Anarchy

For other uses, see Anarchy (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Anarchism.

Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy.^[1] Anarchy was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government".^[2] Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted anarchy and anarchist in his 1840 treatise What Is Property? to refer to anarchism,^[3][4] a new political philosophy and social movement that advocates stateless societies based on free and voluntary associations. Anarchists seek a system based on the abolition of all coercive hierarchy, in particular the state, and many advocate for the creation of a system of direct democracy, worker cooperatives or privatization.^[5][6]

In practical terms, anarchy can refer to the curtailment or abolition of traditional forms of government and institutions. It can also designate a nation or any inhabited place that has no system of government or central rule. Anarchy is primarily advocated by individual anarchists who propose replacing government with voluntary institutions. These institutions or free associations are generally modeled on nature since they can represent concepts such as community and economic self-reliance, interdependence, or individualism. Although anarchy is often negatively used as a synonym of chaos or societal collapse or anomie, this is not the meaning that anarchists attribute to anarchy, a society without hierarchies.^[1] Proudhon wrote that anarchy is "Not the Daughter But the Mother of Order."^[7]

Etymology

 

Circle-A anarchist symbol

Anarchy comes from the Latin word anarchia, which came from the Greek word anarchos ("having no ruler"), with an- (“not” or “without”) + archos ("ruler") literally meaning "without [a] ruler".^[2] The circle-A anarchist symbol is a monogram that consists of the capital letter A surrounded by the capital letter O. The letter A is derived from the first letter of anarchy or anarchism in most European languages and is the same in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts. The O stands for order and together they stand for "society seeks order in anarchy" (French: la société cherche l'ordre dans l'anarchie),^[3] a phrase written by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book What Is Property?^[4]

Overview

Anthropology

See also: Acephalous society and Primitive communism

Although most known societies are characterized by the presence of hierarchy or the state, anthropologists have studied many egalitarian stateless societies, including most nomadic hunter-gatherer societies^[8][9] and horticultural societies such as the Semai and the Piaroa. Many of these societies can be considered to be anarchic in the sense that they explicitly reject the idea of centralized political authority.^[10]

 

Hunter-gatherers are considered to be living in an anarchistic society.

The egalitarianism typical of human hunter-gatherers is interesting when viewed in an evolutionary context. One of humanity's two closest primate relatives, the chimpanzee, is anything but egalitarian, forming hierarchies that are dominated by alpha males. So great is the contrast with human hunter-gatherers that it is widely argued by palaeoanthropologists that resistance to being dominated was a key factor driving the development of human consciousness, language, kinship and social organization.^[11][12][13]

In Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, anarchist anthropologist David Graeber attempted to outline areas of research that intellectuals might explore in creating a cohesive body of anarchist social theory. Graeber posited that anthropology is "particularly well positioned" as an academic discipline that can look at the gamut of human societies and organizations to study, analyze and catalog alternative social and economic structures around the world, and most importantly, present these alternatives to the world.^[14]

In Society Against the State, Pierre Clastres examined stateless societies where certain cultural practices and attitudes avert the development of hierarchy and the state. Clastres dismissed the notion that the state is the natural outcome of the evolution of human societies.^[15]

In The Art of Not Being Governed, James C. Scott studied Zomia, a vast stateless upland region on Southeast Asia. The hills of Zomia isolate it from the lowland states and create a refuge for people to escape to. Scott argues that the particular social and cultural characteristics of the hill people were adapted to escape capture by the lowland states and should not be viewed as relics of barbarism abandoned by civilization.^[16]

Peter Leeson examined a variety of institutions of private law enforcement developed in anarchic situations by eighteenth century pirates, preliterate tribesmen, and Californian prison gangs. These groups all adapted different methods of private law enforcement to meet their specific needs and the particulars of their anarchic situation.^[17]

Anarcho-primitivists base their critique of civilization partly on anthropological studies of nomadic hunter-gatherers, noting that the shift towards domestication has likely caused increases in disease, labor, inequality, warfare and psychological disorders.^[18][19][20] Authors such as John Zerzan have argued that negative stereotypes of primitive societies (e.g. that they are typically extremely violent or impoverished) are used to justify the values of modern industrial society and to move individuals further away from more natural and equitable conditions.^[21][22]

