-Joseph Proudhon}} | |||
During the ], there were various systems involving elections or assemblies, such as the election of ] in ], the ], the ] in ], certain ] city-states such as ], the ] system in early medieval ], the ] in ] countries, and ]n ]. | |||
], 1865]] | |||
] is the first self-proclaimed anarchist, a label which he adopted in his 1840 treatise '']''. It is for this reason that some declare Proudhon the founder of modern anarchist theory.<ref>Daniel Guerin, ''Anarchism: From Theory to Practice'' (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970).</ref> He developed the theory of ] in society, whereby organization emerges without any central authority, a "positive anarchy" in which order arises from every individual "doing what he wishes and only what he wishes."<ref> Proudhon, ''Solution to the Social Problem'', ed. H. Cohen (New York: Vanguard Press, 1927), p.45. </ref> He saw anarchy as: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
The ] had its roots in the restrictions on the power of kings written into ]. The first elected parliament was ] in England in 1265. However only a small minority actually had a voice; Parliament was elected by only a few percent of the population (less than 3% in 1780.), and the system had problematic features such as ]. The power to call parliament was at the pleasure of the monarch (usually when he or she needed funds). After the ] of 1688, the ] was enacted in ], which codified certain rights and increased the influence of the Parliament. The franchise was slowly increased and the Parliament gradually gained more power until the monarch became entirely a figurehead. | |||
"a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness, formed through the development of science and law, is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties. In it, as a consequence, the institutions of the police, preventive and repressive methods, officialdom, taxation, etc., are reduced to a minimum. In it, more especially, the forms of monarchy and intensive centralization disappear, to be replaced by federal institutions and a pattern of life based on the commune."<ref>''Selected Writings'', Pierre-Joseph Proudhon</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
His opposition to capitalism, the state, and organized religion inspired subsequent anarchists and made him one of the leading socialist theorists of his time.<ref name="EB-Proudhon"> From Encyclopedia Britannica article "Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph" (2006)</ref> However, he was also opposed to "communism, whether of the utopian or the Marxist variety, that it destroyed freedom by taking away from the individual control over his means of production." <ref name="EB-Proudhon"/> | |||
===18th and 19th centuries=== | |||
The ] can be seen as the first liberal democracy with relatively wide franchise. The ] protected rights and liberties and was adopted in 1788. Already in the colonial period before 1776 most adult white men could vote; there were still property requirements but most men owned their own farms and could pass the tests. On the ], democracy became a way of life, with widespread social, economic and political equality.<ref>Ray Allen Billington, ''America's Frontier Heritage'' (1974) 117-158. However the frontier did not produce much democracy in Canada, Australia or Russia. </ref>By 1840s almost all property restrictions were ended and nearly all white adult male citizens could vote; and turnout averaged 60-80% in frequent elections for local, state and national officials. The Americans invented the grass roots party that could mobilise the voters, and had frequent elections and conventions to keep them active. The system gradually evolved, from ] or the ] to ] or the ] and later to the ]. In ] after the Civil War (late 1860s) the newly freed slaves became citizens, and they were given the vote as well. | |||
==Schools of Anarchist Thought== | |||
Later in 1789, ] adopted the ] and, although short-lived, the ] was elected by all males. ] is widely recognized as the second oldest constitution in the world.<ref name="Markoff">] describes the advent of modern codified national constitutions as one of the milestones of democracy, and states that "The first European country to follow the U.S. example was Poland in 1791." John Markoff, ''Waves of Democracy'', 1996, ISBN 0-8039-9019-7, p.121.</ref> | |||
===Mutualism=== | |||
{{main|Mutualism (economic theory)}} | |||
While ] began in English and French labor movements of the 18th century, it later took on an anarchist form mostly associated with ]. Proudhon was the first to call himself and his politics anarchist. In his landmark book '']'' (''Qu'est-ce que la propriété?'', published in 1840), he expounded an economic theory based on a ], which states that the actual price of a thing (or the "true cost") is the amount of labor that was undertaken to produce it. Consequently, no one who sells goods should charge more than the labor exerted to obtain or produce each good. According to Proudhon, "It is labor, labor alone, that produces all the elements of wealth... according to a law of variable, but certain, proportionality." He was also careful to advise, however, that "The value of labor is a figurative expression, an anticipation of effect from cause." <ref>Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph ''The Philosophy of Poverty'' (1847)</ref> Mutualist economics is characterised by a dedication to free association, a democratically run mutualist bank, and voluntary contract/federation. | |||
Liberal democracies were few and often short-lived before the late nineteenth century. Various nations and territories have claimed to be the first with ]. | |||
Many mutualists believe that a market without government intervention would result in prices paid for labor to align with its true worth, as determined by the labor theory of value, because firms would be forced to compete over workers just as workers compete over firms, which would raise wages.<ref></ref> As ] put it: | |||
===20th century=== | |||
[[Image:Freedom House world map 2005.png|thumb|350px| | |||
:"Under the mutual system, each individual will receive the just and exact pay for his work; services equivalent in cost being exchangeable for services equivalent in cost, without profit or discount; and so much as the individual laborer will then get over and above what he has earned will come to him as his share in the general prosperity of the community of which he is an individual member."<ref>], "Communism versus Mutualism," Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic and Financial Fragments. (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1875)</ref> | |||
This map reflects the findings of ]'s survey ], which reports the state of world freedom in 2005. It is one of the most widely used measures of democracy by researchers. | |||
{{legend|#219A57|Free.}} Freedom House considers these to be liberal democracies. | |||
{{legend|#FFC27B|Partly Free}} | |||
{{legend|#B30000|Not Free}}]] | |||
20th century transitions to liberal democracy have come in successive "waves of democracy", variously resulting from wars, revolutions, ] and economic circumstances. ] and the dissolution of the ] and ] empires resulted in the creation of new nation-states in Europe, most of them nominally democratic. In the 1920 democracy flourished, but the ] brought a disenchantment and most of the countries of Europe, Latin America and Asia turned to strong-man rule or dictatorships. Thus the rise of ] and dictatorships in ], Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as nondemocratic regimes in Poland, the Baltics, the Balkans, Brazil, Cuba, China, and Japan, among others. Together with Stalin's regime in the ], these made the 1930s the "Age of Dictators"{{fact}}. | |||
Proudhon's mutualism, introduced into the United States in 1848 by Charles A. Dana,<ref>Dana, Charles A. (1848).</ref> supplemented a native American form already worked out by ]. Proudhon's mutualism was adapted to American conditions by ], who introduced it to ].<ref>Tucker, Benjamin R., "On Picket Duty," Liberty (Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order)(1881-1908); Jan 5, 1889; 6, 10; APS Online | |||
] brought a definitive reversal of this trend in western Europe. The successful democratisation of the ] and the ] served as a model for the later theory of ]. However, most of ] was forced into the non-democratic ]. The war was followed by ], and again most of the new independent states had nominally democratic constitutions.In the decades following World War II, most western democratic nations had a predominantly ] and developed a ], reflecting a general consensus among their electorates and political parties. In the 1950s and 1960s, economic growth was high in both the western and ] countries; it later declined in the state-controlled economies. By 1960, the vast majority of nation-states were nominally democracies, although the majority of the world's populations lived in nations that experienced sham elections, and other forms of subterfuge (particularly in Communist nations and the former colonies.) | |||
pg. 1</ref> Unlike the American individualist anarchists, Proudhon emphasises associations amongst producers;<ref name="Woodcock"/> thus, some see Proudhon's mutualism as being situated somewhere between individualism and collectivism.<ref>Avrich, Paul. ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America'', Princetone University Press 1996 ISBN 0-691-04494-5, p.6<br/> | |||
Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, Blackwell Publishing 1991 ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p.11</ref> | |||
===Collectivist Anarchism=== | |||
]-]]] | |||
{{main|Collectivist anarchism}} | |||
]-] scoring 8 or higher on Polity IV scale, another widely used measure of democracy.]] | |||
] | |||
], also known as 'anarcho-collectivism', is most commonly associated with ] and the anti-authoritarian section of the ] (1864-1876). Unlike mutualists, collectivist anarchists oppose all private ownership of the means of production, instead advocating that ownership be collectivized. Workers would be compensated for their work on the basis of the amount of time they contributed to production, rather than goods being distributed "according to need" as in anarcho-communism. By the early 1880s, most of the European anarchist movement had adopted an ] position, advocating the abolition of wage labour and distribution according to need rather than labor, although the ] is sometimes associated with collectivism. Although the ] advocated compensation for labor, they held out the possibility of a post-revolutionary transition to a communist system of distribution according to need. <ref>Bakunin's associate, ], put it this way in his essay, ''''(1876): | |||
A subsequent wave of ] brought substantial gains toward true liberal democracy for many nations. Several of the military dictatorships in ] became democratic in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This was followed by nations in ] and ] by the mid- to late 1980s. Economic malaise in the 1980s, along with resentment of communist oppression, contributed to the ], the associated end of the ], and the democratisation and ] of the former ] countries. The most successful of the new democracies were those geographically and culturally closest to western Europe, and they are now members or candidate members of the ]. The liberal trend spread to some nations in ] in the 1990s, most prominently in ]. Some recent examples include the ], the ] in ], the ] in ], the ] in ], the ] in ], and the ] in ]. | |||
<blockquote> | |||
When… production comes to outstrip consumption… veryone will draw what he needs from the abundant social reserve of commodities, without fear of depletion; and the moral sentiment which will be more highly developed among free and equal workers will prevent, or greatly reduce, abuse and waste. | |||
</blockquote></ref> Collective anarchism arose contemporary with ] but was opposed to it, despite Marxism striving for a collectivist stateless society, because of an opposition to the Marxist ].<ref>Bakunin, Mikhail; '''': | |||
<blockquote>They maintain that only a dictatorship — their dictatorship, of course — can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up. </blockquote></ref> | |||
===Anarchist communism=== | |||
The number of liberal democracies currently stands at an all-time high and has been growing without interruption for some time. As such, it has been speculated that this trend may continue in the future to the point where liberal democratic nation-states become the universal standard form of human ]. This prediction forms the core of ]'s "]" theory. | |||
{{main|Anarchist communism}} | |||
] was an early anarchist communist and the first person to describe himself as "]".<ref> (in ])</ref> Unlike Proudhon, he argued that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature."<ref name=Graham-05>Graham, Robert ''Anarchism'' (Montreal: Black Rose Books 2005) ISBN 1-55164-251-4</ref> Other important anarchist communists include ], ], ] and ]. Many in the anarcho-syndicalist movements (see below) saw anarchist communism as their objective. ]'s 1932 '']'' <ref name="LibCom">Puente, Isaac "Libertarian Communism" (The Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review' #6 Orkney 1982)</ref> was adopted by the Spanish CNT as its manifesto for a post-revolutionary society. | |||
===Marxist/Socialist view=== | |||
{{sect-stub}} | |||
Many on the left view democracy as essentially a system giving ordinary people power and therefore they view ], ], etc. as inherently democratic because they believe they give power to the working classes. As a result many left-wing political groups in the 18th and 19th century referred to themselves as democrats or their party as "democratic" (Notable examples include the ] & the US ]) | |||
Anarchist communists propose that a society composed of a number of ] ]s with ] ownership of the ], ruled by ], and related to other communes through ] would be the freest form of social organisation.<ref name="LibCom"/> In anarchist communism, individuals would not receive direct compensation for labour (through share of profits, payment or any other compensation), but would instead have free access to the resources of the commune.<ref>Miller. ''Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought'', Blackwell Publishing (1991) ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p. 12</ref> Some commentators believe that this would require an essentially communitarian human nature, but, according to the view developed by Kropotkin and later by ], the members of such a society will spontaneously perform all necessary labour because they will recognize the benefits of communal enterprise and mutual aid. <ref> Important treatises on this theory include: | |||
Social-Democrats see liberal democracy as being compatible with the interests of working class and therefore participate in elections. According to their views once in power Socialists can improve popular welfare without needing to change the economic state. | |||
* Kropotkin, Peter '']'', 1998 paperback, London: Freedom Press. ISBN 0-900384-36-0, also at | |||
* Kropotkin, Peter '']'', first published 1892, also at | |||
* Kropotkin, Peter '']'', available at | |||
* Bookchin, Murray '']'' (1971 and 2004) ISBN 1-904859-06-2.</ref> It is often characterised as ], a claim some do not deny,<ref>See the essay on utopianism in '']''</ref> but anarchist communism is portrayed by its supporters as an achievable goal, if not an inevitability<ref>Durruti, Buenaventura "We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth, there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world, here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute." quoted on </ref>, rather than an impossible ideal.<ref name="LibCom"/> | |||
====Peter Kropotkin==== | |||
The ] view is fundamentally opposed to liberal democracy believing that the capitalist state cannot be democratic by its nature, as it represents the dictatorship of the ]. Marxism views liberal democracy as an unrealistic ]. This is because they believe that in a capitalist state all "independent" media and most political parties are controlled by capitalists and one either needs large financial resources or to be supported by the bourgeoisie to win an election. According to Marx, "Universal suffrage (i.e. parliamentary elections) is an opportunity citizens of a country get every four years to decide who among the ruling classes will misrepresent them in parliament."<ref></ref> Thus the Marxists believe that in a capitalist state, the system focuses on resolving disputes within the ruling bourgeosie class and ignores the interests of the proletariat or labour class which are not represented and therefore dependent on the bourgeoisie's good will. Moreover, even if representatives of the proletariat class are elected in a capitalist country they have limited power over the country's affairs as the economic sphere is largely controlled by private capital and therefore the representative's power to act is curtailed. Essentially, in the ideal liberal state the functions of the elected government should be reduced to the minimum (i.e. the court system and security). | |||
] | |||
], often seen as the most important theorist of anarchist communism, outlined his economic ideas in '']'' and '']''. Kropotkin felt that co-operation is more beneficial than competition, arguing in '']'' that this was illustrated in nature. He advocated the abolition of private property through the "expropriation of the whole of social wealth" by the people themselves<ref>], Peter. ''Words of a Rebel'', p99.</ref>, and for the economy to be co-ordinated through a horizontal network of voluntary associations<ref>], Peter. '']'', p145.</ref>. | |||
He maintained that, in anarcho-communism: | |||
==Theory== | |||
<blockquote> | |||
===Conceptions=== | |||
"...houses, fields, and factories will no longer be private property, and that they will belong to the commune or the nation and money, wages, and trade would be abolished."<ref>Kropotkin, Peter. , G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1906.</ref> | |||
Among political theorists, there are many contending conceptions of democracy. | |||
</blockquote> | |||
Individuals and groups would use and control whatever resources they needed, as the aim of anarchist-communism was to place "the product reaped or manufactured at the disposal of all, leaving to each the liberty to consume them as he pleases in his own home."<ref>''The Place of Anarchism in the Evolution of Socialist Thought''</ref> He supported the expropriation of property to ensure that everyone would have access to what they needed without being forced to sell their labour to get it. | |||
<blockquote> | |||
"We do not want to rob any one of his coat, but we wish to give to the workers all those things the lack of which makes them fall an easy prey to the exploiter, and we will do our utmost that none shall lack aught, that not a single man shall be forced to sell the strength of his right arm to obtain a bare subsistence for himself and his babes. This is what we mean when we talk of Expropriation..."<ref>Kropotkin, Peter </ref></blockquote> | |||
He said that a "peasant who is in possession of just the amount of land he can cultivate," and "a family inhabiting a house which affords them just enough space... considered necessary for that number of people" and the artisan "working with their own tools or handloom" would not be interfered with<ref>Kropotkin ''Act for yourselves.'' N.Walter and H. Becker, eds. (London: Freedom Press 1985) </ref>, arguing that "he landlord owes his riches to the poverty of the peasants, and the wealth of the capitalist comes from the same source."<ref>Kropotkin "The Conquest of Bread" op cit</ref> | |||
====Platformism==== | |||
*Under ''minimalism'', democracy is a system of government in which citizens give teams of political leaders the right to rule in periodic elections. According to this minimalist conception, citizens cannot and should not “rule” because on most issues, most of the time, they have no clear views or their views are not very intelligent. ] articulated this view most famously in his book ''Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy'' <ref>], (1950). ''Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy''. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-133008-6.</ref>. Contemporary proponents of minimalism include ], ], and ]. | |||
{{main|Platformism}} | |||
Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist communist movement which shares an affinity with organising in the tradition of Nestor Makhno's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft). The Platform came from the experiences of Russian anarchists in the 1917 ], which lead eventually to the victory of ] party dictatorship rather than workers' and peasants' self-management. It argued for the "vital need of an organization which, having attracted most of the participants in the anarchist movement, would establish a common tactical and political line for anarchism and thereby serve as a guide for the whole movement."<ref name=Platformtext>{{cite book | last = Dielo Trouda group | authorlink = Dielo Trouda | title = Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) | origyear = 1926 | url = http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=1000 | accessdate = 2006-10-24 | year = 2006 | publisher = FdCA | location = Italy}}</ref> | |||
*The ''aggregative'' conception of democracy holds that government should produce laws and policies that are close to the views of the median voter — with half to his left and the other half to his right. ] laid out this view in his 1957 book ''An Economic Theory of Democracy''. <ref>], (1957). ''An Economic Theory of Democracy''. Harpercollins College. ISBN 0-06-041750-1.</ref> | |||
===Anarcho-syndicalism=== | |||
*'']'' is based on the notion that democracy is government by discussion. Deliberative democrats contend that laws and policies should be based upon reasons that all citizens can accept. The political arena should be one in which leaders and citizens make arguments, listen, and change their minds. The modern proponents of this form of government are led by ]. | |||
{{main|Anarcho-syndicalism}} | |||
] | |||
The early twentieth century saw the rise of ] as a distinct school of thought within the anarchist tradition. More heavily focused on the labour movement than previous forms of anarchism, syndicalism posits trade unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society that is democratically self-managed by workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Three important principles of syndicalism are workers' solidarity, ] (such as ]s and ]), and ]. Anarcho-syndicalism and other communitarian branches of anarchism are not mutually exclusive: anarcho-syndicalists often subscribe to communist or collectivist schools of anarchism. Its advocates propose labour organization as a means to create the foundations of a non-hierarchical anarchist society within the current system and bring about social revolution. | |||
*The conceptions above assume a representative democracy. '']'' holds that citizens should participate directly, not through their representatives, in making laws and policies. Proponents of direct democracy offer varied reasons to support this view. Political activity can be valuable in itself, it socializes and educates citizens, and popular participation can check powerful elites. Most importantly, citizens do not really rule themselves unless they directly decide laws and policies. | |||
] was one of the most popular voices in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. He outlined a view of the origins of the movement, what it sought, and why it was important to the future of labour in his 1938 pamphlet ''Anarchosyndicalism''.<ref> ''retrieved 7 September 2006</ref> Although more frequently associated with labor struggles of the early twentieth century (particularly in ] and ]), many syndicalist organizations are active today. | |||
*Another conception of democracy is that it means ''political equality'' between all citizens. It is also used to refer to societies in which there exists a certain set of institutions, procedures and patterns which are perceived as leading to equality in political power. First and foremost among these institutions is the regular occurrence of free and open ] which are used to select representatives who then manage all or most of the public policy of the society. This meaning of the word "democracy" has also been called ]. This view may see it as a problem that the majority of the voters decide policy, as opposed to majority rule of the entire population. This can be used as an argument for making political participation mandatory, like compulsory voting. It may also see a problem with the wealthy having more influence and therefore argue for reforms like ].<ref> ], (1989). ''Democracy and its Critics.'' New Haven: Yale University Press.</ref> | |||
===Individualist anarchism=== | |||
==="Democracy" and "Republic"=== | |||
{{main|Individualist anarchism}} | |||
In contemporary usage, the term "democracy" refers to a government chosen by the people, whether it is direct or representative. The term "]" has many different meanings but today often refers to a representative democracy with an elected ], such as a ], serving for a limited term, in contrast to states with a hereditary ] as a head of state, even if these states also are representative democracies with an elected ] such as a ]. | |||
] is an anarchist philosophical tradition that has a strong emphasis on ] and ], drawing much from the tradition of ].<ref name="Madison">{{cite journal | author = Madison, Charles A. | year = 1945 | title = Anarchism in the United States | journal = Journal of the History of Ideas | volume = 6 | issue = 1 | pages = 46-66}}</ref> Individualist anarchists believe that "individual conscience and the pursuit of self-interest should not be constrained by any collective body or public authority."<ref>Heywood, Andrew, Key Concepts in Politics, Palgrave, ISBN 0-312-23381-7, 2000, p. 46</ref> | |||
====Egoism==== | |||
{{main|Max Stirner|Ethical egoism}} | |||
] was the author of a form of individualist anarchism called "Egoism." Stirner's "name appears with familiar regularity in historically-orientated surveys of anarchist thought as one of the earliest and best-known exponents of ]."<ref name="SEP-Stirner">Leopold, David "Max Stirner", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2006 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2006/entries/max-stirner/>.</ref> In 1844, Max Stirner's '']'' (sometimes translated as "The Individual and His Property") was published, which is considered to be "a founding text in the tradition of individualist anarchism."<ref name = "SEP-Stirner"/> Stirner believed that most commonly accepted social institutions—including the concept of the state, property as a right, natural rights, and the very notion of society—were mere illusions or ''ghosts'' in the mind, saying of society that "the individuals are its reality." He advocated egoism and a form of amoralism, in which individuals would unite in "associations of egoists" only when it was in their self interest to do so. For him, property simply comes about through might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property." And, "What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing." | |||
Stirner never called himself an anarchist; he accepted only the label "egoist". Nevertheless, he is considered by most to be an anarchist because of his rejection of the state, law, and government. Also, his ideas influenced many anarchists, although interpretations of his thought are diverse. Anarchists including ], ], and the ] claimed him as an influence, while ] gave lectures on his thought.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Guide/chronology0119.html|title=Emma Goldman: Chronology 1901-1919|accessdate = 2006-05-30|publisher=Berkeley Digital Library}}</ref> | |||
====Individualist anarchism in the United States==== | |||
In historical usages and especially when considering the works of the ], the word "democracy" refers solely to ], while a ] where representatives of the people govern in accordance with ] and usually also a ] is referred to as a ]. Using the term "democracy" to refer solely to direct democracy retains some popularity in United States ] and ] circles. | |||
{{main|Individualist anarchism#Individualist anarchism in the United States}} | |||
{{main|Anarchism in the United States}} | |||
] | |||
Individualist anarchism in the American tradition began with nineteenth century figures such as ], ], ], ], ], and ]. Thoreau's individualist anarchism is purely philosophical and does not recommend any kind of action. Rather, it calls "us to recognize the inevitability of self-government accompanied by atrophy of the State" and argues that the state has no power other than what individuals accede to it.<ref>Johnson, Ellwood. ''The Goodly Word: The Puritan Influence in America Literature'', Clements Publishing, 2005, p. 138: "...a political theory that has usually been named 'anarchist individualism'...The theory, however, does not advocate anarchism in the sense, for example, of the destruction of institutions; its purpose is only description. Emersonian and Thoreauavian anarchism does not call for any specifiable program of rebellion or destruction of social institutions, but merely asserts one abiding truth..." ''Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences'', edited by Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, Alvin Saunders Johnson, 1937, p. 12: "The noblest and most eloquent statement of this essentially anarchist individualism came a generation later in Thoreau's essay on Civil Disobedience" Bool, Henry, , 1901: "I am a believer in the doctrines of the individualistic school of Anarchists, to which Garrison, Emerson, Proudhon, Thoreau, Spooner, Andrews, Warren and Tucker belong."</ref> The anarchism of most of the other theorists is more elaborate. | |||
They argued that protection of liberty and property should be provided by businesses in a ] rather than by the state.<ref>], "defense is a service like any other service; that it is labor both useful and desired, and therefore an economic commodity subject to the law of supply and demand; that in a free market this commodity would be furnished at the cost of production; that, competition prevailing, patronage would go to those who furnished the best article at the lowest price; that the production and sale of this commodity are now monopolized by the State; and that the State, like almost all monopolists, charges exorbitant prices" "Instead of a Book" (1893)<br/> | |||
The original framers of the ] were notably ] of what they perceived as a danger of majority rule in oppressing freedom and ] of the individual. For example, ], in ], advocates a constitutional republic over a democracy to protect the individual from the majority. <ref>James Madison, (], ]). , ''Daily Advertiser''. ]. Republished by ].</ref> The framers carefully created the institutions within the Constitution and the ]. They kept what they believed were the best elements of majority rule. But they were mitigated by a constitution with protections for individual liberty, a ], and a layered federal structure. | |||
"Anarchism does not exclude prisons, officials, military, or other symbols of force. It merely demands that non-invasive men shall not be made the victims of such force. Anarchism is not the reign of love, but the reign of justice. It does not signify the abolition of force-symbols but the application of force to real invaders." Tucker, Benjamin. ''Liberty'' ] ].</ref> They argued that the state prevents true free competition in the market<ref>"When Warren and Proudhon, in prosecuting their search for justice to labor, came face to face with the obstacle of class monopolies, they saw that these monopolies rested upon Authority, and concluded that the thing to be done was, not to strengthen this Authority and thus make monopoly universal, but to utterly uproot Authority and give full sway to the opposite principle, Liberty, by making competition, the antithesis of monopoly, universal." Tucker, Benjamin ''State Socialism and Anarchism'' (Liberty ] ])</ref> and that government intervention results in prices of goods and services that do not reflect the value of the labour invested in them. They supported private property<ref>"Anarchism is a word without meaning, unless it includes the liberty of the individual to control his product or whatever his product has brought him through exchange in a free market - that is, private property. Whoever denies private property is of necessity an Archist." "ANARCHISM AND PROPERTY", by Benjamin Tucker in "The New Freewoman", ] ]</ref> and a free market. They believed that free-market competition would cause all who labour to receive an income equal to that which the ] would prescribe, whereby ] greater than this income would cease to exist. Unlike anarcho-communists, they supported a right to purchase the labour of others and for individuals to sell their own.<ref>Tucker, Benjamin. , from Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin T. Tucker</ref> | |||
]]] | |||
] and ] have complex relationships to democracy and republic. See these articles for more details. | |||
Benjamin Tucker, who was one of the most prominent individualist anarchists, opposed what he called four "monopolies": the '']'' (state control over currency, credit, and banks); the ''land monopoly'' of land-titles that remained in effect if individuals were not using their land; '']s'', which prohibit competition; '']s'', which restrict competition in favor of established firms. There was also agreement among the early American individualists on the permissibility of employment ("wage labour")<ref>" carrying on business for themselves or from assuming relations between themselves as employer and employee if they prefer." Tucker, Benjamin. ''Liberty or Authority''</ref>. Unlike other individualist anarchists, Spooner supported intellectual property rights <ref>Spooner, Lysander. </ref> and permitted absentee ownership of land.<ref>Watner, Carl. in The Libertarian Forum. March 1975. Volume VII, No 3. ISSN: 0047-4517. pp. 5-6.</ref> | |||
====Anarcho-capitalism==== | |||
===Constitutional monarchs and upper chambers=== | |||
{{main|Anarcho-capitalism}} | |||
Initially after the American and French revolutions the question was open whether a democracy, in order to restrain unchecked majority rule, should have an elitist ], the members perhaps appointed meritorious experts or having lifetime tenures, or should have a ] with limited but real powers. Some countries (as Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavian countries and Japan) turned powerful monarchs into constitutional monarchs with limited or, often gradually, merely symbolic roles. Often the monarchy was abolished along with the aristocratic system (as in the U.S., France, China, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Greece and Egypt). In Australia, the monarchy is seen as hollow shell. However, there is no consensus on how to ]. Most voters want a powerful president (as in the U.S., France, and Russia), while most politicians want to keep the parliamentary system and have only a weak president (as in Italy and Germany). Many nations had elite upper houses of legislatures which often had lifetime tenure, but eventually these senates lost power (as in Britain) or else became elective and remained powerful (as in the United States). | |||
{{see|Anarchism and anarcho-capitalism}} | |||
]]] | |||
Anarcho-capitalism is referred to as a form of individualist anarchism lying outside the mainstream of anti-capitalistic anarchism<ref> Such accounts specifying anarcho-capitalism as a form of individualist anarchism include: | |||
*Alan and Trombley, Stephen (Eds.) Bullock, ''The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought'', W. W. Norton & Company (1999), p. 30 | |||
*Outhwaite, William. ''The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought'', ''Anarchism'' entry, p. 21, 2002. | |||
*Bottomore, Tom. '' Dictionary of Marxist Thought'', ''Anarchism'' entry, 1991. | |||
*Barry, Norman. ''Modern Political Theory'', 2000, Palgrave, p. 70 | |||
*Adams, Ian. ''Political Ideology Today'', Manchester University Press (2002) ISBN 0719060206, p. 135 | |||
*Grant, Moyra. ''Key Ideas in Politics'', Nelson Thomas 2003 ISBN 0-7487-7096-8, p. 91 | |||
