History UsefulNotes / Anarchism

The view of anarchists on society is that most of its core problems are rooted in interpersonal relations and institutional structures based on unequal distributions of power (decision-making ability). In contrast to Marxists, who see the primary problem as being "exploitation" (in the economic sense) anarchists see the primary problem as ''domination'' (in the wider social sense), with domination itself stemming from social ''hierarchy''. It should be noted that anarchists use the word "hierarchy" in a very specific sense to mean power relations in which one party is subordinate to the will of another primarily to the higher party's benefit; ie: they aren't opposed to all systems which rank things one on top of the other, even though such systems are often referred to as hierarchies. They view the amount of freedom in a society as being in inverse proportion to the amount of hierarchical power.

So in addition to opposing the social hierarchies of the state and corporations, the also oppose the hierarchies of racism, sexism, queerphobia, ableism, speciesism, and the domination of the natural world for extractive purposes. Thus key components of anarchist theory and practice are anti-racism, feminism (and masculism when it's supportive of feminism), LGBT+ liberation,

Over the last century, anarchism has had a complex set of relationships with other philosophies too. Repression of much anarchist political and labour organising in the late 19th and early 20th century meant that a lot of anarchist thinkers ended up channeling their ideas into more intellectual pursuits. For instance, it had a large influence on the development of early Modernism, Dadaist art, and surrealism in the early years of the 20th century. In the later years of the same century it also blended with certain forms of postmodernism and poststructuralism to create a hybrid many started calling "post-anarchism". Though many anarchists, such as the ecological theorist Murray Bookchin, lambasted these developments as moving away from anarchism's roots in rationalism and support for the liberatory power of scientific realism. There's also something of an affinity between anarchism and American pragmatism, with both supporting a "whatever works" attitude to solving problems, with the writer US writer Paul Goodman inspiring many a student radical with his common sense, pragmatic approach to anarchism. Lately, there's been a drift in anarchist thinking towards the philosophy of Critical Realism (originally devised by Roy Bhaskar) - which is a sort of Middle-way between scientistic positivism and postmodernism. With the famous anarchist anthropologist David Graeber and literary critic Jesse Cohn using it to elucidate their theoretical work.

The Mutualist writer Kevin Carson took the basic economic ideas of Proudhon and the American individualist Benjamin Tucker and mixed them together with elements of several economic schools into a synthesis laid out in his book ''Studies in Mutualist Political Economy''. In it, he devised a new version of the labour theory of value (which incorporates aspects of the subjective theory of value) as well as offering a history of capitalism that tried to show that it was the state, not the market, that was the primary cause of most of the problems with capitalism. He also put forward a vicious critique of intellectual property laws, which he claimed are the way states and corporations centralise power today and create artificial scarcity where the Internet and new technology could in fact create abundance.

* ''Market Anarchists'' want a stateless free market economy made up of producer and consumer cooperatives and self-employed professionals instead of private corporations and wage-labour.
* ''Social Anarchists'' on the other hand want what could be called a "free commons"; in which systems of decentralised and localised planning of the economy (by directly-democratic popular assemblies and worker councils) replace traditional market relations.

Both of these in turn are sub-divided into four overall proposals for different economic systems, each associated primarily with a different anarchist "founding father",neither the first two being forms of market anarchism and the later two social anarchism:

''Market Anarchists'' want a stateless free market economy made up of producer and consumer cooperatives and self-employed professionals instead of private corporations and wage-labour. ''Social Anarchists'' on the other hand want what could be called a "free commons"; in which systems of decentralised and localised planning of the economy (by directly-democratic popular assemblies and worker councils) replace traditional market relations.

* ''Mutualist anarchism (Pierre-Joseph Proudhon)
* ''Individualist anarchism (Benjamin Tucker)
* ''Collectivist anarchism (Mikhail Bakunin)
* ''Communist anarchism (Peter Kropotkin)

And in addition to the systems of centralised power found in statism and capitalism, anarchists also support dissolving all forms of social hierarchy and domination (ie: rulership) - such as sexism, racism, queerphobia, ableism, speciesism, and the domination of nature - and restructuring society on a horizontal/decentralised basis.

Unlike Marxism, there's never really been a distinctly anarchist school of economics - in terms of a systematic analysis and critique of political economy - as most anarchists felt that Karl Marx's critique in ''Das Kapital'' was the definitive word on the subject. For this reason many anarchists, while opposing Marxist politics and sociology, still follow the Marxian school of economics when it comes to critiquing capitalism. Though they tend to do so with nuance, taking issue with many of its more economic/technologically determinist conclusions. Peter Kropotkin and others also rejected the labour theory of economic value, claiming that the question over what gives things value is so multi-faceted and complex that it can never be adequately quantified.

Unlike Marxism, there's never really been a distinctly anarchist school of economics - in terms of a systematic analysis and critique of political economy - as most anarchists felt that Karl Marx's critique in ''Das Kapital'' was the definitive word on the subject. For this reason many anarchists, while opposing Marxist politics and sociology, still follow the Marxian school of economics when it comes to critiquing capitalism. Though they tend to do so with nuance, taking issue with many of its more economic/technologically determinist conclusions. Peter Kropotkin and others also rejected the labour theory of economic value, claiming that the question over what gives things value is so multi-faceted and complex that it can never be adequately quantified. In the late 20th and early 21st century, a few anarchist thinkers attempted to develop economic ideas outside of Marxism.

Politically, most forms of anarchism support replacing the nation-state and representative democracy with a free federation of self-governing communities and direct democracy - mainly organised through local networks of participatory, face-to-face, neighborhood assemblies. They also support decentralising decision-making power down to the smallest and most localised scale possible, so as to ensure that the maximum number of people are able to shape the political and social policies that will affect them. There's actually some historical precedents for this kind of political system (polity), such as the leagues of free cities and guilds that existed in Europe during the Middle Ages which for a time looked like they could've represented a decentralised alternative to the then emergent nation-states, or the town hall democracy that existed in much of New England prior to American independence. Though most anarchists today would criticise these models for their religious basis, coercive moral norms, and their involuntary nature; and insist that all institutions in an anarchist society should be established on the basis of voluntary association, with the freedom to disassociate guaranteed to any individual or group taking part.

Anarchism is the belief that ''rulership'' as a whole (not just the state) should not exist (as indicated in its Greek roots, an- [no] -arkhos [ruler]) and that people should instead organize their social relations and institutions though voluntary cooperation without hierarchies of power. As such, what characterises anarchism is not anti-statism so much as anti-authoritarianism, this means that most anarchists would not welcome a reduction in state power if it meant an increase of other kinds of authoritarianism as a result - for example, privatising a Public Health Service may weaken the state, but increase the power of corporations, and so anarchists would probably oppose doing so. Though generally speaking, they don't support state or private management of things and instead push for voluntary, localised, and cooperative institutions organised from the bottom-up through decentralised networks and run via processes of participatory democracy and workplace self-management.

In terms of ethics, anarchists vary. While some adopt egoism and the belief that the only good is the satisfaction of the individual will, most proponents of social anarchism - the mainstream political tradition - gravitate towards ''consequentialist'' ethics, and support anarchism out of the belief that it would ensure the greatest freedom and well-being for the greatest number of people. Peter Kropotkin, an anarchist philosopher and scientist, devised an ethical system that started from an evolutionary basis, and blended elements of consequentialism with what would now be called ''virtue ethics''. What almost all anarchists would agree on however is that ethics should be constructed on an entirely secular basis, with religion playing no part in conceptions of what's good and evil. Some even reject the use of the word "morality", in the sense of an objective standard of good and evil, and think that ethics is a separate concept.

The words "anarchy" and "anarchism" arose in the mid-1600s during the English Civil War as an insult hurled at fringe radical groups. While this epithet for the most part had no basis in fact, two groups which were active at the time - the Diggers and the Ranters - had ideas and practices which were quite close to anarchism. Some view the English radical William Godwin as the first modern philosophical anarchist, from his work ''Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and Manners'' (1793) in which he espoused proto-anarchist views about the state and the then-emerging economic system of capitalism in England

And in addition to the systems of centralised power found in statism and capitalism, anarchists also support dissolving all forms of social hierarchy and domination - such as sexism, racism, queerphobia, ableism, speciesism, and the domination of nature (ie: "rulership") - and restructuring things on a horizontal/decentralised basis.

* ''Individual Autonomy'' - The sovereignty of the individual person and their freedom to do whatever the want as long as they're not harming anyone else.

* ''Participatory democracy'' - While some anarchists have criticised what's commonly ''called'' democracy (ie: representative government) they do however support decisions being made in a manner that is direct, participatory, and self-organised; this is actually closer to what the word democracy originally meant.

As a basic rule-of-thumb, political anarchism (dispute its internal differences) could be summed up in the following four principles:

Anarchism = Autonomy +'Cooperation.

For the remainder of this article, "capitalism" and "free market" will be used with these definitions. Therefore, a person can be both anti-capitalist and pro-market (i.e. arguing for a society of self-employed people interacting and exchanging on a purely voluntary basis; the mutualists and individualist anarchists share this position). This was in common with classical liberalism. On the other hand, someone can be pro-capitalist and anti-market by such definitions (arguably, Mussolini-style corporatism fits this). Hence, the anarchists from Proudhon on were opposed completely to what they called capitalism (i.e. the existence of wage labor) with only the so-called "anarcho-capitalists" supporting it. They find commonality however in opposing the coercive mechanisms of the state, though often for different reasons

Anarchism is the belief that ''rulership'' as a whole (not just the state) should not exist (as indicated in its Greek roots, an- [no] -arkhos [ruler]) and that people should instead organize their social relations and institutions though voluntary cooperation without hierarchies of power. As such, what characterises anarchism is not anti-statism so much as anti-authoritarianism, this means that most anarchists would not welcome a reduction in state power if it meant an increase of other kinds of authoritarianism as a result - for example, privatising a Public Health Service may weaken the state, but increase the power of corporations, and so anarchists would probably oppose doing so.

Anarchism is the belief that ''rulership'' as a whole (not just the state) should not exist (as indicated in its Greek roots, an- [no] -arkhos [ruler]) and that people should instead organize their social relations and institutions though voluntary cooperation without hierarchies of power.

Politically, most forms of anarchism support replacing the nation-state and representative democracy with a free federation of self-governing communities and direct democracy - mainly organised through local networks of participatory, face-to-face, neighborhood assemblies.

Anarchism is the belief that ''rulership'' as a whole (not just the state) should not exist (as indicated in its Greek roots, an- [no] -arkhos [ruler]) and that people should instead organize their social relations and institutions though voluntary cooperation without hierarchies of power. Politically, most forms of anarchism support replacing the nation-state and representative democracy with a free federation of self-governing communities and direct democracy - mainly organised through local networks of participatory, face-to-face, neighborhood assemblies.

Economically, anarchists oppose capitalism (with the exception of anarcho-capitalists) and instead advocate replacing private corporations and wage-labor as the primary forms of enterprise with self-employment, worker-run cooperatives, commons-based peer production, and other economic institutions organised on a horizontal, rather than hierarchical, basis. However, they are divided on what specific form a post-capitalist, post-statist economy should take, as well as the best means for achieving it - with some calling for the armed overthrow of the state and corporations, and others calling for a nonviolent "dual power" strategy in which federations of democratic cooperatives, popular assemblies, affinity groups, and other institutions work together to gradually replace hierarchical society by opting out of it.

-> ''"Anarchy is, and always has been, a romance. It is also clearly the only morally sensible way to run the world"''//