International relations

Main article: Anarchy (international relations)

In international relations, anarchy is "the absence of any authority superior to nation-states and capable of arbitrating their disputes and enforcing international law".^[23][24]

Political philosophy

Anarchism

Main article: Anarchism

As a political philosophy, anarchism advocates self-governed societies based on voluntary institutions. These are often described as stateless societies,^{[25][26][27][28][excessive citations]} although several authors have defined them more specifically as institutions based on non-hierarchical free associations.^{[29][30][31][32][excessive citations]} Anarchism holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, or harmful.^[33][34] While opposition to the state is central, it is a necessary but not sufficient condition.^[35][36][37] Anarchism also entails opposing authority or hierarchical organisation in the conduct of all human relations, including yet not limited to the state system.^{[30][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][excessive citations]}

Immanuel Kant

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant treated anarchy in his Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View as consisting of "Law and Freedom without Force". For Kant, anarchy falls short of being a true civil state because the law is only an "empty recommendation" if force is not included to make this law efficacious ("legitimation", etymologically fancifully from legem timere, i.e. "fearing the law").^[45] For there to be such a state, force must be included while law and freedom are maintained, a state which Kant calls a republic.^[46][47] Kant identified four kinds of government:

1. Law and freedom without force (anarchy)
2. Law and force without freedom (despotism)
3. Force without freedom and law (barbarism)
4. Force with freedom and law (republic)

Examples of state-collapse anarchy

See also: Failed states

English Civil War (1642–1651)

Main article: English Civil War

 

Mainland Europe experienced near-anarchy in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).

Anarchy was one of the issues at the Putney Debates of 1647:

Thomas Rainsborough: "I shall now be a little more free and open with you than I was before. I wish we were all true-hearted, and that we did all carry ourselves with integrity. If I did mistrust you I would not use such asseverations. I think it doth go on mistrust, and things are thought too readily matters of reflection, that were never intended. For my part, as I think, you forgot something that was in my speech, and you do not only yourselves believe that some men believe that the government is never correct, but you hate all men that believe that. And, sir, to say because a man pleads that every man hath a voice by right of nature, that therefore it destroys by the same argument all property – this is to forget the Law of God. That there's a property, the Law of God says it; else why hath God made that law, Thou shalt not steal? I am a poor man, therefore I must be oppressed: if I have no interest in the kingdom, I must suffer by all their laws be they right or wrong. Nay thus: a gentleman lives in a country and hath three or four lordships, as some men have (God knows how they got them); and when a Parliament is called he must be a Parliament-man; and it may be he sees some poor men, they live near this man, he can crush them – I have known an invasion to make sure he hath turned the poor men out of doors; and I would fain know whether the potency of rich men do not this, and so keep them under the greatest tyranny that was ever thought of in the world. And therefore I think that to that it is fully answered: God hath set down that thing as to propriety with this law of his, Thou shalt not steal. And for my part I am against any such thought, and, as for yourselves, I wish you would not make the world believe that we are for anarchy."

Oliver Cromwell: "I know nothing but this, that they that are the most yielding have the greatest wisdom; but really, sir, this is not right as it should be. No man says that you have a mind to anarchy, but that the consequence of this rule tends to anarchy, must end in anarchy; for where is there any bound or limit set if you take away this limit, that men that have no interest but the interest of breathing shall have no voice in elections? Therefore, I am confident on’t, we should not be so hot one with another."^[48]

As people began to theorize about the English Civil War, anarchy came to be more sharply defined, albeit from differing political perspectives:

• 1651 – Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan) describes the natural condition of mankind as a war of all against all, where man lives a brutish existence: "For the savage people in many places of America, except the government of small families, the concord whereof dependeth on natural lust, have no government at all, and live at this day in that brutish manner".^[49] Hobbes finds three basic causes of the conflict in this state of nature, namely competition, diffidence and glory: "The first maketh men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation". His first law of nature is that "every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war". In the state of nature, "every man has a right to every thing, even to then go for one another's body", but the second law is that in order to secure the advantages of peace "that a man be willing, when others are so too ... to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himself". This is the beginning of contracts/covenants; performing of which is the third law of nature. Therefore, injustice is failure to perform in a covenant and all else is just.
• 1656 – James Harrington (The Commonwealth of Oceana) uses anarchy to describe a situation where the people use force to impose a government on an economic base composed of either solitary land ownership (absolute monarchy), or land in the ownership of a few (mixed monarchy). He distinguishes it from commonwealth, the situation when both land ownership and governance shared by the population at large, seeing it as a temporary situation arising from an imbalance between the form of government and the form of property relations.

French Revolution (1789–1799)

Main articles: French Revolution and Reign of Terror

 

Heads of aristocrats on spikes

Thomas Carlyle, Scottish essayist of the Victorian era known foremost for his widely influential work of history, The French Revolution, wrote that the French Revolution was a war against both aristocracy and anarchy:

Meanwhile, we will hate Anarchy as Death, which it is; and the things worse than Anarchy shall be hated more! Surely Peace alone is fruitful. Anarchy is destruction: a burning up, say, of Shams and Insupportabilities; but which leaves Vacancy behind. Know this also, that out of a world of Unwise nothing but an Unwisdom can be made. Arrange it, Constitution-build it, sift it through Ballot-Boxes as thou wilt, it is and remains an Unwisdom,-- the new prey of new quacks and unclean things, the latter end of it slightly better than the beginning. Who can bring a wise thing out of men unwise? Not one. And so Vacancy and general Abolition having come for this France, what can Anarchy do more? Let there be Order, were it under the Soldier's Sword; let there be Peace, that the bounty of the Heavens be not spilt; that what of Wisdom they do send us bring fruit in its season! – It remains to be seen how the quellers of Sansculottism were themselves quelled, and sacred right of Insurrection was blown away by gunpowder: wherewith this singular eventful History called French Revolution ends.^[50]

In 1789, Armand, duc d'Aiguillon came before the National Assembly and shared his views on the anarchy:

I may be permitted here to express my personal opinion. I shall no doubt not be accused of not loving liberty, but I know that not all movements of peoples lead to liberty. But I know that great anarchy quickly leads to great exhaustion and that despotism, which is a kind of rest, has almost always been the necessary result of great anarchy. It is therefore much more important than we think to end the disorder under which we suffer. If we can achieve this only through the use of force by authorities, then it would be thoughtless to keep refraining from using such force.^[51]

Armand was later exiled because he was viewed as being opposed to the revolution's violent tactics. Professor Chris Bossche commented on the role of anarchy in the revolution:

In The French Revolution, the narrative of increasing anarchy undermined the narrative in which the revolutionaries were striving to create a new social order by writing a constitution.^[52]

Jamaica (1720)

In 1720, Sir Nicholas Lawes, Governor of Jamaica, wrote to John Robinson, the Bishop of London:

As to the Englishmen that came as mechanics hither, very young and have now acquired good estates in Sugar Plantations and Indigo & co., of course they know no better than what maxims they learn in the Country. To be now short & plain Your Lordship will see that they have no maxims of Church and State but what are absolutely anarchical.

In the letter, Lawes goes on to complain that these "estated men now are like Jonah's gourd" and details the humble origins of the "creolians" largely lacking an education and flouting the rules of church and state. In particular, he cites their refusal to abide by the Deficiency Act which required slave owners to procure from England one white person for every 40 enslaved Africans, thereby hoping to expand their own estates and inhibit further English/Irish immigration. Lawes describes the government as being "anarchical, but nearest to any form of Aristocracy", further arguing: "Must the King's good subjects at home who are as capable to begin plantations, as their Fathers, and themselves were, be excluded from their Liberty of settling Plantations in this noble Island, for ever and the King and Nation at home be deprived of so much riches, to make a few upstart Gentlemen Princes?"^[53]

Albania (1997)

Main article: Albanian Civil War

In 1997, Albania fell into a state of anarchy,^[54][55] mainly due to the heavy losses of money caused by the collapse of pyramid firms. As a result of the societal collapse, heavily armed criminals roamed freely with near total impunity. There were often 3–4 gangs per city, especially in the south, where the police did not have sufficient resources to deal with gang-related crime.