*Heider, Ulrike. ''Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green'', City Lights, 1994. p. 3. | |||
*]. ''''. Peace Pledge Union Publications | |||
*]. ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282 | |||
*Sheehan, Sean. ''Anarchism'', Reaktion Books, 2004, p. 39 | |||
*Tormey, Simon. ''Anti-Capitalism'', One World, 2004. pp. 118-119 | |||
*]. ''Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century'', Ecole Polytechnique, Centre de Recherce en Epistemologie Appliquee, Unité associée au CNRS, 2004. | |||
*Offer, John. ''Herbert Spencer: Critical Assessments'', Routledge (UK) (2000), p. 243 | |||
*Levy, Carl. Anarchism. MS Encarta (UK). | |||
*Heywood, Andrew. ''Politics: Second Edition'', Palgrave (2002), p. 61 | |||
Sources stating anarcho-capitalism as a form of anarchism in general: | |||
*]. Anarchism. A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, editors Goodin, Robert E. and Pettit, Philip. Blackwell Publishing, 1995, p.231 | |||
*Perlin, Terry M. Contemporary Anarchism. Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ 1979, p. 7 * DeLeon, David. The American as Anarchist: Reflections of Indigenous Radicalism, Chapter: The Beginning of Another Cycle, John Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 117 | |||
*Brown, Susan Love, The Free Market as Salvation from Government: The Anarcho-Capitalist View, Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture, edited by James G. Carrier, Berg/Oxford, 1997, p. 99 | |||
*Kearney, Richard. ''Continental Philosophy in the 20th Century'', Routledge (UK) (2003), p. 336 * Sargent, Lyman Tower. ''Extremism in America: A Reader'', NYU Press (1995), p. 11 | |||
*Dahl, Robert Alan. ''Democracy and Its Critics. Yale University Press (1991), p. 38 | |||
*Goodwin, Barbara. ''Using Political Ideas'', Fourth Edition, John Wiley & Sons (1987), p. 137</ref>, and it has a significant following in the United States.<ref>Sargent, Lyman Tower. Extremism in American: A Reader, NYU Press, 1995, p. 11</ref> Like their predecessors, anarcho-capitalists would like for all services, including law enforcement and security, to be performed by multiple private providers all competing for business, rather than by a monopolist state agency funded by taxation. Anarcho-capitalism's leading proponents are ], ] and ]. It has been influenced by libertarians such as ], ], ] and ]. | |||
Although anarcho-capitalism was also influenced by ] and ]<ref>DeLeon, David. The American as Anarchist: Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism. John Hopkins University Press, 1978, p. 127</ref>, it rejects their ] in favor of the modern neo-classical ] view. Thus, anarcho-capitalists, like modern economists, do not believe that prices in a free market are, or would be, proportional to labor times. They have a ] and believe that different prices of goods and services in a market, whether completely free or not, is the result of different ] rather than amounts of labor embodied in them. Also anarcho-capitalists disagree with labor-time theorists' explanation of interest. Anarcho-capitalists, again with mainstream economists, believe that interest is a result of ]<ref>Rothbard, Murray. The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View </ref>, so they believe interest would still exist in a ] environment. Anarcho-capitalism has a theory of ] that supports private property as long as it was obtained by labor, trade, or gift.<ref>Rothbard, Murray (1969) '''' The Libertarian Forum Vol. I, No. VI (] ]) Retrieved ] ]</ref> Most anarcho-capitalists believe that in the absence of state coercion, free capitalism would naturally and inevitably develop. Hence, Rothbard's statement that "capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."<ref> The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal (] ])</ref> | |||
=== Democratic state=== | |||
Though there remains some ] debate as to the applicability and legitimacy of criteria in defining democracy what follows may be a minimum of requirements for a state to be considered democratic (note that for example anarchists may support a form of democracy but not a state): | |||
===Anarchism without adjectives=== | |||
# A ''demos''—a group which makes political decisions by some form of collective procedure—must exist. Non-members of the demos do not participate. In modern democracies the demos is the adult portion of the ], and adult ] is usually equivalent to membership. | |||
{{main|Anarchism without adjectives}} | |||
# A ''territory'' must be present, where the decisions apply, and where the demos is resident. In modern democracies, the territory is the ], and since this corresponds (in theory) with the homeland of the nation, the demos and the reach of the democratic process neatly coincide. Colonies of democracies are not considered democratic by themselves, if they are governed from the colonial ]: demos and territory do not coincide. | |||
# A ''decision-making procedure'' exists, which is either direct, in instances such as a ], or indirect, of which instances include the election of a ]. | |||
# The procedure is regarded as ''legitimate'' by the demos, implying that its outcome will be accepted. ] is the willingness of the population to accept decisions of the state, its government and courts, which go against personal choices or interests. | |||
# The procedure is ''effective'' in the minimal sense that it can be used to change the government, assuming there is sufficient support for that change. Showcase elections, pre-arranged to re-elect the existing regime, are not democratic. | |||
# In the case of nation-states, the state must be ]: democratic elections are pointless if an outside authority can overrule the result. | |||
]]] | |||
==Criticism== | |||
''Anarchism without adjectives'', in the words of historian George Richard Esenwein, "referred to an ] form of anarchism, that is, a doctrine without any qualifying labels such as ], ], ], or ]. For others, ... was simply understood as an attitude that tolerated the coexistence of different anarchist schools." <ref>Esenwein, George Richard "Anarchist Ideology and the Working Class Movement in Spain, 1868-1898" </ref>. It arose as the result of being troubled by the "bitter debates" between the different movements and was a call for more tolerance.<ref>Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 6</ref> ''Anarchism without adjectives'' emphasizes harmony between various anarchist factions and attempts to unite them around their shared anti-authoritarian beliefs. The expression was coined by ]-born ], who used it in November ] in ]. | |||
] oppose "coercive" majority rule. Many support a non-hierarchical and non-coercive system of ] within free associations. ] argued that the only acceptable form of direct democracy is one in which it is recognized that majority decisions are not binding on the minority. The minority can refuse to consent and are free to leave and form or join another association.<ref>]. </ref> There are also some anarchists who expect society to operate by ].<ref> As in '']'' or '']''</ref> | |||
To these anarchists, economic preferences are considered to be of secondary importance to abolishing all coercive authority. ], who was one of these anarchists, said that the different types of anarchism presented "only different methods of economy, the practical possibilities of which have yet to be tested, and that the first objective is to secure the personal and social freedom of men no matter upon which economics basis this is to be accomplished."<ref>Quoted in Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 7</ref> | |||
Some ], ], and ] groups oppose democracy. | |||
] was one of the most prominent "anarchists without adjectives". Although she initially identified herself as an individualist anarchist, she later espoused a collectivist form of anarchism,<ref>"The best thing ordinary workingmen or women could do was to organise their industry to get rid of money altogether . . . Let them produce together, co-operatively rather than as employer and employed; let them fraternise group by group, let each use what he needs of his own product, and deposit the rest in the storage-houses, and let those others who need goods have them as occasion arises." Voltairine De Cleyre, "Why I Am an Anarchist"</ref> while refusing to identify herself with any of the contemporary schools. She commented that "Socialism and Communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ideal Anarchism; Individualism and Mutualism, resting upon property, involve a development of the private policeman not at all compatible with my notion of freedom." In The Making of an Anarchist, she wrote, "I no longer label myself otherwise than as 'Anarchist' simply." | |||
For criticisms of specific forms of democracy, see the appropriate article. | |||
] was another proponent of anarchism-without-adjectives, stating that "t is not right for us, to say the least, to fall into strife over mere hypotheses."<ref>quoted by Max Nettlau, A Short History of Anarchism </ref> | |||
==Beyond the state level== | |||
While this article deals mainly with democracy as a system to rule countries, voting and representation have been used to govern many other kinds of communities and organisations. | |||
==Anarchism as a Social Movement== | |||
* Many ] decide policy and leadership by voting. | |||
Individualist anarchism does not represent the majority of anarchists; most anarchists favor some form of communitarianism or collectivism.<ref>Johnston, Larry. ''Politics: An Introduction to the Modern Democratic State'', Broadview Press (2001), pp. 146-147</ref> Advocacy of collectivism and violent revolution dominated mainstream anarchism from the days of the ] until the destruction of anarchism as a mass movement at the end of the ].<ref name="EB">"Anarchism." Encyclopædia Britannica, from Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003 Ultimate Reference Suite CD-ROM. Copyright © 1994-2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ] ].</ref> | |||
* In business, corporations elect their boards by votes weighed by the number of ]s held by each owner. | |||
* ]s sometimes choose their leadership through democratic elections. In the U.S. democratic elections were rare before Congress required them in the 1950s.<ref> Seymour Martin Lipset, ''Union Democracy'' (1962)</ref>. | |||
===The First International=== | |||
{{main|International Workingmen's Association|Anarchism and Marxism}} | |||
]In Europe, harsh reaction followed the ]. Twenty years later in 1864 the ], sometimes called the 'First International', united some diverse European revolutionary currents, including French followers of ], ], English trade unionists, ] and ]. Due to its genuine links to active workers' movements, the International became a significant organization. | |||
] became a leading figure in the International and a member of its General Council. Proudhon's followers, the ], opposed Marx's ], advocating political abstentionism and small property holdings. ] joined in 1868, allying with the anti-authoritarian socialist sections of the International, who advocated the revolutionary overthrow of the state and the collectivization of property. At first, the ] worked with the Marxists to push the First International in a more revolutionary socialist direction. Subsequently, the International became polarized into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads. | |||
Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as ] and predicted that, if a Marxist party came to power, its leaders would simply take the place of the ] they had fought against.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|authorlink=Mikhail Bakunin|origyear=1873|year = 1991|title =Statism and Anarchy | publisher = Cambridge University Press|location = | id = ISBN 0-521-36973-8}}</ref> In 1872, the conflict climaxed with a final split between the two groups, when, at the ], Marx engineered the expulsion of Bakunin and ] from the International and had its headquarters transferred to New York. In response, the anti-authoritarian sections formed their own International at the ], adopting a revolutionary anarchist program.<ref name=Graham-05/> | |||
===Anarchism and organized labor=== | |||
] | |||
{{main|Anarcho-syndicalism|Anarchism in Spain}} | |||
The anti-authoritarian sections of the First International were the precursors of the anarcho-syndicalists, seeking to "replace the privilege and authority of the State" with the "free and spontaneous organization of labor."<ref> Resolutions from the St. Imier Congress, in ''Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas'', Vol. 1, p.100 </ref> | |||
The ] (General Confederation of Labour, CGT), formed in France in 1895, was the first major anarcho-syndicalist movement, but it had been preceded by the Spanish Workers Federation in 1881. Anarchist trade union federations were of special importance in Spain. The most successful was the ] (National Confederation of Labour: CNT), founded in 1910. Before the 1940s, the CNT was the major force in Spanish working class politics and played a major role in the ]. The CNT was affiliated with the International Workers Association, a federation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions founded in 1922, with delegates representing two million workers from 15 countries in Europe and Latin America. | |||
The largest organised anarchist movement today is in Spain, in the form of the ] (CGT) and the ]. CGT membership was estimated to be around 100,000 for the year 2003.<ref>Carley, Mark "Trade union membership 1993-2003" (International:SPIRE Associates 2004)</ref> Other active syndicalist movements include the US ] and the UK ]. The revolutionary industrial unionist ], claiming 2,000 paying members, and the ], an anarcho-syndicalist successor to the ], also remain active. | |||
===The Russian Revolution=== | |||
{{main|Russian Revolution of 1917}} | |||
Anarchists participated alongside the ] in both February and October revolutions, many anarchists initially supporting the Bolshevik coup. However, the Bolsheviks soon turned against the anarchists and other left-wing opposition, a conflict that culminated in the 1921 ]. Anarchists in central Russia were either imprisoned or driven underground or joined the victorious Bolsheviks. In the ], anarchists fought in the ] against Whites and then the Bolsheviks as part of the Makhnovshchina peasant army led by ]. | |||
Expelled American anarchists ] and ] were amongst those agitating in response to Bolshevik policy and the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, before they left Russia. Both wrote classic accounts of their experiences in Russia, aiming to expose the reality of Bolshevik control. For them, ]'s predictions about the consequences of Marxist rule<ref>"You can see quite well that behind all the democratic and socialistic phrases and promises in Marx’s program for the State lies all that constitutes the true despotic and brutal nature of all states, regardless of their form of government." Bakunin, Mikhail (1872) "On the International Workingmen's Association and Karl Marx" (Bakunin on Anarchy, translated and edited by Sam Dolgoff, 1971)</ref> had proved all too true. | |||
The victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War did serious damage to anarchist movements internationally. Many workers and activists saw Bolshevik success as setting an example; Communist parties grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements. In France and the US, for example, the major syndicalist movements of the ] and ] began to realign themselves away from anarchism and towards the ]. | |||
In Paris, the ] group of Russian anarchist exiles, which included ], concluded that anarchists needed to develop new forms of organisation in response to the structures of Bolshevism. Their 1926 manifesto, called the ] | |||
<ref name=Platformtext>{{cite book | last = Dielo Trouda group | authorlink = Dielo Trouda | title = Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) | origyear = 1926 | url = http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=1000 | accessdate = 2006-10-24 | year = 2006 | publisher = FdCA | location = Italy}}</ref>, was supported by some communist anarchists, though opposed by many others. Platformist groups today include the ] in Ireland and the ] of North America. | |||
===The fight against fascism=== | |||
{{main|Anti-fascism|Anarchism in Spain}} | |||
], 1936. Members of the ] construct ]s to fight against the ]s in one of the ] factories.]] | |||
In the 1920s and 1930s, the familiar dynamics of anarchism's conflict with the state were transformed by the rise of ] in Europe. Italy saw the first struggles between anarchists and fascists. Anarchists played a key role in the anti-fascist organisation '''Arditi del Popolo.''' This group was strongest in areas with anarchist traditions and marked up numerous successful victories, including driving back ] in the anarchist stronghold of Parma in August 1922<ref>Holbrow, Marnie "Daring but Divided" (Socialist Review Nov 2002)</ref>. | |||
In France, where the fascists came close to insurrection in the February 1934 riots, anarchists divided over a 'united front' policy.<ref>Berry, David "Fascism or Revolution" (Le Libertaire August, 1936)</ref> In Spain, the ] initially refused to join a popular front electoral alliance and abstention by CNT supporters led to a right wing election victory. But in 1936, the CNT changed its policy and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the ruling class responded with an attempted coup, and the ] (1936-1939) was underway. | |||
In response to the army rebellion, an ] movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of ] and of large areas of rural Spain where they ] the land. But even before the eventual fascist victory in 1939, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the ]. The CNT leadership often appeared confused and divided, with some members controversially entering the government. According to ] and other foreign observers, Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both ] and anarchists. | |||
==Issues in anarchism== | |||
===Ends and means=== | |||
{{main|Propaganda of the deed|direct action}} | |||
