Basic Trope: With no rules, laws, or leaders to follow, society crumbles.
- Straight: Tropestan has no government, and therefore everyone looks out only for their own interests, even at the expense of others.
- Exaggerated:
- Tropestan is a Wretched Hive, always at war with itself, and everyone is destitute and perpetually in survival mode.
- Under the unspeakably cruel leadership of the Twelve Judges of Tropestan, societal stability was maintained at the expense of personal freedom. The second they announce that they have proposed a bill that would relinquish the control they have over peoples' lives, allowing them to live and do as they wish, the nation devolved into perpetual chaos, civil war, greed, selfishness, and destruction Faster Than Light, travelling backwards through time and tele-fragging itself several seconds prior to the decision having been made.
- Downplayed: Tropestan gets along more or less - however they can't coordinate well enough to keep infrastructure maintained.
- Justified:
- Tropestan was in a precarious situation beforehand.
- Hobbes Was Right
- Inverted:
- Although Tropestan has no political leaders or government offices, everyone comes together to help one another out.
- The Wretched Hive is so wretched because the government is Fascist, but Inefficient; its nominal enforcers are just a better-armed gang more interested in dealing with "political enemies" (anyone who has an idea to unite people and fix the mess) than maintaining order.
- Subverted:
- Tropestan has no formal government or political leaders, but a tribal-like tribunal or "moderators" and everyone has a say, and there are behavioral standards that must be adhered to.
- Or, with no formal government, the territory falls prey to foreign invasion from neighbors looking for valuable land and/or Balkanization as warlords and communities seek to instill order before total chaos can arise.
- Double Subverted:
- But then the informal leaders disagree amongst themselves, or the rules are not enforced effectively, or both, and chaos ensues.
- The informal leaders simply cannot maintain infrastructure, no matter how hard they try.
- Parodied:
- Anarchist characters will loudly proclaim their desire for chaos, acting on it in a ridiculously over the top manner.
- The 'anarchists' have no idea what real anarchy is.
- Zig Zagged: Tropestan's government collapses, and in the wake of it things appear to go well for a while, but then devolve into violent chaos.
- Averted: Tropestan has a fully-functional government.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "You can't drive without traffic laws! Think of the pedestrians!"
- Invoked:
- King Bob the Nth dies, leaving no heirs behind (and no one who really liked his ways anyway). The people have no leader until further notice.
- Not only does lack of government result in chaos, but anarchists explicitly want this, and will actively destroy/fight any order that emerges, whether or not it's oppressive.
- Exploited: Anarchist characters use this reputation to their advantage, such as by intimidating enemies with fake Ax-Crazy behavior.
- Defied: Someone steps up and does things to keep peace and order.
- Discussed: "What would the world be like with no religious or political leaders, everyone just doing what they want?"
- Conversed: "I don't know...I suppose it would depend on the people in a given society, and whether they pull together, or whether they look out only for themselves."
- Implied: The word anarchy is never used except in a negative context, or as a synonym for chaos.
- Deconstructed: The plot is set in a place where a government either does not exist, or has collapsed, exploring whether this anarchy must necessarily also equal chaos.
- Reconstructed: Anarchy does result in chaos, and the reasons why are shown (perhaps despite the efforts of real anarchists, who come off as well-intentioned but still misguided). Conversely, a plausible scenario for an orderly anarchy is presented.
Anarchy Is Chaos, friend, so it's in your best interest to return to the insurmountable domination of the main page.