Somalia (1991–2006)

Main article: History of Somalia (1991–2006)

 

Map of Somalia showing the major self-declared states and areas of factional control in 2006

Following the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia and the ensuing collapse of the central government, residents reverted to local forms of conflict resolution, either secular, traditional or Islamic law, with a provision for appeal of all sentences. The legal structure in the country was divided along three lines, namely civil law, religious law and customary law (xeer).^[56]

While Somalia's formal judicial system was largely destroyed after the fall of the Siad Barre regime, it was later gradually rebuilt and administered under different regional governments such as the autonomous Puntland and Somaliland macro-regions. In the case of the Transitional National Government and its successor the Transitional Federal Government, new interim judicial structures were formed through various international conferences. Despite some significant political differences between them, all of these administrations shared similar legal structures, much of which were predicated on the judicial systems of previous Somali administrations. These similarities in civil law included a charter which affirms the primacy of Muslim shari'a or religious law, although in practice shari'a is applied mainly to matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and civil issues. The charter assured the independence of the judiciary which in turn was protected by a judicial committee; a three-tier judicial system including a supreme court, a court of appeals and courts of first instance (either divided between district and regional courts, or a single court per region); and the laws of the civilian government which were in effect prior to the military coup d'état that saw the Barre regime into power remain in forced until the laws are amended.^[57]

Economist Alex Tabarrok claimed that Somalia in its stateless period provided a "unique test of the theory of anarchy", in some aspects near of that espoused by anarcho-capitalists such as David D. Friedman and Murray Rothbard.^[58] Nonetheless, both anarchists and some anarcho-capitalists such as Walter Block argue that Somalia was not an anarchist society.^[59][60]

Anarchist movements

Main articles: List of anarchist movements by region and Anarchist law

Russian Civil War (1917–1922)

 

Nestor Makhno, the leader of the Makhnovshchina in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War in 1918

During the Russian Civil War which initially started as a confrontation between the Bolsheviks and monarchists, on the territory of today's Ukraine a new force emerged, namely the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine led by Nestor Makhno. The Ukrainian anarchists established the Makhnovshchina, an anarchist society committed to resisting state authority, whether capitalist or communist.^[61][62] This project was cut short by the consolidation of Bolshevik power. Makhno was described by anarchist theorist Emma Goldman as "an extraordinary figure" leading a revolutionary peasants' movement.^[63]

During 1918, most of Ukraine was controlled by the forces of the Central Powers which were unpopular among the people. In March 1918, the young anarchist Makhno's forces and allied anarchist and guerrilla groups won victories against German, Austrian and Ukrainian nationalist (the army of Symon Petlura) forces and units of the White Army, capturing a lot of German and Austro-Hungarian arms. These victories over much larger enemy forces established Makhno's reputation as a military tactician and became known as Batko ("Father") to his admirers.^[64]

Makhno called the Bolsheviks dictators and opposed the "Cheka [secret police] ... and similar compulsory authoritative and disciplinary institutions" and called for "[f]reedom of speech, press, assembly, unions and the like".^[65] The Bolsheviks accused the Makhnovists of imposing a formal government over the area they controlled and also said that Makhnovists used forced conscription, committed summary executions and had two military and counter-intelligence forces, namely the Razvedka and the Kommissiya Protivmakhnovskikh Del (patterned after the Cheka and the GRU).^[66] However, later historians have dismissed these claims as fraudulent propaganda.^[67]

Spain (1936)

Further information: Spanish Revolution of 1936

In 1936, the Spanish general Francisco Franco lead coup d'état aimed at overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic to establishing totalitarianism. At that time, the government of the Republic was in no position to stop the falangist coup. However, the first resistance to mobilize were anarchist trade unions which organized a general strike and created militias.^[68]

Given that power was in the hands of the trade unions, particularly the CNT, they began to establish anarchism in what was the Spanish Revolution of 1936. This was a social revolution as much as a political revolution. Throughout the war and shortly after, many Spanish working-class citizens lived in anarchist communities, many of which thrived during this time.

However, the government of the Spanish Republic and the Communist Party of Spain began to regain power through support from the Soviet Union. There was a divide between those that wanted to use the revolution as a force to undermine the Falangists by causing uprisings behind their lines and those that wanted to fight a traditional war using the government-controlled Popular Front.^[68] In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin and the Communist International (Comintern) which he led, was in favor of the popular front approach. Desperate to defeat the Falangists, who were getting support from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the government of the Spanish Republic and the Communist Party of Spain decided to seize back control from the anarchist unions and crush most of the revolution in what became known as the May Days of 1937.^[68]

Eventually, the popular front approach would not work, as the Nationalists won the war and set up a military dictatorship led by Franco, ending the last of the remaining anarchist communes.^[69]

Lists of ungoverned communities

Ungoverned communities

 

The entrance of Freetown Christiania, a Danish neighborhood which claims autonomy from local government controls

 

On June 8, 2020, the police-free Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone was established in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.

• Zomia, Southeast Asian highlands beyond control of governments
• Republic of Cospaia^[70] (1440–1826)
• Diggers (England; 1649–1651)
• Libertatia (late 17th century)
• Neutral Moresnet^[71] (26 June 1816 – 28 June 1919)
• Kowloon Walled City, a largely ungoverned squatter settlement from the mid-1940s until the early 1970s
• Drop City, the first rural hippie commune (Colorado; 1965–1977)
• Comunidades de Población en Resistencia (CPR), indigenous movement (Guatemala; 1988–present)
• Slab City, squatted RV desert community (California; 1965–present)
• Abahlali baseMjondolo, a South African social movement (2005–present)
• Ras Khamis
• Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (Seattle; 2020)^[72]

Anarchist communities

For a more comprehensive list, see List of anarchist communities.

Anarchists have been involved in a wide variety of communities. While there are only a few instances of mass society anarchies that have come about from explicitly anarchist revolutions, there are also examples of intentional communities founded by anarchists.

Intentional communities

• Utopia, Ohio (1847)
• Whiteway Colony (1898)
• Kibbutz (1909–present)
• Life and Labor Commune (1921)
• Freetown Christiania (26 September 1971–present)
• Trumbullplex (1993–present)

Mass societies

• Makhnovshchina (Ukraine; November 1918 – 1921)
• Revolutionary Catalonia (21 July 1936 – May 1939)
• Shinmin Prefecture (1929–1931)
• Federation of Neighborhood Councils-El Alto (Fejuve; 1979–present)
• Rebel Autonomous Zapatista Municipalities (MAREZ; 1994–present)
• Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (Rojava; 2012–present)

See also

• Anarchist feminism
• Anomie
• Criticisms of electoral politics
• Libertarian socialism
• List of anarchist organizations
• Outline of anarchism
• Power vacuum
• Unorganization