Generally, anarchists advocate ] and oppose voting in elections. Most anarchists feel that real change is not possible through voting. Further, many argue that voting is equivalent to condoning the state,<ref>*], BAD Broadside #8, Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade 1992 | |||
*] , originally published in New Society 15 May 1987; reprinted in Freedom Vol 48 No 6 June 1987. | |||
* infoshop.org</ref> while others advocate a more pragmatic approach, including voting in referendums.<ref> Workers Solidarity No 69, published in March 2002 ''retrieved 7 September 2006''</ref> | |||
Direct action may be violent or non-violent. Although some anarchists believe that violence is justified in overthrowing existing authority, most anarchists reject ] as authoritarian. ] and ], for example, wrote of violence as necessary in revolutionary settings, but denounced terrorism as counter-revolutionary.<ref>Bakunin, (1869) and Malatesta, (1895).</ref> | |||
Anarchists have often been portrayed as dangerous and violent, due mainly to a number of high-profile violent acts, including ]s, ]s, ]s, and ] by some anarchists, as well as persistently negative media portrayals.<ref>Albert, Michael , Z Communications ''retrieved 6 September 2006</ref> Many anarchists do not see the destruction of property as a violent act. Anarchists see war, however, as an activity in which the state seeks to gain and consolidate power, both domestically and in foreign lands, and subscribe to ]'s view that "war is the health of the state."<ref></ref> | |||
Many anarchists participate in subversive organizations as a means to undermine the Establishment, such as ], ], ], and ]. This is in accordance with the anarchist concept of ]: creating the structures for a new anti-authoritarian society in the shell of the old, hierarchical one. | |||
===Capitalism=== | |||
{{main|Anarchism and capitalism}} | |||
Most anarchist traditions not only seek rejection of the ], but also of ], which they perceive as authoritarian, coercive, and exploitative. For mutualists, this opposition does not include opposition to the product of labor or capital goods ("means of production") run by individuals, but only "]", i.e. rent, interest, and profit from other's labor (profit being defined as labor not receiving its "full product" under the labor theory of value). Thus individualist anarchists, even those who are not anarcho-capitalist, support ], free trade, free competition, and private property, like in ] and ].<ref name="Madison">{{cite journal | author = Madison, Charles A. | year = 1945 | title = Anarchism in the United States | journal = Journal of the History of Ideas | volume = 6 | issue = 1 | pages = 46-66}}</ref><ref name="Madison2">{{cite journal | author = Madison, Charles A. | year = 1943 | title = Benjamin R. Tucker: Individualist and Anarchist | journal = New England Quarterly | volume = 16 | issue = 3| pages = 444-467}}</ref> | |||
===Globalization=== | |||
{{cleanup-section|October 2006}} | |||
The majority of anarchists oppose ] ] as an attempt to use coercion on a global scale, carried out through institutions such as the ], ], ] and ]. Anarchist groups, such as ]<ref> Donnacha DeLong, RTÉ News Online 2002 ''retrieved 5 September 2006''</ref>, were among the instigators of the so-called ]<ref> David Graeber, New Left Review 13, January-February 2002 ''retrieved 6 September 2006''</ref>. The ] on ] ] is generally regarded as the first of the major anti-globalization protests.<ref> C. L. Staten, EmergencyNet News journalist, writing for ]'s website in 2002 ''retrieved 5 September 2006''</ref> Anarchists, such as the ], often played a major role in planning, organising and participating in the subsequent protests.<ref> Josie Appleton, spiked-politics, 2002 ''retrieved 5 September 2006''</ref> The protests tended to be organised on anarchist ] principles with a general tolerance for a range of different activities ranging from those who engage in ] to the ]s.<ref> Thrall issue #21, 2001 ''retrieved 5 September 2006''</ref> | |||
===Communism=== | |||
While communism is proposed as a form of social and economic organisation by many anarchists, other anarchists consider it a danger to the liberty and free development of the individual.<ref>'''' by Peter Kropotkin</ref> Individualist anarchists oppose communism in all its forms. Individualist such as Benjamin Tucker, Victor Yarros, and Henry Appleton have denied that ] is a genuine form of anarchism.<ref>For instance, ] says, "Yes, genuine Anarchism is consistent ], and Communistic or pseudo-Anarchism is inconsistent Manchesterism." (Tucker, Benjamin. , from Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin T. Tucker); ] says, "There is no logical justification, no rational explanation, and no scientific reasoning has been, is, will be, or can be advanced in defence of that unimaginable impossibility, Communistic Anarchism." (Yarros, Victor S. , Liberty, Vol 4. No. 19, Saturday, April 9, 1887, Whole Number 97) ] says, "All Communism, under whatever guise, is the natural enemy of Anarchism, and a Communist sailing under the flag of Anarchism is as false a figure as could be invented." (Appleton, Henry. , Liberty 2.24, no. 50, 6 September 1884, p. 4.) ] says, ""One of the tests of any reform movement with regard to personal liberty is this: Will the movement prohibit or abolish private property? If it does, it is an enemy of liberty. For one of the most important criteria of freedom is the right to private property in the products of ones labor. State Socialists, Communists, Syndicalists and Communist-Anarchists deny private property." (Swartz, Clarence Lee. )</ref> They rejected its strategies and argued that it is inherently authoritarian.<ref name="Brooks">Brooks, Frank H. (ed) (1994) ''The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908)'', Transaction Publishers, p.76</ref> The socialist ] also opposed communism, "whether of the utopian or the Marxist variety, that it destroyed freedom by taking away from the individual control over his means of production."<ref> From Encyclopedia Britannica article (2006)</ref> Anarchist communists reject the criticism, pointing to the principle of ] that underpins the theory. | |||
===Gender=== | |||
{{main|Anarcha-feminism}} | |||
Anarcha-feminism is a kind of ] that espouses the belief that ] is a fundamental problem in society. However, it was not explicitly formulated as ''anarcha-feminism'' until early 1970s,<ref></ref> during the ] feminist movement. Anarcha-feminism views ] as the first manifestation of hierarchy in human history; thus, the first form of oppression occurred in the dominance of male over female. | |||
===Race=== | |||
{{main|Antifa}} | |||
] opposes the existence of a state, capitalism, and subjugation and domination of people of colour, and favours a non-hierarchical organization of society. Theorists include ], ], and ]. | |||
Since the late 1970s some anarchists have been involved in fighting the rise of ] groups. In Germany and ] some anarchists worked within ] ] groups alongside members of the ] left. They advocated directly combating fascists with physical force rather than relying on the state. Since the late 1990s, a similar tendency has developed within US anarchism. | |||
===The environment=== | |||
{{seealso|Green anarchism|Eco-anarchism|Social ecology|Anarcho-primitivism|Ecofeminism|Green syndicalism}} | |||
] ]]] | |||
The environment and sustainability have been an issue for anarchists from at least as far back as Kropotkin's '], but since the late 1970s anarchists in ] and European countries have been agitating for the natural environment. ] or ] believe in ]. This is a worldview that embraces ] and ]. Eco-anarchists often use ] against what they see as earth-destroying institutions. Of particular importance is the ] movement, that takes action such as ]. The more militant ], which grew out of Earth First!, also has connections with the anarchist movement. Another important component is ], which sees the domination of nature as a metaphor for the domination of women. | |||
] is a predominantly Western philosophy that advocates a return to a pre-industrial and usually pre-agricultural society. It develops a critique of industrial civilization. In this critique ] and ] have ] people from the natural world. This philosophy develops themes present in the political action of the ] and the writings of ]. Some primitivists advocate a complete process of ']' and a return to ] ] lifestyles while others only wish to see an end to industrial society and do not oppose ] or ]. Key theorists in the former category include ] and ] while the 'Unabomber' ] belongs in the latter. Today there is much conflict between primitivists and followers of more traditional forms of ] anarchism, such as the ] of ]. | |||
===Religion=== | |||
] ]]]{{main|Anarchism and religion|Buddhist anarchism|Christian anarchism|Islam and anarchism}} | |||
From ] and ] to the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists, Anarchists have traditionally been skeptical about and opposed to ], believing that most organized religions are ] in nature and, more often than not, aligned with contemporary power structures like ] and ]. Nonetheless, there are those who reconcile anarchism with religion. | |||
] believe that there is no higher authority than ], and oppose earthly authority such as ] and established churches. They believe that Jesus' teachings and the practice of the ] were clearly anarchistic, but were corrupted when "Christianity" was declared the official religion of Rome. Though he did not call himself an anarchist because he applied the term to those who wanted to change society through violence<ref>Woodcock, George. Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements, Broadview Press, 2004, p. 185</ref>, ] is considered to be the most famous Christian anarchist whose ']' is considered a key christian anarchist text. The ] is a modern Christian anarchist organisation. | |||
] was most influential in the 1920s. Strands of Chinese anarchism included ]'s ] which was influenced by ] and the ]. ], influenced by ] and ], founder of ], saw anarchism as a way of propagating the ancient culture of the ]n Race. <ref>''Ghadar Movement: Ideology, Organisation and Strategy'', Harish K. Puri, Guru Nanak Dev University Press, Amritsar: ''"The only account of Hardayal's short stay in that island ], comes from ], a self exiled ]ist missionary from ], who stayed a month with him there. Har Dayal used that time, says Parmanand, to discuss plans to found a new religion: his model was the Buddha. He ate mostly boiled grain, slept on the bare floor and spent his time in meditation in a secluded place. ], a famous English radical and friend, tells us of Hardayal's proclaimed belief at that time in the coming republic "which was to be a Church, a religious confraternity . . . its motto was to be: atheism, cosmopolitanism and moral law' Parmamand says that Har Dayal acceded to his persuasion to go to the USA and decided to make New York a centre for the propagation of the ancient culture of the Aryan Race."'' (page 55) and ''"the ideal social order would be the one which approximated to the legendary Vedic period of Indian history because, as Har Dayal affirmed, practical equality existed only in that society, where there were no governors and no governed, no priests and no laymen, no rich and no poor."'' (page 112]], referencing ''The Social Conquest of the Hindu Race and Meaning of Equality''.</ref>. | |||
==Recent Developments within Anarchism== | |||
Anarchism generates many eclectic and syncretic philosophies and movements. Since the Western social ferment in the 1960's and 1970's a number of new movements and schools have appeared. Most of these stances are limited to even smaller numbers than the schools and movements listed above. | |||
]]] | |||
*'''Especifismo''' - ] emerged out of nearly 50 years of anarchist experiences in South America starting with the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU), founded in 1956 by anarchists who saw the need for an organization which was specifically anarchist. It has been summmarised as; | |||
"The need for specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and praxis. | |||
The use of the specifically anarchist organization to theorize and develop strategic political and organizing work. | |||
Active involvement in and building of autonomous and popular social movements, which is described as the process of "social insertion."<ref name=Especifismo>{{cite book | last = NEFAC | authorlink = Adam Weaver | title = Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization in South America | origyear = 2006 | url = http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=2999&search_text=especifismo | accessdate = 2006-10-24 | year = 2006 | publisher = NEFAC | location = USA}}</ref> | |||
Other organisations that hold to Especifismo include Federação Anarquista Gaúcha (FAG), the Federação Anarquista Cabocla (FACA), and the Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro (FARJ) (all in Brazil), and the Argentinean organization Auca (Rebel). | |||
Especifismo is considered to have come to broadly similar conclusions to the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) leading to the argument that it is properly considered a new form of ] | |||
*'''Post-left anarchy''' - ] seeks to distance itself from the traditional "left" - communists, socialists, social democrats, etc. - and to escape the confines of ] in general. Post-leftists argue that anarchism has been weakened by its long attachment to contrary "leftist" movements and single issue causes (], ], etc.). It calls for a synthesis of anarchist thought and a specifically anti-authoritarian revolutionary movement outside of the leftist milieu. Important groups and individuals associated with Post-left anarchy include: ], the magazine ] and its editor ], ], ] and others. | |||
*'''Post-Anarchism''' - The term ] was originated by ], first receiving popular attention in his book '']'' to refer to a theoretical move towards a synthesis of classical anarchist theory and ] thought. Subsequent to Newman's use of the term, however, it has taken on a life of its own and a wide range of ideas including ], ], ], ] and Zapatismo. By its very nature post-anarchism rejects the idea that it should be a coherent set of doctrines and beliefs. As such it is difficult, if not impossible, to state with any degree of certainty who should or should not be grouped under the rubric. Nonetheless key thinkers associated with post-anarchism include ], ], ] and ]. | |||
*'''Insurrectionary anarchism''' - ] is a form of revolutionary anarchism critical of formal anarchist labor unions and federations. Insurrectionary anarchists advocate informal organization, including small affinity groups, carrying out acts of resistance in various struggles, and mass organizations called base structures, which can include exploited individuals who are not anarchists. Proponents include ] and ], author of works including "Armed Joy" and "The Anarchist Tension". This tendency is represented in the US in magazines such as ] and ]. | |||
*'''Small 'a' anarchism''' - Small 'a' anarchism is a term used in two different, but not unconnected contexts. Dave Neal posited the term in opposition to big 'A' Anarchism in the article . While big 'A' Anarchism referred to ideological Anarchists, small 'a' anarchism was applied to their methodological counterparts; those who viewed anarchism as "a way of acting, or a historical tendency against illegitimate authority." As an anti-ideological position, small 'a' anarchism shares some similarities with ]. ] and ] offer an alternative use of the term, applying it to groups and movements organising according to or acting in a manner consistent with anarchist principles of decentralisation, voluntary association, mutual aid, the network model, and crucially, "the rejection of any idea that the end justifies the means, let alone that the business of a revolutionary is to seize state power and then begin imposing one's vision at the point of a gun."<ref> by David Graeber | |||
and Andrej Grubacic</ref> | |||
==Criticisms of anarchism== | |||
{{main|Criticisms of anarchism}} | |||
The theory and practice of anarchism has been controversial since it came to prominence in the 19th century. Some of the criticisms made of anarchism come from the interests it opposes, such as governments. Other criticisms have been made internally of other anarchists or by political movements that appear to share similar goals, such as ]. Many question the idealist nature of anarchism, and have misgivings about its practical application in the real world. Some point to anarchism's inability to establish a viable anti-state. Some social scientists note that hierarchies appear to be synonymous with human civilization, although others note that many indigenous societies have been largely egalitarian. | |||
==Cultural phenomena== | |||
] (1928–)]] | |||
The kind of anarchism that is most easily encountered in popular culture is represented by well-known figures who publicly identify themselves as anarchists. The following figures are examples of prominent publicly self-avowed anarchists: | |||
*the ] professor of ] ] | |||
*the social historian ]<ref>"Something of an anarchist," , 2003</ref> | |||
*author ] | |||
*author and speaker ] | |||
*author and philosopher ] | |||
*]ist ] | |||
*] fighter and champion ] | |||
*], author and critic ] | |||
*], actor, film director, writer and comedian. | |||
In ], the ] was created in downtown ]. The housing and employment crisis in most of ] led to the formation of ] and squatter movements like the one still thriving in ], in ]. Although not always explicitly anarchist, militant ] in places like Germany, and the uprisings of ], ], and ] groups in France and Italy also helped to give popularity to anti-authoritarian, non-capitalist ideas. | |||
In various musical styles, anarchism rose in popularity. Most famous for the linking of anarchist ideas and music has been ], although in the ], ], and ] are also becoming important mediums for the spreading of the anarchist message. In the ] this was associated with the ] movement; the band ] are celebrated for their anarchist and ] ideas, while ] are the arguably the best known UK anarchist band, having made some inroads into the realms of ']'. | |||
''For further details, see ] and ].'' | |||
Recent technological developments have made the transmission of anarchist ideas accessable to a wider public. Many people use the Internet to form on-line communities. ] has been undermined to some extent and a gift-culture supported by ], collaborative software development, and ] (] ]) has arisen. These cyber-communities include those that support ], ], ], and ]s. Others use technology to remain anonymous, communicate securely using ], and maintain financial privacy through ]. ''See also'': ] and ]. | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
{{Political ideology entry points}} | |||
*] | |||
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There are many concepts relevant to the topic of anarchism, this is a brief summary. There is also a more extensive ]. | |||
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===Historical events=== | |||
==References== | |||
*] (1871) | |||
<references/> | |||
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*] (1918-1922) (see also ]) | |||
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*] trial (1927) | |||
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*] (1936) (see also ]) | |||
*], France (1968) | |||
*] (1999) | |||
*] (2001) | |||
===Anarchism by region=== | |||
==Further reading== | |||
{{main|Anarchism by country}} | |||
* Joyce Appleby, ''Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination'' (1992) | |||
*] | |||
* Becker, Peter, Juergen Heideking and James A. Henretta, eds. ''Republicanism and Liberalism in America and the German States, 1750-1850.'' Cambridge University Press. 2002. | |||
*] | |||
* Benhabib, Seyla, ed., ''Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political'' (Princeton University Press, 1996) | |||
*] | |||
*], ''From Pluralist to Patriotic Politics: Putting Practice First'', Oxford University Press, 2000, ch. 5. ISBN 0-19-829688-6 | |||
*] | |||
* Castiglione, Dario. "Republicanism and its Legacy," ''European Journal of Political Theory'' (2005) v 4 #4 pp 453-65. | |||
*] | |||
* Copp, David, Jean Hampton, and John E. Roemer, eds. ''The Idea of Democracy'' Cambridge University Press (1993) | |||
*] | |||
* Dahl, Robert. ''Democracy and its Critics'', Yale University Press (1989) | |||
*] | |||
* Dahl, Robert. ''On Democracy'' Yale University Press, 2000 | |||
*] | |||
* Dahl, Robert. Ian Shapiro, and Jose Antonio Cheibub, eds, ''The Democracy Sourcebook'' MIT Press 2003 | |||
* Diamond, Larry and Marc Plattner, ''The Global Resurgence of Democracy'', 2nd edition Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996 | |||
* Diamond, Larry and Richard Gunther, eds. ''Political Parties and Democracy'' (2001) | |||
* Diamond, Larry and Leonardo Morlino, eds. ''Assessing the Quality of Democracy'' (2005) | |||
* Diamond, Larry, Marc F. Plattner, and Philip J. Costopoulos, eds. ''World Religions and Democracy'' (2005) | |||
* Diamond, Larry, Marc F. Plattner, and Daniel Brumberg, eds. ''Islam and Democracy in the Middle East'' (2003) | |||
* Elster, Jon (ed.). ''Deliberative Democracy'' Cambridge University Press (1997) | |||
* Gabardi, Wayne. "Contemporary Models of Democracy," ''Polity'' 33#4 (2001) pp 547+. | |||
* Held, David. ''Models of Democracy'' Stanford University Press, (1996), reviews the major interpretations | |||
* Inglehart, Ronald. ''Modernization and Postmodernization. Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies'' Princeton University Press. 1997. | |||
* Khan, L. Ali, ''A Theory of Universal Democracy.'' Martinus Nijhoff Publishers(2003) | |||
* Lijphart, Arend. ''Patterns of Democracy. Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries'' Yale University Press (1999) | |||
* Lipset, Seymour Martin. “Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy”, American Political Science Review, (1959) 53 (1): 69-105. online at JSTOR | |||
* Macpherson, C. B. ''The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy.'' Oxford University Press (1977) | |||
* Edmund Morgan, ''Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America'' (1989) | |||
* Plattner, Marc F. and Aleksander Smolar, eds. ''Globalization, Power, and Democracy'' (2000) | |||
* Plattner, Marc F. and João Carlos Espada, eds. ''The Democratic Invention'' (2000) | |||
* Putnam, Robert. ''Making Democracy Work'' Princeton University Press. (1993) | |||
* Riker, William H., ''] (1962) | |||
* Sen, Amartya K. “Democracy as a Universal Value”, ''Journal of Democracy'' (1999) 10 (3): 3-17. | |||
* Weingast, Barry. “The Political Foundations of the Rule of Law and Democracy”, ''American Political Science Review,'' (1997) 91 (2): 245-263. online at JSTOR | |||
* Whitehead, Laurence ed. ''Emerging Market Democracies: East Asia and Latin America'' (2002) | |||
* Wood, Gordon S. '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1993), examines democratic dimensions of republicanism | |||
===Anarchism by culture=== | |||
==External links== | |||
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{{wikiquote}} | |||
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{{wiktionarypar|democracy}} | |||
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* — Worldwide democracy monitoring organization. | |||
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* — Collection of resources on key issues of democracy and nation-building | |||
* a university-level research and training pluri- and transdisciplinary school of democracy | |||
*. | |||
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* by Fareed Zakaria | |||
* | |||
* — Global democracy network using information, participation and debate to empower citizens. | |||
===Books=== | |||
'''Critique''' | |||
{{main|List of anarchist books}} | |||
* | |||
* — Democracy as the Community of Capital - A Provisional Critique of Democracy | |||
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*], '']'' | |||
'''Alternatives and improvements''' - see also , ] and ] | |||
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*, ''Ethics & Democracy'' | |||
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*], '']'' | |||
* — Plan to limit global competition and facilitate the emergence of a sustainable, sane global civilization. | |||
*], '']'' | |||
* | |||
*], '']'' | |||
* — "an experiment that asks: if there were no laws in the United States, what laws would you impose on America?" | |||
* | |||
==Notes and references== | |||
{{Forms_of_leadership}} | |||
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==External links== | |||
{{wiktionary}} | |||
{{wikiquote}} | |||
* at ] - "]" written by a group of ]. | |||
* - a FAQ written by ] economics professor ]. | |||
* extensively archives information relating to famous anarchists. This includes many of their books and other publications. | |||
*1,500+ anarchists listed, with short bios, links & dedicated pages | |||
* | |||
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Revision as of 01:05, 25 October 2006
Anarchism is the name of a political philosophy or a group of doctrines and attitudes that are centered on rejection of any form of compulsory government (such as the state) and support its elimination. The term "anarchism" is derived from the Greek αναρχία ("without archons" or "without rulers"). Thus "anarchism," in its most general meaning, is the belief that all forms of rulership are undesirable and should be abolished.
There are a variety of types and traditions of anarchism with various points of difference. Other than being opposed to the state, "there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance." Preferred economic arrangements are one of the many areas of disagreement for anarchists.
Origins
Pre-Nineteenth Century
Main article: Origins of anarchismOpposition to the state and hierarchical authority had a long history prior to the formation of the anarchist movement in nineteenth century Europe. Many claim that anarchist themes can be detected in works as old as those of the Taoist sage Lao Tzu, though this is a controversial topic, and Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism.
Anarchism in the modern sense, however, has its roots in the secular political thought of the Enlightenment, particularly Rousseau's arguments for the moral centrality of freedom. The word "anarchist" was originally used as a term of abuse, but by the French Revolution some groups such as the Enragés had started to use the term in a positive sense, seeing the Jacobin concept of a "revolutionary government" as an oxymoron. It was in this political climate that William Godwin would develop his philosophy, which is considered by many to be the first expression of modern anarchist thought.
William Godwin
Main article: William GodwinAccording to Peter Kropotkin, William Godwin, in his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (2 vols., 1793), was "the first to formulate the political and economical conceptions of anarchism, even though he did not give that name to the ideas developed in his work." Charles A. Madison writes, "The first modern systematic exponent of anarchism was William Godwin. . . . Strongly influenced by the sentiments of the French Revolution, he argued that since man is a rational being he must not be hampered in the exercise of his pure reason. Moreover, since all forms of government have irrational foundations and are consequently tyrannical in nature, they must be swept away."
Godwin felt that the evil of man was the result of societal corruption, and his view was that government would become unnecessary as the human race is perfected. "Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind; and that, however we may be obliged to admit it as a necessary evil for the present, it behoves us, as the friends of reason and the human species, to admit as little of it as possible, and carefully to observe whether, in consequence of the gradual illumination of the human mind, that little may not hereafter be diminished." Godwin felt that discrimination on any grounds besides ability was intolerable. Godwin is also well known for marrying the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Their daughter, Mary Shelley, achieved fame as the author of Frankenstein.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Main article: Pierre-Joseph ProudhonPierre-Joseph Proudhon is the first self-proclaimed anarchist, a label which he adopted in his 1840 treatise What is Property?. It is for this reason that some declare Proudhon the founder of modern anarchist theory. He developed the theory of spontaneous order in society, whereby organization emerges without any central authority, a "positive anarchy" in which order arises from every individual "doing what he wishes and only what he wishes." He saw anarchy as:
"a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness, formed through the development of science and law, is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties. In it, as a consequence, the institutions of the police, preventive and repressive methods, officialdom, taxation, etc., are reduced to a minimum. In it, more especially, the forms of monarchy and intensive centralization disappear, to be replaced by federal institutions and a pattern of life based on the commune."
His opposition to capitalism, the state, and organized religion inspired subsequent anarchists and made him one of the leading socialist theorists of his time. However, he was also opposed to "communism, whether of the utopian or the Marxist variety, that it destroyed freedom by taking away from the individual control over his means of production."
Schools of Anarchist Thought
Mutualism
Main article: Mutualism (economic theory)While mutualism as a body of economic ideas began in English and French labor movements of the 18th century, it later took on an anarchist form mostly associated with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Proudhon was the first to call himself and his politics anarchist. In his landmark book What is Property? (Qu'est-ce que la propriété?, published in 1840), he expounded an economic theory based on a labor theory of value, which states that the actual price of a thing (or the "true cost") is the amount of labor that was undertaken to produce it. Consequently, no one who sells goods should charge more than the labor exerted to obtain or produce each good. According to Proudhon, "It is labor, labor alone, that produces all the elements of wealth... according to a law of variable, but certain, proportionality." He was also careful to advise, however, that "The value of labor is a figurative expression, an anticipation of effect from cause." Mutualist economics is characterised by a dedication to free association, a democratically run mutualist bank, and voluntary contract/federation.
Many mutualists believe that a market without government intervention would result in prices paid for labor to align with its true worth, as determined by the labor theory of value, because firms would be forced to compete over workers just as workers compete over firms, which would raise wages. As William B. Greene put it:
- "Under the mutual system, each individual will receive the just and exact pay for his work; services equivalent in cost being exchangeable for services equivalent in cost, without profit or discount; and so much as the individual laborer will then get over and above what he has earned will come to him as his share in the general prosperity of the community of which he is an individual member."
Proudhon's mutualism, introduced into the United States in 1848 by Charles A. Dana, supplemented a native American form already worked out by Josiah Warren. Proudhon's mutualism was adapted to American conditions by Greene, who introduced it to Benjamin R. Tucker. Unlike the American individualist anarchists, Proudhon emphasises associations amongst producers; thus, some see Proudhon's mutualism as being situated somewhere between individualism and collectivism.
Collectivist Anarchism
Main article: Collectivist anarchismCollectivist anarchism, also known as 'anarcho-collectivism', is most commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin and the anti-authoritarian section of the First International (1864-1876). Unlike mutualists, collectivist anarchists oppose all private ownership of the means of production, instead advocating that ownership be collectivized. Workers would be compensated for their work on the basis of the amount of time they contributed to production, rather than goods being distributed "according to need" as in anarcho-communism. By the early 1880s, most of the European anarchist movement had adopted an Anarchist communism position, advocating the abolition of wage labour and distribution according to need rather than labor, although the early anarchist movement in Spain is sometimes associated with collectivism. Although the collectivist anarchists advocated compensation for labor, they held out the possibility of a post-revolutionary transition to a communist system of distribution according to need. Collective anarchism arose contemporary with Marxism but was opposed to it, despite Marxism striving for a collectivist stateless society, because of an opposition to the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat.
Anarchist communism
Main article: Anarchist communismJoseph Déjacque was an early anarchist communist and the first person to describe himself as "socialist libertarian". Unlike Proudhon, he argued that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature." Other important anarchist communists include Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman and Errico Malatesta. Many in the anarcho-syndicalist movements (see below) saw anarchist communism as their objective. Isaac Puente's 1932 El comunismo libertario was adopted by the Spanish CNT as its manifesto for a post-revolutionary society.
Anarchist communists propose that a society composed of a number of self-governing communes with collective ownership of the means of production, ruled by direct democracy, and related to other communes through federation would be the freest form of social organisation. In anarchist communism, individuals would not receive direct compensation for labour (through share of profits, payment or any other compensation), but would instead have free access to the resources of the commune. Some commentators believe that this would require an essentially communitarian human nature, but, according to the view developed by Kropotkin and later by Murray Bookchin, the members of such a society will spontaneously perform all necessary labour because they will recognize the benefits of communal enterprise and mutual aid. It is often characterised as Utopianism, a claim some do not deny, but anarchist communism is portrayed by its supporters as an achievable goal, if not an inevitability, rather than an impossible ideal.
Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin, often seen as the most important theorist of anarchist communism, outlined his economic ideas in The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops. Kropotkin felt that co-operation is more beneficial than competition, arguing in Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution that this was illustrated in nature. He advocated the abolition of private property through the "expropriation of the whole of social wealth" by the people themselves, and for the economy to be co-ordinated through a horizontal network of voluntary associations.
He maintained that, in anarcho-communism:
"...houses, fields, and factories will no longer be private property, and that they will belong to the commune or the nation and money, wages, and trade would be abolished."
Individuals and groups would use and control whatever resources they needed, as the aim of anarchist-communism was to place "the product reaped or manufactured at the disposal of all, leaving to each the liberty to consume them as he pleases in his own home." He supported the expropriation of property to ensure that everyone would have access to what they needed without being forced to sell their labour to get it.
"We do not want to rob any one of his coat, but we wish to give to the workers all those things the lack of which makes them fall an easy prey to the exploiter, and we will do our utmost that none shall lack aught, that not a single man shall be forced to sell the strength of his right arm to obtain a bare subsistence for himself and his babes. This is what we mean when we talk of Expropriation..."
He said that a "peasant who is in possession of just the amount of land he can cultivate," and "a family inhabiting a house which affords them just enough space... considered necessary for that number of people" and the artisan "working with their own tools or handloom" would not be interfered with, arguing that "he landlord owes his riches to the poverty of the peasants, and the wealth of the capitalist comes from the same source."
Platformism
Main article: PlatformismPlatformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist communist movement which shares an affinity with organising in the tradition of Nestor Makhno's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft). The Platform came from the experiences of Russian anarchists in the 1917 October Revolution, which lead eventually to the victory of Bolshevik party dictatorship rather than workers' and peasants' self-management. It argued for the "vital need of an organization which, having attracted most of the participants in the anarchist movement, would establish a common tactical and political line for anarchism and thereby serve as a guide for the whole movement."
Anarcho-syndicalism
Main article: Anarcho-syndicalismThe early twentieth century saw the rise of anarcho-syndicalism as a distinct school of thought within the anarchist tradition. More heavily focused on the labour movement than previous forms of anarchism, syndicalism posits trade unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society that is democratically self-managed by workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Three important principles of syndicalism are workers' solidarity, direct action (such as general strikes and workplace recuperations), and workers' self-management. Anarcho-syndicalism and other communitarian branches of anarchism are not mutually exclusive: anarcho-syndicalists often subscribe to communist or collectivist schools of anarchism. Its advocates propose labour organization as a means to create the foundations of a non-hierarchical anarchist society within the current system and bring about social revolution.
Rudolf Rocker was one of the most popular voices in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. He outlined a view of the origins of the movement, what it sought, and why it was important to the future of labour in his 1938 pamphlet Anarchosyndicalism. Although more frequently associated with labor struggles of the early twentieth century (particularly in France and Spain), many syndicalist organizations are active today.
Individualist anarchism
Main article: Individualist anarchismIndividualist anarchism is an anarchist philosophical tradition that has a strong emphasis on equality of liberty and individual sovereignty, drawing much from the tradition of classical liberalism. Individualist anarchists believe that "individual conscience and the pursuit of self-interest should not be constrained by any collective body or public authority."
Egoism
Main articles: Max Stirner and Ethical egoismMax Stirner was the author of a form of individualist anarchism called "Egoism." Stirner's "name appears with familiar regularity in historically-orientated surveys of anarchist thought as one of the earliest and best-known exponents of individualist anarchism." In 1844, Max Stirner's The Ego and Its Own (sometimes translated as "The Individual and His Property") was published, which is considered to be "a founding text in the tradition of individualist anarchism." Stirner believed that most commonly accepted social institutions—including the concept of the state, property as a right, natural rights, and the very notion of society—were mere illusions or ghosts in the mind, saying of society that "the individuals are its reality." He advocated egoism and a form of amoralism, in which individuals would unite in "associations of egoists" only when it was in their self interest to do so. For him, property simply comes about through might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property." And, "What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing."
Stirner never called himself an anarchist; he accepted only the label "egoist". Nevertheless, he is considered by most to be an anarchist because of his rejection of the state, law, and government. Also, his ideas influenced many anarchists, although interpretations of his thought are diverse. Anarchists including Benjamin Tucker, Federica Montseny, and the Bonnot Gang claimed him as an influence, while Emma Goldman gave lectures on his thought.
Individualist anarchism in the United States
Main article: Individualist anarchism § Individualist anarchism in the United States Main article: Anarchism in the United StatesIndividualist anarchism in the American tradition began with nineteenth century figures such as Josiah Warren, Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker, Stephen Pearl Andrews, Victor Yarros, and Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau's individualist anarchism is purely philosophical and does not recommend any kind of action. Rather, it calls "us to recognize the inevitability of self-government accompanied by atrophy of the State" and argues that the state has no power other than what individuals accede to it. The anarchism of most of the other theorists is more elaborate.
They argued that protection of liberty and property should be provided by businesses in a free market rather than by the state. They argued that the state prevents true free competition in the market and that government intervention results in prices of goods and services that do not reflect the value of the labour invested in them. They supported private property and a free market. They believed that free-market competition would cause all who labour to receive an income equal to that which the labor theory of value would prescribe, whereby profit greater than this income would cease to exist. Unlike anarcho-communists, they supported a right to purchase the labour of others and for individuals to sell their own.
Benjamin Tucker, who was one of the most prominent individualist anarchists, opposed what he called four "monopolies": the money monopoly (state control over currency, credit, and banks); the land monopoly of land-titles that remained in effect if individuals were not using their land; patents, which prohibit competition; tariffs, which restrict competition in favor of established firms. There was also agreement among the early American individualists on the permissibility of employment ("wage labour"). Unlike other individualist anarchists, Spooner supported intellectual property rights and permitted absentee ownership of land.
Anarcho-capitalism
Main article: Anarcho-capitalism Further information: Anarchism and anarcho-capitalismAnarcho-capitalism is referred to as a form of individualist anarchism lying outside the mainstream of anti-capitalistic anarchism, and it has a significant following in the United States. Like their predecessors, anarcho-capitalists would like for all services, including law enforcement and security, to be performed by multiple private providers all competing for business, rather than by a monopolist state agency funded by taxation. Anarcho-capitalism's leading proponents are Murray Rothbard, David Friedman and Hans-Hermann Hoppe. It has been influenced by libertarians such as Gustave de Molinari, Frederic Bastiat, Ayn Rand and Robert Nozick.
Although anarcho-capitalism was also influenced by Tucker and Spooner, it rejects their labor theory of value in favor of the modern neo-classical marginalist view. Thus, anarcho-capitalists, like modern economists, do not believe that prices in a free market are, or would be, proportional to labor times. They have a subjective theory of value and believe that different prices of goods and services in a market, whether completely free or not, is the result of different marginal utilities rather than amounts of labor embodied in them. Also anarcho-capitalists disagree with labor-time theorists' explanation of interest. Anarcho-capitalists, again with mainstream economists, believe that interest is a result of time preference, so they believe interest would still exist in a free banking environment. Anarcho-capitalism has a theory of legitimacy that supports private property as long as it was obtained by labor, trade, or gift. Most anarcho-capitalists believe that in the absence of state coercion, free capitalism would naturally and inevitably develop. Hence, Rothbard's statement that "capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."
Anarchism without adjectives
Main article: Anarchism without adjectivesAnarchism without adjectives, in the words of historian George Richard Esenwein, "referred to an unhyphenated form of anarchism, that is, a doctrine without any qualifying labels such as communist, collectivist, mutualist, or individualist. For others, ... was simply understood as an attitude that tolerated the coexistence of different anarchist schools." . It arose as the result of being troubled by the "bitter debates" between the different movements and was a call for more tolerance. Anarchism without adjectives emphasizes harmony between various anarchist factions and attempts to unite them around their shared anti-authoritarian beliefs. The expression was coined by Cuban-born Fernando Tarrida del Marmol, who used it in November 1889 in Barcelona.
To these anarchists, economic preferences are considered to be of secondary importance to abolishing all coercive authority. Rudolf Rocker, who was one of these anarchists, said that the different types of anarchism presented "only different methods of economy, the practical possibilities of which have yet to be tested, and that the first objective is to secure the personal and social freedom of men no matter upon which economics basis this is to be accomplished."
Voltairine de Cleyre was one of the most prominent "anarchists without adjectives". Although she initially identified herself as an individualist anarchist, she later espoused a collectivist form of anarchism, while refusing to identify herself with any of the contemporary schools. She commented that "Socialism and Communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ideal Anarchism; Individualism and Mutualism, resting upon property, involve a development of the private policeman not at all compatible with my notion of freedom." In The Making of an Anarchist, she wrote, "I no longer label myself otherwise than as 'Anarchist' simply."
Errico Malatesta was another proponent of anarchism-without-adjectives, stating that "t is not right for us, to say the least, to fall into strife over mere hypotheses."
Anarchism as a Social Movement
Individualist anarchism does not represent the majority of anarchists; most anarchists favor some form of communitarianism or collectivism. Advocacy of collectivism and violent revolution dominated mainstream anarchism from the days of the First International until the destruction of anarchism as a mass movement at the end of the Spanish Civil War.
The First International
Main articles: International Workingmen's Association and Anarchism and MarxismIn Europe, harsh reaction followed the revolutions of 1848. Twenty years later in 1864 the International Workingmen's Association, sometimes called the 'First International', united some diverse European revolutionary currents, including French followers of Proudhon, Blanquists, English trade unionists, socialists and social democrats. Due to its genuine links to active workers' movements, the International became a significant organization.
Karl Marx became a leading figure in the International and a member of its General Council. Proudhon's followers, the Mutualists, opposed Marx's state socialism, advocating political abstentionism and small property holdings. Mikhail Bakunin joined in 1868, allying with the anti-authoritarian socialist sections of the International, who advocated the revolutionary overthrow of the state and the collectivization of property. At first, the collectivists worked with the Marxists to push the First International in a more revolutionary socialist direction. Subsequently, the International became polarized into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads.
Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as authoritarian and predicted that, if a Marxist party came to power, its leaders would simply take the place of the ruling class they had fought against. In 1872, the conflict climaxed with a final split between the two groups, when, at the Hague Congress, Marx engineered the expulsion of Bakunin and James Guillaume from the International and had its headquarters transferred to New York. In response, the anti-authoritarian sections formed their own International at the St. Imier Congress, adopting a revolutionary anarchist program.
Anarchism and organized labor
Main articles: Anarcho-syndicalism and Anarchism in SpainThe anti-authoritarian sections of the First International were the precursors of the anarcho-syndicalists, seeking to "replace the privilege and authority of the State" with the "free and spontaneous organization of labor."
The Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour, CGT), formed in France in 1895, was the first major anarcho-syndicalist movement, but it had been preceded by the Spanish Workers Federation in 1881. Anarchist trade union federations were of special importance in Spain. The most successful was the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour: CNT), founded in 1910. Before the 1940s, the CNT was the major force in Spanish working class politics and played a major role in the Spanish Civil War. The CNT was affiliated with the International Workers Association, a federation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions founded in 1922, with delegates representing two million workers from 15 countries in Europe and Latin America.
The largest organised anarchist movement today is in Spain, in the form of the Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) and the CNT. CGT membership was estimated to be around 100,000 for the year 2003. Other active syndicalist movements include the US Workers Solidarity Alliance and the UK Solidarity Federation. The revolutionary industrial unionist Industrial Workers of the World, claiming 2,000 paying members, and the International Workers Association, an anarcho-syndicalist successor to the First International, also remain active.
The Russian Revolution
Main article: Russian Revolution of 1917Anarchists participated alongside the Bolsheviks in both February and October revolutions, many anarchists initially supporting the Bolshevik coup. However, the Bolsheviks soon turned against the anarchists and other left-wing opposition, a conflict that culminated in the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion. Anarchists in central Russia were either imprisoned or driven underground or joined the victorious Bolsheviks. In the Ukraine, anarchists fought in the civil war against Whites and then the Bolsheviks as part of the Makhnovshchina peasant army led by Nestor Makhno.
Expelled American anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were amongst those agitating in response to Bolshevik policy and the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, before they left Russia. Both wrote classic accounts of their experiences in Russia, aiming to expose the reality of Bolshevik control. For them, Bakunin's predictions about the consequences of Marxist rule had proved all too true.
The victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War did serious damage to anarchist movements internationally. Many workers and activists saw Bolshevik success as setting an example; Communist parties grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements. In France and the US, for example, the major syndicalist movements of the CGT and IWW began to realign themselves away from anarchism and towards the Communist International.
In Paris, the Dielo Truda group of Russian anarchist exiles, which included Nestor Makhno, concluded that anarchists needed to develop new forms of organisation in response to the structures of Bolshevism. Their 1926 manifesto, called the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) , was supported by some communist anarchists, though opposed by many others. Platformist groups today include the Workers Solidarity Movement in Ireland and the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists of North America.
The fight against fascism
Main articles: Anti-fascism and Anarchism in SpainIn the 1920s and 1930s, the familiar dynamics of anarchism's conflict with the state were transformed by the rise of fascism in Europe. Italy saw the first struggles between anarchists and fascists. Anarchists played a key role in the anti-fascist organisation Arditi del Popolo. This group was strongest in areas with anarchist traditions and marked up numerous successful victories, including driving back Blackshirts in the anarchist stronghold of Parma in August 1922.
In France, where the fascists came close to insurrection in the February 1934 riots, anarchists divided over a 'united front' policy. In Spain, the CNT initially refused to join a popular front electoral alliance and abstention by CNT supporters led to a right wing election victory. But in 1936, the CNT changed its policy and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the ruling class responded with an attempted coup, and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was underway.
In response to the army rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of Barcelona and of large areas of rural Spain where they collectivized the land. But even before the eventual fascist victory in 1939, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the Stalinists. The CNT leadership often appeared confused and divided, with some members controversially entering the government. According to George Orwell and other foreign observers, Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident Marxists and anarchists.
Issues in anarchism
Ends and means
Main articles: Propaganda of the deed and direct actionGenerally, anarchists advocate direct action and oppose voting in elections. Most anarchists feel that real change is not possible through voting. Further, many argue that voting is equivalent to condoning the state, while others advocate a more pragmatic approach, including voting in referendums.
Direct action may be violent or non-violent. Although some anarchists believe that violence is justified in overthrowing existing authority, most anarchists reject terrorism as authoritarian. Mikhail Bakunin and Errico Malatesta, for example, wrote of violence as necessary in revolutionary settings, but denounced terrorism as counter-revolutionary.
Anarchists have often been portrayed as dangerous and violent, due mainly to a number of high-profile violent acts, including riots, assassinations, insurrections, and terrorism by some anarchists, as well as persistently negative media portrayals. Many anarchists do not see the destruction of property as a violent act. Anarchists see war, however, as an activity in which the state seeks to gain and consolidate power, both domestically and in foreign lands, and subscribe to Randolph Bourne's view that "war is the health of the state."
Many anarchists participate in subversive organizations as a means to undermine the Establishment, such as Food Not Bombs, radical labor unions, alternative media, and radical social centers. This is in accordance with the anarchist concept of Dual Power: creating the structures for a new anti-authoritarian society in the shell of the old, hierarchical one.
Capitalism
Main article: Anarchism and capitalismMost anarchist traditions not only seek rejection of the state, but also of capitalism, which they perceive as authoritarian, coercive, and exploitative. For mutualists, this opposition does not include opposition to the product of labor or capital goods ("means of production") run by individuals, but only "usury", i.e. rent, interest, and profit from other's labor (profit being defined as labor not receiving its "full product" under the labor theory of value). Thus individualist anarchists, even those who are not anarcho-capitalist, support individual sovereignty, free trade, free competition, and private property, like in mutualism and homesteading.
Globalization
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The majority of anarchists oppose neoliberal globalization as an attempt to use coercion on a global scale, carried out through institutions such as the World Bank, World Trade Organization, G8 and World Economic Forum. Anarchist groups, such as Reclaim the Streets, were among the instigators of the so-called anti-globalization movement. The Carnival Against Capitalism on 18 June 1999 is generally regarded as the first of the major anti-globalization protests. Anarchists, such as the WOMBLES, often played a major role in planning, organising and participating in the subsequent protests. The protests tended to be organised on anarchist direct action principles with a general tolerance for a range of different activities ranging from those who engage in tactical frivolity to the black blocs.
Communism
While communism is proposed as a form of social and economic organisation by many anarchists, other anarchists consider it a danger to the liberty and free development of the individual. Individualist anarchists oppose communism in all its forms. Individualist such as Benjamin Tucker, Victor Yarros, and Henry Appleton have denied that anarcho-communism is a genuine form of anarchism. They rejected its strategies and argued that it is inherently authoritarian. The socialist Proudhon also opposed communism, "whether of the utopian or the Marxist variety, that it destroyed freedom by taking away from the individual control over his means of production." Anarchist communists reject the criticism, pointing to the principle of voluntary association that underpins the theory.
Gender
Main article: Anarcha-feminismAnarcha-feminism is a kind of radical feminism that espouses the belief that patriarchy is a fundamental problem in society. However, it was not explicitly formulated as anarcha-feminism until early 1970s, during the second-wave feminist movement. Anarcha-feminism views patriarchy as the first manifestation of hierarchy in human history; thus, the first form of oppression occurred in the dominance of male over female.
Race
Main article: AntifaBlack anarchism opposes the existence of a state, capitalism, and subjugation and domination of people of colour, and favours a non-hierarchical organization of society. Theorists include Ashanti Alston, Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, and Sam Mbah.
Since the late 1970s some anarchists have been involved in fighting the rise of neo-fascist groups. In Germany and Great Britain some anarchists worked within militant anti-fascist groups alongside members of the Marxist left. They advocated directly combating fascists with physical force rather than relying on the state. Since the late 1990s, a similar tendency has developed within US anarchism.
The environment
See also: Green anarchism, Eco-anarchism, Social ecology, Anarcho-primitivism, Ecofeminism, and Green syndicalismThe environment and sustainability have been an issue for anarchists from at least as far back as Kropotkin's 'Fields, Factories and Workshops, but since the late 1970s anarchists in Anglosphere and European countries have been agitating for the natural environment. Eco-anarchists or green anarchists believe in deep ecology. This is a worldview that embraces biodiversity and sustainability. Eco-anarchists often use direct action against what they see as earth-destroying institutions. Of particular importance is the Earth First! movement, that takes action such as tree sitting. The more militant Earth Liberation Front, which grew out of Earth First!, also has connections with the anarchist movement. Another important component is ecofeminism, which sees the domination of nature as a metaphor for the domination of women.
Anarcho-Primitivism is a predominantly Western philosophy that advocates a return to a pre-industrial and usually pre-agricultural society. It develops a critique of industrial civilization. In this critique technology and development have alienated people from the natural world. This philosophy develops themes present in the political action of the Luddites and the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Some primitivists advocate a complete process of 'rewilding' and a return to nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles while others only wish to see an end to industrial society and do not oppose domestication or agriculture. Key theorists in the former category include Derrick Jensen and John Zerzan while the 'Unabomber' Theodore Kaczynski belongs in the latter. Today there is much conflict between primitivists and followers of more traditional forms of class struggle anarchism, such as the social ecology of Murray Bookchin.
Religion
Main articles: Anarchism and religion, Buddhist anarchism, Christian anarchism, and Islam and anarchismFrom Proudhon and Bakunin to the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists, Anarchists have traditionally been skeptical about and opposed to organized religion, believing that most organized religions are hierarchical in nature and, more often than not, aligned with contemporary power structures like state and capital. Nonetheless, there are those who reconcile anarchism with religion.
Christian anarchists believe that there is no higher authority than God, and oppose earthly authority such as government and established churches. They believe that Jesus' teachings and the practice of the early church were clearly anarchistic, but were corrupted when "Christianity" was declared the official religion of Rome. Though he did not call himself an anarchist because he applied the term to those who wanted to change society through violence, Leo Tolstoy is considered to be the most famous Christian anarchist whose 'The Kingdom of God Is Within You' is considered a key christian anarchist text. The Catholic Worker Movement is a modern Christian anarchist organisation.
Chinese anarchism was most influential in the 1920s. Strands of Chinese anarchism included Taixu's Buddhist anarchism which was influenced by Tolstoy and the well-field system. Har Dayal, influenced by Buddhism and Swami Dayananda Saraswati, founder of Arya Samaj, saw anarchism as a way of propagating the ancient culture of the Aryan Race. .
Recent Developments within Anarchism
Anarchism generates many eclectic and syncretic philosophies and movements. Since the Western social ferment in the 1960's and 1970's a number of new movements and schools have appeared. Most of these stances are limited to even smaller numbers than the schools and movements listed above.
- Especifismo - Especifismo emerged out of nearly 50 years of anarchist experiences in South America starting with the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU), founded in 1956 by anarchists who saw the need for an organization which was specifically anarchist. It has been summmarised as;
"The need for specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and praxis. The use of the specifically anarchist organization to theorize and develop strategic political and organizing work. Active involvement in and building of autonomous and popular social movements, which is described as the process of "social insertion." Other organisations that hold to Especifismo include Federação Anarquista Gaúcha (FAG), the Federação Anarquista Cabocla (FACA), and the Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro (FARJ) (all in Brazil), and the Argentinean organization Auca (Rebel). Especifismo is considered to have come to broadly similar conclusions to the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) leading to the argument that it is properly considered a new form of Platformism
- Post-left anarchy - Post-left anarchy seeks to distance itself from the traditional "left" - communists, socialists, social democrats, etc. - and to escape the confines of ideology in general. Post-leftists argue that anarchism has been weakened by its long attachment to contrary "leftist" movements and single issue causes (anti-war, anti-nuclear, etc.). It calls for a synthesis of anarchist thought and a specifically anti-authoritarian revolutionary movement outside of the leftist milieu. Important groups and individuals associated with Post-left anarchy include: CrimethInc, the magazine Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed and its editor Jason McQuinn, Bob Black, Hakim Bey and others.
- Post-Anarchism - The term post-anarchism was originated by Saul Newman, first receiving popular attention in his book From Bakunin to Lacan to refer to a theoretical move towards a synthesis of classical anarchist theory and poststructuralist thought. Subsequent to Newman's use of the term, however, it has taken on a life of its own and a wide range of ideas including autonomism, post-left anarchy, situationism, post-colonialism and Zapatismo. By its very nature post-anarchism rejects the idea that it should be a coherent set of doctrines and beliefs. As such it is difficult, if not impossible, to state with any degree of certainty who should or should not be grouped under the rubric. Nonetheless key thinkers associated with post-anarchism include Saul Newman, Todd May, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.
- Insurrectionary anarchism - Insurrectionary anarchism is a form of revolutionary anarchism critical of formal anarchist labor unions and federations. Insurrectionary anarchists advocate informal organization, including small affinity groups, carrying out acts of resistance in various struggles, and mass organizations called base structures, which can include exploited individuals who are not anarchists. Proponents include Wolfi Landstreicher and Alfredo M. Bonanno, author of works including "Armed Joy" and "The Anarchist Tension". This tendency is represented in the US in magazines such as Willful Disobedience and Killing King Abacus.
- Small 'a' anarchism - Small 'a' anarchism is a term used in two different, but not unconnected contexts. Dave Neal posited the term in opposition to big 'A' Anarchism in the article Anarchism: Ideology or Methodology?. While big 'A' Anarchism referred to ideological Anarchists, small 'a' anarchism was applied to their methodological counterparts; those who viewed anarchism as "a way of acting, or a historical tendency against illegitimate authority." As an anti-ideological position, small 'a' anarchism shares some similarities with post-left anarchy. David Graeber and Andrej Grubacic offer an alternative use of the term, applying it to groups and movements organising according to or acting in a manner consistent with anarchist principles of decentralisation, voluntary association, mutual aid, the network model, and crucially, "the rejection of any idea that the end justifies the means, let alone that the business of a revolutionary is to seize state power and then begin imposing one's vision at the point of a gun."
Criticisms of anarchism
Main article: Criticisms of anarchismThe theory and practice of anarchism has been controversial since it came to prominence in the 19th century. Some of the criticisms made of anarchism come from the interests it opposes, such as governments. Other criticisms have been made internally of other anarchists or by political movements that appear to share similar goals, such as Marxism. Many question the idealist nature of anarchism, and have misgivings about its practical application in the real world. Some point to anarchism's inability to establish a viable anti-state. Some social scientists note that hierarchies appear to be synonymous with human civilization, although others note that many indigenous societies have been largely egalitarian.
Cultural phenomena
The kind of anarchism that is most easily encountered in popular culture is represented by well-known figures who publicly identify themselves as anarchists. The following figures are examples of prominent publicly self-avowed anarchists:
- the MIT professor of linguistics Noam Chomsky
- the social historian Howard Zinn
- author Edward Abbey
- author and speaker Murray Bookchin
- author and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson
- graphic novelist Alan Moore
- UFC fighter and champion Jeff Monson
- feminist, author and critic Germaine Greer
- Hans Alfredson, actor, film director, writer and comedian.
In Denmark, the Freetown Christiania was created in downtown Copenhagen. The housing and employment crisis in most of Western Europe led to the formation of communes and squatter movements like the one still thriving in Barcelona, in Catalonia. Although not always explicitly anarchist, militant resistance to neo-Nazi groups in places like Germany, and the uprisings of autonomous Marxism, situationist, and Autonomist groups in France and Italy also helped to give popularity to anti-authoritarian, non-capitalist ideas.
In various musical styles, anarchism rose in popularity. Most famous for the linking of anarchist ideas and music has been punk rock, although in the modern age, hip hop, and folk music are also becoming important mediums for the spreading of the anarchist message. In the UK this was associated with the punk movement; the band Crass are celebrated for their anarchist and pacifist ideas, while Chumbawamba are the arguably the best known UK anarchist band, having made some inroads into the realms of 'popular chart music'. For further details, see anarcho-punk and list of anarchist musicians.
Recent technological developments have made the transmission of anarchist ideas accessable to a wider public. Many people use the Internet to form on-line communities. Intellectual property has been undermined to some extent and a gift-culture supported by sharing music files, collaborative software development, and free software (also called open-source software) has arisen. These cyber-communities include those that support GNU, Linux, Indymedia, and Wikis. Others use technology to remain anonymous, communicate securely using public key cryptography, and maintain financial privacy through digital currency. See also: Crypto-anarchism and Cypherpunk.
See also
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See also |
There are many concepts relevant to the topic of anarchism, this is a brief summary. There is also a more extensive list of anarchist concepts.
- individualist anarchism, anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-capitalism, mutualism, Christian anarchism, anarcha-feminism, green anarchism, nihilist anarchism, black anarchism, post-anarchism, post-left anarchism
- Libertarian socialism
- Anarchist symbolism
- List of anarchists
- List of anarchist organizations
- Major conflicts within anarchist thought
- Criticisms of anarchism
- Past and present anarchist communities
- Anarchism/historical
- Origins of anarchism
Historical events
- Paris Commune (1871)
- Haymarket Riot (1886)
- High Treason Incident (1910)
- Ukrainian Revolution (1918-1922) (see also The Free Territory)
- Kronstadt rebellion (1921)
- Amakasu Incident (1923)
- Sacco and Vanzetti trial (1927)
- Shinmin Free Province (1929-1931)
- Spanish Revolution (1936) (see also Anarchism in Spain)
- May 1968, France (1968)
- WTO Meeting in Seattle (1999)
- Argentine riots (2001)
Anarchism by region
Main article: Anarchism by country- Anarchism in Africa
- Anarchism in China
- Anarchism in France
- Anarchism in Hungary
- Anarchism in Greece
- Anarchism in Mexico
- Anarchism in Spain
- Anarchism in the United States
Anarchism by culture
- Anarchism in the English tradition
- Chinese anarchism
- Buddhist anarchism
- Islam and anarchism
- Jewish anarchism
- Russian anarchism
Books
Main article: List of anarchist books- Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State
- Emma Goldman, Anarchism & Other Essays
- Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property?
- Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism
- Murray Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State
- Max Stirner, The Ego And Its Own
- Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You
- John Zerzan, Future Primitive
Notes and references
- Some differentiate government from state: "A distinction that is relevant to the anarchist ideal is the difference between the government, referring to the state, and government, referring to the administration of a political system. Anarchists, like everyone, tend to use the word government as a synonym for state, but what is rejected by anarchism's a priori opposition to the state is not the concept of government as such but the idea of a sovereign order that claims and demand obedience, and if necessary the lives, of its subjects. Anarchism rejects the form of imposed, centralized authority enshrined and made material in the state." -Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, Reaktion Books 2004, p. 25-26
-
- Anarchism. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 29 August 2006 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9117285>. Anarchism is "a cluster of doctrines and attitudes centred on the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary."
- Anarchism. The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. P. 14 "Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable."
- Kropotkine, Petr Alekseevich. Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings, Courier Dover Publications, 2002, p.5
- R.B. Fowler (1972). "The Anarchist Tradition of Political Thought". Western Political Quarterly. 25 (4): 738–752. doi:10.2307/446800.
- Anarchism. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 31
- Esenwein, George Richard "Anarchist Ideology and the Working Class Movement in Spain, 1868-1898"
- ^ Peter Kropotkin, "Anarchism", from The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910.
- Anarchism, Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2006 (UK version) http://uk.encarta.msn.com © 1997-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved
- Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, London: Reaktion Books Ltd., 2004. pg. 85
- William Godwin Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, First published Sun Jan 16, 2000; substantive revision Sat May 20, 2006
- ^ Madison, Charles A. (1945). "Anarchism in the United States". Journal of the History of Ideas. 6 (1): 46–66. Cite error: The named reference "Madison" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- William Godwin, "An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice"
- Daniel Guerin, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970).
- Proudhon, Solution to the Social Problem, ed. H. Cohen (New York: Vanguard Press, 1927), p.45.
- Selected Writings, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
- ^ From Encyclopedia Britannica article "Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph" (2006)
- Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph The Philosophy of Poverty (1847)
- Greene, William B., "Communism versus Mutualism," Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic and Financial Fragments. (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1875)
- Dana, Charles A. Proudhon and his "Bank of the People" (1848).
- Tucker, Benjamin R., "On Picket Duty," Liberty (Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order)(1881-1908); Jan 5, 1889; 6, 10; APS Online pg. 1
- Cite error: The named reference
Woodcock
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Princetone University Press 1996 ISBN 0-691-04494-5, p.6
Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, Blackwell Publishing 1991 ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p.11 - Bakunin's associate, James Guillaume, put it this way in his essay, Ideas on Social Organization(1876):
When… production comes to outstrip consumption… veryone will draw what he needs from the abundant social reserve of commodities, without fear of depletion; and the moral sentiment which will be more highly developed among free and equal workers will prevent, or greatly reduce, abuse and waste.
- Bakunin, Mikhail; Statism and Anarchism:
They maintain that only a dictatorship — their dictatorship, of course — can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up.
- De l'être-humain mâle et femelle - Lettre à P.J. Proudhon par Joseph Déjacque (in French)
- ^ Graham, Robert Anarchism (Montreal: Black Rose Books 2005) ISBN 1-55164-251-4
- ^ Puente, Isaac "Libertarian Communism" (The Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review' #6 Orkney 1982)
- Miller. Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, Blackwell Publishing (1991) ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p. 12
- Important treatises on this theory include:
- Kropotkin, Peter Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, 1998 paperback, London: Freedom Press. ISBN 0-900384-36-0, also at Project Gutenburg
- Kropotkin, Peter The Conquest of Bread, first published 1892, also at Anarchy Archives
- Kropotkin, Peter Fields, Factories and Workshops, available at Anarchy Archives
- Bookchin, Murray Post Scarcity Anarchism (1971 and 2004) ISBN 1-904859-06-2.
- See the essay on utopianism in Post Scarcity Anarchism
- Durruti, Buenaventura "We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth, there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world, here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute." quoted on libcom.org
- Kropotkin, Peter. Words of a Rebel, p99.
- Kropotkin, Peter. The Conquest of Bread, p145.
- Kropotkin, Peter. Chapter 13 The Collectivist Wages System from The Conquest of Bread, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1906.
- The Place of Anarchism in the Evolution of Socialist Thought
- Kropotkin, Peter The Conquest Of Bread Chapter IV
- Kropotkin Act for yourselves. N.Walter and H. Becker, eds. (London: Freedom Press 1985)
- Kropotkin "The Conquest of Bread" op cit
- ^ Dielo Trouda group (2006) . Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft). Italy: FdCA. Retrieved 2006-10-24.
- Anarchosyndicalism by Rudolph Rocker retrieved 7 September 2006
- Heywood, Andrew, Key Concepts in Politics, Palgrave, ISBN 0-312-23381-7, 2000, p. 46
- ^ Leopold, David "Max Stirner", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2006 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2006/entries/max-stirner/>.
- "Emma Goldman: Chronology 1901-1919". Berkeley Digital Library. Retrieved 2006-05-30.
- Johnson, Ellwood. The Goodly Word: The Puritan Influence in America Literature, Clements Publishing, 2005, p. 138: "...a political theory that has usually been named 'anarchist individualism'...The theory, however, does not advocate anarchism in the sense, for example, of the destruction of institutions; its purpose is only description. Emersonian and Thoreauavian anarchism does not call for any specifiable program of rebellion or destruction of social institutions, but merely asserts one abiding truth..." Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, edited by Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, Alvin Saunders Johnson, 1937, p. 12: "The noblest and most eloquent statement of this essentially anarchist individualism came a generation later in Thoreau's essay on Civil Disobedience" Bool, Henry, Henry Bool's Apology for His Jeffersonian Anarchism, 1901: "I am a believer in the doctrines of the individualistic school of Anarchists, to which Garrison, Emerson, Proudhon, Thoreau, Spooner, Andrews, Warren and Tucker belong."
- Benjamin Tucker, "defense is a service like any other service; that it is labor both useful and desired, and therefore an economic commodity subject to the law of supply and demand; that in a free market this commodity would be furnished at the cost of production; that, competition prevailing, patronage would go to those who furnished the best article at the lowest price; that the production and sale of this commodity are now monopolized by the State; and that the State, like almost all monopolists, charges exorbitant prices" "Instead of a Book" (1893)
"Anarchism does not exclude prisons, officials, military, or other symbols of force. It merely demands that non-invasive men shall not be made the victims of such force. Anarchism is not the reign of love, but the reign of justice. It does not signify the abolition of force-symbols but the application of force to real invaders." Tucker, Benjamin. Liberty October 19 1891. - "When Warren and Proudhon, in prosecuting their search for justice to labor, came face to face with the obstacle of class monopolies, they saw that these monopolies rested upon Authority, and concluded that the thing to be done was, not to strengthen this Authority and thus make monopoly universal, but to utterly uproot Authority and give full sway to the opposite principle, Liberty, by making competition, the antithesis of monopoly, universal." Tucker, Benjamin State Socialism and Anarchism (Liberty 10 March 1888)
- "Anarchism is a word without meaning, unless it includes the liberty of the individual to control his product or whatever his product has brought him through exchange in a free market - that is, private property. Whoever denies private property is of necessity an Archist." "ANARCHISM AND PROPERTY", by Benjamin Tucker in "The New Freewoman", November 15 1913
- Tucker, Benjamin. Labor and Its Pay, from Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin T. Tucker
- " carrying on business for themselves or from assuming relations between themselves as employer and employee if they prefer." Tucker, Benjamin. Liberty or Authority
- Spooner, Lysander. The Law of Intellectual Property
- Watner, Carl. Spooner Vs. Liberty in The Libertarian Forum. March 1975. Volume VII, No 3. ISSN: 0047-4517. pp. 5-6.
- Such accounts specifying anarcho-capitalism as a form of individualist anarchism include:
- Alan and Trombley, Stephen (Eds.) Bullock, The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought, W. W. Norton & Company (1999), p. 30
- Outhwaite, William. The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought, Anarchism entry, p. 21, 2002.
- Bottomore, Tom. Dictionary of Marxist Thought, Anarchism entry, 1991.
- Barry, Norman. Modern Political Theory, 2000, Palgrave, p. 70
- Adams, Ian. Political Ideology Today, Manchester University Press (2002) ISBN 0719060206, p. 135
- Grant, Moyra. Key Ideas in Politics, Nelson Thomas 2003 ISBN 0-7487-7096-8, p. 91
- Heider, Ulrike. Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green, City Lights, 1994. p. 3.
- Ostergaard, Geoffrey. Resisting the Nation State - the anarchist and pacifist tradition, Anarchism As A Tradition of Political Thought. Peace Pledge Union Publications
- Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282
- Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, Reaktion Books, 2004, p. 39
- Tormey, Simon. Anti-Capitalism, One World, 2004. pp. 118-119
- Raico, Ralph. Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century, Ecole Polytechnique, Centre de Recherce en Epistemologie Appliquee, Unité associée au CNRS, 2004.
- Offer, John. Herbert Spencer: Critical Assessments, Routledge (UK) (2000), p. 243
- Levy, Carl. Anarchism. MS Encarta (UK).
- Heywood, Andrew. Politics: Second Edition, Palgrave (2002), p. 61
- Sylvan, Richard. Anarchism. A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, editors Goodin, Robert E. and Pettit, Philip. Blackwell Publishing, 1995, p.231
- Perlin, Terry M. Contemporary Anarchism. Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ 1979, p. 7 * DeLeon, David. The American as Anarchist: Reflections of Indigenous Radicalism, Chapter: The Beginning of Another Cycle, John Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 117
- Brown, Susan Love, The Free Market as Salvation from Government: The Anarcho-Capitalist View, Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture, edited by James G. Carrier, Berg/Oxford, 1997, p. 99
- Kearney, Richard. Continental Philosophy in the 20th Century, Routledge (UK) (2003), p. 336 * Sargent, Lyman Tower. Extremism in America: A Reader, NYU Press (1995), p. 11
- Dahl, Robert Alan. Democracy and Its Critics. Yale University Press (1991), p. 38
- Goodwin, Barbara. Using Political Ideas, Fourth Edition, John Wiley & Sons (1987), p. 137
- Sargent, Lyman Tower. Extremism in American: A Reader, NYU Press, 1995, p. 11
- DeLeon, David. The American as Anarchist: Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism. John Hopkins University Press, 1978, p. 127
- Rothbard, Murray. The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View
- Rothbard, Murray (1969) Confiscation and the Homestead Principle The Libertarian Forum Vol. I, No. VI (June 15 1969) Retrieved 5 August 2006
- Exclusive Interview With Murray Rothbard The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal (25 February 1972)
- Esenwein, George Richard "Anarchist Ideology and the Working Class Movement in Spain, 1868-1898"
- Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 6
- Quoted in Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 7
- "The best thing ordinary workingmen or women could do was to organise their industry to get rid of money altogether . . . Let them produce together, co-operatively rather than as employer and employed; let them fraternise group by group, let each use what he needs of his own product, and deposit the rest in the storage-houses, and let those others who need goods have them as occasion arises." Voltairine De Cleyre, "Why I Am an Anarchist"
- quoted by Max Nettlau, A Short History of Anarchism
- Johnston, Larry. Politics: An Introduction to the Modern Democratic State, Broadview Press (2001), pp. 146-147
- "Anarchism." Encyclopædia Britannica, from Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003 Ultimate Reference Suite CD-ROM. Copyright © 1994-2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. May 30 2002.
- Bakunin, Mikhail (1991) . Statism and Anarchy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36973-8.
- Resolutions from the St. Imier Congress, in Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas, Vol. 1, p.100
- Carley, Mark "Trade union membership 1993-2003" (International:SPIRE Associates 2004)
- "You can see quite well that behind all the democratic and socialistic phrases and promises in Marx’s program for the State lies all that constitutes the true despotic and brutal nature of all states, regardless of their form of government." Bakunin, Mikhail (1872) "On the International Workingmen's Association and Karl Marx" (Bakunin on Anarchy, translated and edited by Sam Dolgoff, 1971)
- Holbrow, Marnie "Daring but Divided" (Socialist Review Nov 2002)
- Berry, David "Fascism or Revolution" (Le Libertaire August, 1936)
- *Peacott, Joe, "Voting Anarchists: An Oxymoron or What?" BAD Broadside #8, Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade 1992
- Ward, Colin "The Case Against Voting", originally published in New Society 15 May 1987; reprinted in Freedom Vol 48 No 6 June 1987.
- Choose and Lose - The anarchist case against voting and electoralism infoshop.org
- Thinking about anarchism - Referendums Workers Solidarity No 69, published in March 2002 retrieved 7 September 2006
- Bakunin, "The Program of the International Brotherhood" (1869) and Malatesta, "Violence as a Social Factor" (1895).
- Albert, Michael Anarchism?!, Z Communications retrieved 6 September 2006
- War is the Health of the State
- Madison, Charles A. (1943). "Benjamin R. Tucker: Individualist and Anarchist". New England Quarterly. 16 (3): 444–467.
- Reclaim the Streets Donnacha DeLong, RTÉ News Online 2002 retrieved 5 September 2006
- The New Anarchists David Graeber, New Left Review 13, January-February 2002 retrieved 6 September 2006
- G8 Summit - J18: Global Carnival Against Corporate Tyranny, London, England C. L. Staten, EmergencyNet News journalist, writing for RTÉ's website in 2002 retrieved 5 September 2006
- WOMBLES wandering free Josie Appleton, spiked-politics, 2002 retrieved 5 September 2006
- Anarchism as a Scapegoat of the 21st century: violence, anarchism and anti-globalisation protests Thrall issue #21, 2001 retrieved 5 September 2006
- Communism and Anarchy by Peter Kropotkin
- For instance, Benjamin Tucker says, "Yes, genuine Anarchism is consistent Manchesterism, and Communistic or pseudo-Anarchism is inconsistent Manchesterism." (Tucker, Benjamin. Labor and Its Pay, from Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin T. Tucker); Victor Yarros says, "There is no logical justification, no rational explanation, and no scientific reasoning has been, is, will be, or can be advanced in defence of that unimaginable impossibility, Communistic Anarchism." (Yarros, Victor S. A Princely Paradox, Liberty, Vol 4. No. 19, Saturday, April 9, 1887, Whole Number 97) Henry Appleton says, "All Communism, under whatever guise, is the natural enemy of Anarchism, and a Communist sailing under the flag of Anarchism is as false a figure as could be invented." (Appleton, Henry. Anarchism, True and False, Liberty 2.24, no. 50, 6 September 1884, p. 4.) Clarence Lee Swartz says, ""One of the tests of any reform movement with regard to personal liberty is this: Will the movement prohibit or abolish private property? If it does, it is an enemy of liberty. For one of the most important criteria of freedom is the right to private property in the products of ones labor. State Socialists, Communists, Syndicalists and Communist-Anarchists deny private property." (Swartz, Clarence Lee. What is Mutualism?)
- Brooks, Frank H. (ed) (1994) The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908), Transaction Publishers, p.76
- From Encyclopedia Britannica article "Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph" (2006)
- Anarcho-Feminism - Two Statements - Who we are: An Anarcho-Feminist Manifesto
- Woodcock, George. Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements, Broadview Press, 2004, p. 185
- Ghadar Movement: Ideology, Organisation and Strategy, Harish K. Puri, Guru Nanak Dev University Press, Amritsar: "The only account of Hardayal's short stay in that island Martinique, comes from Bhai Parmanand, a self exiled Arya Samajist missionary from Lahore, who stayed a month with him there. Har Dayal used that time, says Parmanand, to discuss plans to found a new religion: his model was the Buddha. He ate mostly boiled grain, slept on the bare floor and spent his time in meditation in a secluded place. Guy Aldred, a famous English radical and friend, tells us of Hardayal's proclaimed belief at that time in the coming republic "which was to be a Church, a religious confraternity . . . its motto was to be: atheism, cosmopolitanism and moral law' Parmamand says that Har Dayal acceded to his persuasion to go to the USA and decided to make New York a centre for the propagation of the ancient culture of the Aryan Race." (page 55) and "the ideal social order would be the one which approximated to the legendary Vedic period of Indian history because, as Har Dayal affirmed, practical equality existed only in that society, where there were no governors and no governed, no priests and no laymen, no rich and no poor." (page 112]], referencing The Social Conquest of the Hindu Race and Meaning of Equality.
- NEFAC (2006) . Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization in South America. USA: NEFAC. Retrieved 2006-10-24.
- Anarchism, Or The Revolutionary Movement Of The Twenty-first Century by David Graeber and Andrej Grubacic
- "Something of an anarchist," War is the Health of the State: An Interview with Howard Zinn, 2003
External links
- "An Anarchist FAQ" version 11.7 at Infoshop.org - "An Anarchist FAQ" written by a group of social anarchists.
- "Anarchist Theory FAQ" - a FAQ written by anarcho-capitalist economics professor Bryan Caplan.
- Anarchy Archives extensively archives information relating to famous anarchists. This includes many of their books and other publications.
- 1,500+ anarchists listed, with short bios, links & dedicated pages at the Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia
- One of the largest on-line anarchist archives with over 4,000 articles, books and pamphlets