The Routledge Dictionary of Politics, Third Edition
Anarchism is a political theory based on two propositions: that society does not need government, and that no government is legitimate unless truly, and in detail, consented to by the individuals governed. Its history is long and confused, and the other political attitudes held by anarchists have ranged from far right to far left in the political spectrum. The common denominator of anarchists is an alienation from the existing structures of government and society.
The earliest serious anarchist thinkers were 19th-century writers such as Proudhon (1809–65) and the French theoreticians of syndicalism, who began to develop ideas about founding a society without government. How-ever, anarchist elements can be found in many social theorists. One good example is Marx, whose doctrine that the state will ‘wither away’ under communism has clear affinities with anarchist goals.
Theoretically, anarchism rests on the moral assumption that freedom is an absolute value and that no one should ever be obliged to obey authority without having freely consented to do so.
Empirically it rests on a set of assumptions about the possibility of organizing genuine voluntary associations dedicated to co-operative work and mutual aid. These assumptions seem more plausible where no great degree of industrial sophistication is involved, and there has often been a rather idealistic aura of peaceful rurality about anarchist theories.
Despite this there are important connections between anarchist theory and the more general theories recommending direct democracy and industrial democracy. The sort of commitments to extreme egalitarianism and total liberty that characterize anarchism have been taken over by radical socialist and Marxist groups, or, in more moderate versions, by exponents of industrial democracy. Anarchism of a form has had a re-birth at the beginning of the 21st century as political activists in many Western countries have begun to demonstrate against globalization and capitalism, often using violent means. Much of the opposition is clearly anarchist in that it does not urge the creation of some rival, perhaps a socialist, economic system, but concentrates entirely negatively on attacking the existing forms. Anarchist groups have been prominent among those involved in sometimes violent protests during several international meetings of government leaders.
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