References

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2. "Anarchy". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
3. Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph (1840). Qu'est-ce que la propriété? ou Recherche sur le principe du Droit et du Gouvernement [What is ownership? or Research on the Principle of Law and Government] (in French) (1st ed.). Paris: Brocard. p. 235.
4. Proudhon, Piere-Joseph (1994). Kelley, Donald R.; Smith, Bonnie G. (eds.). Proudhon: What is Property?. Cambridge University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-521-40556-0. [S]ociety seeks order in anarchy.
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7. McElroy, Wendy (Winter 1998). (PDF). The Independent Review. II (3): 425. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
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9. Dahlberg, Frances (1975). Woman the Gatherer. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-02989-6.
10. Graeber, David (2004). (PDF). Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press. ISBN 0-9728196-4-9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 2008.
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13. Boehm, Christopher (2001). Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674028449.
14. Graeber, David (2004). Fragments of an anarchist anthropology (2nd pr. ed.). Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press. ISBN 978-0972819640.
15. Clastres, Pierre (1989). Society Against the State: Essays in Political Anthropology. Translated by Hurley, Robert; Stein, Abe. New York: Zone Books. ISBN 0-942299-01-9.
16. Scott, James (2010). The Art of Not Being Governed. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300169171.
17. Leeson, Peter (2014). "Pirates, Prisoners, and Preliterates: Anarchic Context and the Private Enforcement of Law" (PDF). European Journal of Law and Economics. 37 (3): 365–379. doi:10.1007/s10657-013-9424-x. S2CID 41552010.
18. Zerzan, John (2002). Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilization. Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-75-X.
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20. . Primitivism.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
21. Prieur, Ran. . Greenanarchy.org. Archived from the original on 2 October 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
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24. Eckstein, Arthur M.; et al. (8 September 2020). "Anarchy". Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
25. Woodcock, George. "Anarchism". The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [Anarchism], a social philosophy that rejects authoritarian government and maintains that voluntary institutions are best suited to express man's natural social tendencies.
26. "In a society developed on these lines, the voluntary associations which already now begin to cover all the fields of human activity would take a still greater extension so as to substitute themselves for the state in all its functions." Peter Kropotkin. "Anarchism" from the Encyclopædia Britannica 2012-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
27. Craig, Edward (29 November 2005). "Anarchism". The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-134-34408-6. Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable.
28. Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, London: Reaktion Books Ltd., 2004. p. 85
29. "as many anarchists have stressed, it is not government as such that they find objectionable, but the hierarchical forms of government associated with the nation state". Judith Suissa. Anarchism and Education: a Philosophical Perspective. Routledge. New York. 2006. p. 7
30. . International of Anarchist Federations. Archived from the original on 5 January 2012. The IAF–IFA fights for : the abolition of all forms of authority whether economical, political, social, religious, cultural or sexual.
31. "That is why Anarchy, when it works to destroy authority in all its aspects, when it demands the abrogation of laws and the abolition of the mechanism that serves to impose them, when it refuses all hierarchical organisation and preaches free agreement – at the same time strives to maintain and enlarge the precious kernel of social customs without which no human or animal society can exist." Peter Kropotkin. Anarchism: its philosophy and ideal 2012-03-18 at the Wayback Machine
32. "anarchists are opposed to irrational (e.g., illegitimate) authority, in other words, hierarchy – hierarchy being the institutionalisation of authority within a society." "B.1 Why are anarchists against authority and hierarchy?" 2012-06-15 at the Wayback Machine in An Anarchist FAQ
33. Malatesta, Errico. "Towards Anarchism". Man!. Los Angeles: International Group of San Francisco. OCLC 3930443. from the original on 7 November 2012. Agrell, Siri (14 May 2007). . The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 16 May 2007. Retrieved 14 April 2008. . Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 2006. Archived from the original on 14 December 2006. Retrieved 29 August 2006. "Anarchism". The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: 14. 2005. Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable. The following sources cite anarchism as a political philosophy: Mclaughlin, Paul (2007). Anarchism and Authority. Aldershot: Ashgate. p. 59. ISBN 978-0754661962. Johnston, R. (2000). The Dictionary of Human Geography. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers. p. 24. ISBN 0-631-20561-6.
34. Slevin, Carl. "Anarchism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Ed. Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan. Oxford University Press, 2003.
35. McLaughlin, Paul (2007). Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism. Ashgate. pp. 28–166. ISBN 9780754661962. "Anarchists do reject the state, as we will see. But to claim that this central aspect of anarchism is definitive is to sell anarchism short. ... [Opposition to the state] is (contrary to what many scholars believe) not definitive of anarchism."
36. Jun, Nathan (September 2009). "Anarchist Philosophy and Working Class Struggle: A Brief History and Commentary". WorkingUSA. 12 (3): 505–519. doi:10.1111/j.1743-4580.2009.00251.x. ISSN 1089-7011. "One common misconception, which has been rehearsed repeatedly by the few Anglo-American philosophers who have bothered to broach the topic ... is that anarchism can be defined solely in terms of opposition to states and governments" (p. 507).
37. Franks, Benjamin (August 2013). Freeden, Michael; Stears, Marc (eds.). "Anarchism". The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies. Oxford University Press: 385–404. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199585977.013.0001. "[M]any, questionably, regard anti-statism as the irremovable, universal principle at the core of anarchism. ... The fact that [anarchists and anarcho-capitalists] share a core concept of 'anti-statism', which is often advanced as ... a commonality between them ..., is insufficient to produce a shared identity ... because [they interpret] the concept of state-rejection ... differently despite the initial similarity in nomenclature" (pp. 386–388).
38. Murray Bookchin (1982). The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy. Palo Alto, California: Cheshire Books. p. 3. "My use of the word hierarchy in the subtitle of this work is meant to be provocative. There is a strong theoretical need to contrast hierarchy with the more widespread use of the words class and State; careless use of these terms can produce a dangerous simplification of social reality. To use the words hierarchy, class, and State interchangeably, as many social theorists do, is insidious and obscurantist. This practice, in the name of a "classless" or "libertarian" society, could easily conceal the existence of hierarchical relationships and a hierarchical sensibility, both of which-even in the absence of economic exploitation or political coercion-would serve to perpetuate unfreedom."
39. McLaughlin, Paul (2007). Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism. AshGate. p. 1. ISBN 9780754661962. Authority is defined in terms of the right to exercise social control (as explored in the "sociology of power") and the correlative duty to obey (as explored in the "philosophy of practical reason"). Anarchism is distinguished, philosophically, by its scepticism towards such moral relations – by its questioning of the claims made for such normative power – and, practically, by its challenge to those "authoritative" powers which cannot justify their claims and which are therefore deemed illegitimate or without moral foundation.
40. Emma Goldman. "What it Really Stands for Anarchy" in Anarchism and Other Essays. "Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals for the purpose of producing real social wealth; an order that will guarantee to every human being free access to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations."
41. Benjamin Tucker. Individual Liberty. Individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker defined anarchism as opposition to authority, as follows: "They found that they must turn either to the right or to the left, – follow either the path of Authority or the path of Liberty. Marx went one way; Warren and Proudhon the other. Thus were born State Socialism and Anarchism ... Authority, takes many shapes, but, broadly speaking, her enemies divide themselves into three classes: first, those who abhor her both as a means and as an end of progress, opposing her openly, avowedly, sincerely, consistently, universally; second, those who profess to believe in her as a means of progress, but who accept her only so far as they think she will subserve their own selfish interests, denying her and her blessings to the rest of the world; third, those who distrust her as a means of progress, believing in her only as an end to be obtained by first trampling upon, violating, and outraging her. These three phases of opposition to Liberty are met in almost every sphere of thought and human activity. representatives of the first are seen in the Catholic Church and the Russian autocracy; of the second, in the Protestant Church and the Manchester school of politics and political economy; of the third, in the atheism of Gambetta and the socialism of Karl Marx."
42. Ward, Colin (1966). . Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 1 March 2010.
43. Anarchist historian George Woodcock report of Mikhail Bakunin's anti-authoritarianism and shows opposition to both state and non-state forms of authority as follows: "All anarchists deny authority; many of them fight against it." (p. 9) ... Bakunin did not convert the League's central committee to his full program, but he did persuade them to accept a remarkably radical recommendation to the Berne Congress of September 1868, demanding economic equality and implicitly attacking authority in both Church and State."
44. Brown, L. Susan (2002). "Anarchism as a Political Philosophy of Existential Individualism: Implications for Feminism". The Politics of Individualism: Liberalism, Liberal Feminism and Anarchism. Black Rose Books Ltd. Publishing. p. 106.
45. Compare Harper, Douglas. "legitimate". Online Etymology Dictionary.
46. Kant, Immanuel (1798). "Grundzüge der Schilderung des Charakters der Menschengattung". In Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht. AA: VII, s.330.
47. Louden, Robert B., ed. (2006). Kant: Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Cambridge University Press. p. 235.
48. "The Putney Debates, The Forum at the Online Library of Liberty". Source: Sir William Clarke, Puritanism and Liberty, being the Army Debates (1647–9) from the Clarke Manuscripts with Supplementary Documents, selected and edited with an Introduction A.S.P. Woodhouse, foreword by A.D. Lindsay (University of Chicago Press, 1951).
49. . Oregonstate.edu. Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
50. Thomas Carlyle. The French Revolution.
51. . Justice.gc.ca. 2007-11-14. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
52. "Revolution in Search of Authority". Victorianweb.org. 2001-10-26. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
53. Jamaica: Description of the Principal Persons there (about 1720, Sir Nicholas Lawes, Governor) in Caribbeana Vol. III (1911), edited by Vere Langford Oliver
54. Pike, John. Albanian Civil War (1997). Global Security. These riots, and the state of anarchy which they caused, are known as the Albanian civil war of 1997
55. Raic, D. (25 September 2002). Statehood and the Law of Self-Determination. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 69. ISBN 90-411-1890-X. An example of a situation which features aspects of anarchy rather than civil war is the case of Albania after the outbreak of chaos in 1997.
56. Central Intelligence Agency (2011). "Somalia". The World Factbook. Langley, Virginia: Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
57. Le Sage, Andre (1 June 2005). (PDF). Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2009.
58. Tabarrok, Alex (21 April 2004). "Somalia and the theory of anarchy". Marginal Revolution. Retrieved 13 January 2008.
59. Knight, Alex R., III (7 October 2009). "The Truth About Somalia And Anarchy". Center for a Stateless Society. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
60. Block, Walter (Fall 1999). "Review Essay" (PDF). The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. 2 (3). Retrieved 28 January 2010. But if we define anarchy as places without governments, and we define governments as the agencies with a legal right to impose violence on their subjects, then whatever else occurred in Haiti, Sudan, and Somalia, it wasn't anarchy. For there were well-organized gangs (e.g., governments) in each of these places, demanding tribute, and fighting others who made similar impositions. Absence of government means absence of government, whether well established ones, or fly-by-nights.
61. Yekelchyk 2007, p 80.
62. Townshend, Charles; Bourne, John; Black, Jeremy (1997). The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820427-2.
63. Goldman, Emma (2003). My Disillusionment in Russia. Courier Dover Publications. p. 61. ISBN 0-486-43270-X.
64. Kantowicz, Edward R. (1999). The Rage of Nations. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 173. ISBN 0-8028-4455-3.
65. Declaration Of The Revolutionary Insurgent Army Of The Ukraine (Makhnovist). Peter Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist Movement (1918–1921), 1923. Black & Red, 1974
66. Footman, David. Civil War In Russia Frederick A.Praeger 1961, p287
67. Guerin, Daniel. Anarchism: Theory and Practice
68. Orwell, George (1938). Homage to Catalonia. Secker and Warburg. ISBN 9780141911717.
69. Dolgoff, Sam (1974). The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-management in the Spanish Revolution, 1936-1939. Black Rose Books Ltd. ISBN 9780919618206.
70. Milani, Giuseppe; Selvi, Giovanna (1996). Tra Rio e Riascolo: piccola storia del territorio libero di Cospaia [Between Rio and Riascolo: a short story of the free territory of Cospaia] (in Italian). Lama di San Giustino: Associazione genitori oggi. p. 18. OCLC 848645655.
71. Earle, Peter C. (4 August 2012). "Anarchy in the Aachen". Mises Institute. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
72. "How Seattle autonomous zone is dangerously defining leadership". The Hill. 13 June 2020.

External links

 

Look up anarchy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays
• On the Steppes of Central Asia, by Matt Stone. Online version of book, hosted by Anarchism.net.
• "Who Needs Government? Pirates, Collapsed States, and the Possibility of Anarchy", August 2007 issue of Cato Unbound focusing on Somali anarchy.
• , a list of essays hosted by royhalliday.home.mingspring.com.
• Anarchy Is Order. Principles, propositions and discussions for land and freedom.
• Brandon's Anarchy Page, classic essays and modern discussions. Online since 1994.
• Anarchism Collection from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress.