Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Politics: Non-Core Political Ideas > anarchism 1.1 core ideas and principles > Flashcards

anarchism 1.1 core ideas and principles Flashcards

1
Q

What is Anarchism based on?

A
  • based on freeing people from political domination and economic exploitation, ending the misuse of one person by another
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What is Anarchism’s goal?

A
  • anarchy, described as being without government, ‘statelessness’, complete freedom and equality
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What do anarchists believe about human nature?

A
  • essentially a positive view of human nature
  • at their core humans have universal qualities with potential for development but also for selfishness and corruption
  • human nature is seen as plastic and moulded by its environment = explains why the existing state and society is responsible for the selfish, anti-social, competitive traits that we see in humanity today
  • removal of the state and society will reveal true universal qualities and allow them to develop
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

How do collectivists see humans?

A
  • altruistic, solidaristic and co-operative
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

How do individualists see humans?

A
  • humans are self-interested, rational and competitive
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What do anarchists believe about the state?

A
  • defined by its rejection of the state
  • rejects all forms of government and government power, as well as authority based on hierarchy such as the church, capitalism and social relationships such as sexism
  • the state is unjustifiable as it is unjust, immoral, commanding, controlling and corrupting
  • rejection of the state is necessary for liberty
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What do individualists think liberty is?

A
  • ability to be autonomous and explore your individuality to the full
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What do collectivists see liberty as?

A
  • liberty must include equality to allow people to be altruistic and co-operative, and to allow solidarity to flourish
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What do anarchists believe about society?

A
  • anarchy is order = future society is peaceful, stable and stateless
  • society will be based on liberty and economic freedom
  • argument is often attacked as utopian, anarchists argue that order occurs naturally and spontaneously
  • no clear blueprint for an anarchist society but is likely to include the principles of direct democracy, decentralisation and the voluntary co-operation of free and equal individuals
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What do collectivists think about society?

A
  • humans universal qualities of altruism, solidarity and cooperation as the basis of natural order
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What do individualists believe about society?

A
  • the self-interested, rational and competitive qualities of human nature are key
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What do anarchists believe about the economy?

A
  • the economy should be a space where free individuals can manage their own affairs without state ownership or regulation, as the state supports exploitation
  • opposed to all existing economic systems and see them as a restriction on liberty
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What do collectivists anarchists think about the economy?

A
  • support collective ownership and mutual co-operation
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What do anarcho-capitalists think about the economy?

A
  • have endorsed private property and the competitive, free market
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What do mutualists try and do?

A
  • attempt to blend elements of collectivism with individualism
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What is the state?

A
  • a sovereign body that exerts total authority over all individuals and groups living within its defined geographical limits
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What is power?

A
  • the means or instruments - such as the law,the police and the use of ideology - by which the state and other social institutions secure their authority
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What did Emma Goldman describe the state as?

A

‘cold monster’, a sovereign body that exerts total authority over all individuals and groups living within its defined geographical limits

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What do anarchists see government as?

A
  • a system of rule, from monarchism to dictatorship to liberal democracy, which anarchists see as immoral because it restricts liberty
  • government is tyranny, and must be rejected
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What do anarchists believe about modern democracies?

A
  • the government rules by deceit, backed up by the threat of violence
  • there has never been a social contract into which individuals have freely entered, so the state always restricts liberty
  • the people are said to be sovereign and to rule, but they give away their power at the ballot box
  • if the people were sovereign, there would be no government and no governed, so the state would not exist
  • the vote is nothing more than a trick that hides the massive power of the state based on the police, banks and the army which it uses to secure authority
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What did Goldman say about voting?

A

‘if voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal’

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What is the anarchist view on authority?

A
  • the right of one person or institution to influence the behaviour of others - which is commanding, controlling and corrupting
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

What is autonomy?

A
  • a form of self-government involving a combination of freedom and responsibility, in which the individual is not subject to the will of the state or any other person
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

What does commanding mean to anarchists?

A
  • the state can force an individual to act in a way they would not have done voluntarily
  • forces the individual to suspend their reason and lose their autonomy, their freedom and responsibility to decide for themselves
  • autonomy is not possible under the state, so the state must be rejected to allow this core element of human nature
25
Q

What does controlling mean to anarchists?

A
  • authority exerts control over people, and stifles creativity and initiative
  • people lose their ability to understand their own individuality and to think for themselves
  • stops individuals being able to fully explore their nature and express themselves
  • Max Stirner took this thinking to the extreme by rejecting the authority of the state, the church, moral truths, family values and existing sexual morality
26
Q

What does corrupting mean to anarchists?

A
  • view political authority in any form as something that corrupts human nature for everyone
  • those with authority from politicians to church ministers and the police, are raised above others by power, privilege and wealth and lose all sense of their true nature, which is co-operative and altruistic
  • those who are subject to authority are brutalised by a state that creates social conflict through inequality and resolves disputes through violence and coercion, not through reason
27
Q

What is the most powerful anarchist criticism of the state?

A
  • it is unjust
28
Q

What do anarchists mean by the state is unjust?

A
  • the state is a relatively new creation in human history, emerging with the creation of private property, since then its role has been one of exploitation
29
Q

What do individualists think about the state?

A
  • the state is like a parasite that robs its citizens through taxation, backed up by the threat of force, nothing more than organised banditry
30
Q

What do collectivists think about the state?

A
  • the state develops as a body to protect private property and the inequalities between the wealthy and the masses
  • the state is controlled by the wealthy, who are willing to use mechanisms of the state to their fullest extent to protect their privilege
31
Q

How does the state protect the interests of the elite on the global stage?

A
  • in advanced industrial countries through organisations such as the World Bank, the IMF and the G20
32
Q

What is direct action or ‘propaganda by the deed’?

A
  • bukuninist approach involves using any form of direct action (non-payment of taxes, rents and debts, the mass strike or refusal of conscription to acts of violence) to stir up a revolution
  • examples: Zapatista uprising in Mexico in 1994 or the non-payment of the poll tax in the UK under Thatcher
33
Q

What are acts of violence to anarchists?

A
  • propaganda by the deed has become associated with acts of violence, and in particular with acts of terror
  • examples: Alexander Berkman’s attempt to murder the US businessman Henry Frick in 1892
34
Q

What is emerging revolution?

A
  • revolution will emerge out of a process of direct action and DIY politics that exposes and undermines the nature of the state
  • involves acting as if you are already free rather than trying to influence or change decisions of the government
  • actions will allow individuals to become autonomous and learn about the benefits of solidarity, mutual aid and collective action, creating a spirit of revolt
  • spread of ideas will reach a boiling point then explode into revolutionary action
35
Q

What is solidarity?

A
  • a relationship of sympathy, co-operation and harmony between people that anarchists believe means that they have no need to be regulated by the state (any regulation makes solidarity impossible)
36
Q

What is mutual aid?

A
  • the anarchist idea that the most successful species are those that employ solidarity and co-operation rather than individualistic competition
37
Q

What is creating new institutions?

A
  • Proudhon rejected any form of violence
  • thought that change could be won by the evolutionary process of creating new institutions, within the cracks of the current state, to replace the existing ones
  • could be done through education, instruction and peaceful action, as well as mutualist experiments, e.g. worker associations and People’s Bank
38
Q

Case Study: Reclaim the Streets

A
  • began in London
  • was an effort to take back the streets from cars and businesses and turn them into public spaces to be enjoyed by all
  • tactics were a mix of political protest and partying with music, costume and art
  • 1996 = nine hour party on the M41, there were two stilt walkers with RTS members hidden under their skirts that were drilling holes in the road to plant trees, the music covered the noise
39
Q

What is insurrection?

A
  • an egoistic, not a political or social act, that anarchists believe allows individuals to elevate themselves above the established institutions, leaving the establishment to decay and die
40
Q

What does liberty mean to anarchists?

A
  • includes the freedoms of both liberalism and socialism, blending their views about human nature
41
Q

Individualist anarchists and liberty

A
  • see human nature as rational, individualist and autonomous
  • authority is commanding, which means the individual cannot be autonomous in making decisions based on reason and conscience
  • authority is controlling, the individual cannot fully explore their individuality
  • liberty is the freedom to be autonomous and to explore one’s individuality to the full
42
Q

Collectivist anarchists and liberty

A
  • see humans as rational, but emphasise that human nature is altruistic and co-operative
  • unjust nature of the state means that the individual is not free to be altruistic and co-operative
  • liberty under capitalism is a cruel joke
  • the individual can only be free when all are free to realise their potential
  • liberty is only possible if there is equality
  • liberty is achieved by the overthrow of the class-based, hierarchical society
43
Q

What wouldn’t there be in an anarchist society?

A
  • no centralised body to impose its will on the people
  • no recognised hierarchical authority
  • no coercive machinery to impose laws
44
Q

What would there be in a new anarchist society?

A
  • decentralised federation of autonomous districts
  • based on the voluntary co-operation of free and equal individuals
  • decisions are made directly by the people in a form of self-government
  • order will occur naturally = it will be stable and peaceful
45
Q

What is mutualism?

A
  • a system of equitable exchange between self governing producers (organised individually or in association) and small-scale private property based on use or possession
46
Q

What do anarchists believe society was founded on?

A
  • on social conflict, to protect property and inequality while exploiting the masses
47
Q

What is Proudhon’s analysis of the political economy?

A
  • he calls private property ‘the right to own without the need to occupy’ = the ability to earn income without doing any productive work
  • the masses must work and be exploited or suffer starvation
48
Q

What do collectivist anarchists think about private property?

A
  • it is the root cause of exploitation
  • encourages selfishness,conflict and social disharmony
  • inequality promotes greed,envy and resentment
49
Q

What would collectivists replace private property with?

A
  • collective ownership or mutualism
  • would nurture the altruistic elements of human nature and create liberty, leading to natural order
50
Q

Anarcho-capitalists and private property

A
  • support an entirely free, competitive market which includes private property
  • state must be removed from the market
  • the market is always more effective than the state and will allow rational and self-interested individuals to make judgements in their own best interests, creating natural order
51
Q

What are collectivist objections on capitalism?

A
  • state intervention has followed policies of full employment, inclusive welfare and progressive taxation
  • capitalism is a system based on inequality and exploitation so liberty cannot exist
  • Neo-liberalism is seen as widening inequality and increasing exploitation, leading to anarchists role in the anti-globalisation and occupy movements
52
Q

What are collectivist objections on state socialism?

A
  • the state has merely replaced the ruling elite as the exploiting power, so there is no liberty
53
Q

What are anarcho-capitalist objections on capitalism?

A
  • state intervention in the economy distorts the market and creates both public and private monopolies that restrict competition and choice, therefore restricts liberty
54
Q

What are anarcho-capitalist objections on state socialism?

A
  • state socialism based on state planning and ownership of production is an attack on property rights and liberty
55
Q

What is utopianism?

A
  • a form of political thinking that constructs a model of an idealised future society in order to develop a critical analysis of existing society
56
Q

What anarchists have defended utopian thinking?

A
  • Kropotkin
57
Q

What is an anarchist response to the criticism = anarchism has been a historical failure as no anarchist society has been created so in this sense it is unachievable?

A
  • no ideal socialist or liberal society has been achieved either
  • Kropotkin would also argue that his philosophy is ‘scientific’ based on natural laws that show that the struggle for survival in nature is collective, and only the most co-operative will prosper
58
Q

What is an anarchist response to the criticism = anarchism is unrealistic as its view of human nature is wrong and natural order will not happen

A
  • anarchism is based on a realistic understanding of human potential
  • humans have shown their altruism in forming organisations without authority

Politics: Non-Core Political Ideas (3 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions