Anarchism - Key Principles Flashcards
The origins of anarchism
Anarchism - means an absence of government, not a state of chaos - equality and no state
The four developments of anarchism
1) Philosophical - enlightenment; Jean Jacques Rosseau stated that mankind is born free everywhere but chains and established the principle of being born with a right to liberty which is constrained by society and government
Godwin suggested that a more perfect society without a state was feasible if individuals could reach their moral perfection through education - humans can be trusted to use their private judgement with no legal guidance
2) Communism - anarcho-communists insisted on immediate abolition of the state - although some difference in process existed, both ideologies believed that a stateless, self-governing communist society the best destination for humanity - Kropotkin (Key thinker 2)
3) Collectivist anarchism - industrial development and the plight of the working class, often being called socialism without a state - Bakunin (Thinker 3)
4) Individualist anarchism - Western strand, largely peaceful and naturalistic in the US and violent and egotistical in Europe - individual is urged to revolt against the state or withdraw from it to become a free, self-supporting individual - Stirner (key thinker 1) - hippy counter culture is one form of this, and anarcho-capitalism is the other (stateless society where free market rules)
Anarchism on human nature
State of nature, positive view of humans and private judgement - throughout history, the character of humans has been corrupted by the nature of the society in the state (government in particular); if the state and its corrupting effects can be removed, true form of human nature can be restored
3 main conclusions:
1) People are self-interested and egotistical and will only cooperate with other people if they believe it to benefit them
2) People are born without any basic nature - tabula rasa, and society writes out character, and human nature is environmentally determined - if society is moral, individuals are moral; a corrupt society creates corrupt individuals
- Bakunin - natural justice is our only natural instinct (we understand good and evil) but nothing compels us to act a certain way and it depends on our life experience
3) People are born good in that they are sociable and rational and we take into account the interests of others when making decisions - prefer altruism and selfishness and this implies that that we are naturally social and we prefer to live and work in groups cooperatively in natural groups than to compete as individuals
- An anarchist society is therefore possible, as we are capable of moral perfection and living in groups
Human nature according to anarchist thinkers
- Stirner - egoistical human nature - ego is a part of everyone, and everyone should follow the aim that they are entitled to everything on earth - but, people are not irrational, and instead they compare the value of what they deserve with the effect of pursuing this on others - as a result, unions of egoism are created, where individuals with similar aims come together in joint effort
- Individuals are sovereign and entitled to their own liberty - difference to liberalism is that anarchists stress no government can create this, and true freedom consists of individual liberty without resorting to laws
- Anarchists disagree on the type of reconciliation - Godwin argues people use private judgement and so do not infringe on the freedoms of others automatically, so laws are unnecessary; Kropotkin and communists state that mankind finds freedom through voluntary social groups as we are naturally sociable
- Anarcho-environmentalists - communal living and preservation of scarce resources and opposition to further industrialisation; Kropotkin asserts anarchy represents order and he believed in self-sufficiency and equality in small communities - made him popular with hippy communes
- Bakunin - the natural state for mankind to live in is communities and be mutually supportive and we are only free in these groups - close knit societies and individual liberty is not a contradiction because we all share the same morals and so a state is not needed
- Individualist anarchists argue that individual freedom can only flourish if there is no restriction or social constraint of any kind, with anarcho-capitalists insisting that complete economic freedom for individuals exists when there is no state whatsoever
- Freedom should never be sacrificed for an external state
Anarchist views on the state
- State is unnecessary - can be replaced by voluntary associations, small communes (Kropotkin) or large worker’s federations (Bakunin’s) - people choose freely to come together in cooperative units and preserve the freedom of individuals - state forces people into artificial political units and subjects them to laws that run counter to individual sovereignty (alternatives to state protect liberty
- State as evil - state should be resisted and destroyed either violently or peacefully; Bakunin claimed that those who command the state will be corrupted and others such as Proudhon claim to be governed is to be regulated by those who have no right to do this and all states are fundamentally the same
- Anti-clericalism - anti-religion; religion is just another way that people are oppressed and it is a nexus of authoritarianism
Anarchist views on the state - rejection of the states of other ideologies
- Opposition to a liberal state - by nature, we cannot give up sovereignty to a higher authority, even if it is done freely, and if one generation submits to government it should not be immediately assumed that other generations will want this
- Illusion of democracy - if voting had an impact on the state it would be abolished; by denying democracy, liberty is promoted even further
- Democracy is only suitable for the well informed who understand the interests of everyone, not just themselves
- Rejection of direct democracy as people would vote out of self-interest rather than the collective interests of the community - small independent and self-governing communities are the only place direct democracy is justified according to Kropotkin
- Bakunin - democracy is an illusion and a device used to shield the authoritarian nature of the state - individuals need economic, political and democratic equality - but those who wield economic power wield political power, and so without economic equality there is no political equality, and this can only be achieved via no state
- State as an unnatural construction - herds people into territory where they can fall under the power of government, and nations are the same; anarchists are internationalists who reject division in the world into artificial units such as countries, but accept division of culture and identity
- Anarchism and capitalism - most of the rejection of the state is a rejection of capitalism - modern state is an agent of capitalism, oppressing workers and promoting inequality and private property is a denial of freedom (those who own deny those who do not)
- It uses force by implication or overtly
Anarchism on society
- All anarchists wish for an ordered society or await its spontaneous emergence - capitalism creates disorder because it creates a revolutionary class that will automatically rise up against them - an oppressive state also always results in disorder as the oppressed rise up against it
- Order is freedom and security - best achieved through equality so that different parts of society do not conflict one another
- Individualist anarchists - individuals can cooperate in a mutually beneficial way if they are free
- Natural community - order cannot be artificially created, but must flow naturally from the nature of community and peaceful sentiments of those within it
- Private property threatens this, promoting inequality and social conflict as a result of this inequality - support common ownership and equal distribution of property as a result, illustrated by Bakunin (large-scale corporations)
- Malatesta and Kropotkin - smaller-scale communities are needed to avoid a rule of law being adopted - Jura communities in Switzerland who make watches have a common goal and are self-governing cooperatives when the workers share results of labour equally
- Anarcho-capitalists - the retention of capitalism but the abolition of the state - state functions could be carried out by other organisations and as long as there is demand for something it will be supplied, and an ordered society emerges because competing capitalism forces balance one another out
Anarchism on the economy - collective anarchism
Collectivism - abolish capitalism
- Economic inequality is the fundamental conflict in society - issue is that capitalism is self regulating, and free markets boom and slump as a system that endures and promotes wealth - but this is inequality is unacceptable and so a new economic order cannot be based on this
- Labour should be paid in its true value and goods exchanged on the work that went into - Proudhon
- Proudhon - mutualism / contractualism - replace capitalism with a system of exchange based on contracts entered into on a mutually beneficial, free basis and emphasised that peasants and workers should receive the true value of their labour and proposed a voucher system to indicate the real value of goods, based on labour input and a national bank to supply funds to independent workers and peasants; these funds were to replace the need to make profits
- Cooperation and communal living allows mankind could free itself from the strictures of being forced to compete for scarce resources - Bakunin saw no contradiction between economic freedom and collective ownership
Anarchism on the economy - individualist anarchism
Anarcho-capitalists / individualism - free capitalism from regulation by the state:
- Campaigned for the abolition of capitalism without expressing any particular preference for what would replace it - no one is free in capitalism and advocated a withdrawal of the individual from capitalism
- Instead of selling their labour to capitalist employers, people could obtain their freedom both from the state and economic system - all goods sold at a price which reflected the amount of labour gone into them - more people should be able to trade freely and fairly among themselves
- Not interacting with capitalism provides true economic freedom
- Rothbard and Friedman - free market capitalism should be able to flourish without a state and economic freedom exists when there is free competition and no external interference - inequality is natural and suppressing it is therefore unacceptable in a free society
- Theory of entitlement - humans retain anything they earn, and private property earned is justified
Anarchism on utopianism
- Positive view of the anarchist utopia - vision of an ideal society once state is abolished to be replaced by natural social order; for individualists, this is the abolition of the state, but collectivists propose this to be a replacement of capitalism with something better based on social aid, common ownership, mutualism and natural communities
- Anarcho-capitalists - a society without a state that balances competing interests and has natural economic competition which is unregulated and accumulation of property is a natural activity, and in a utopia capitalism is the best way to ensure everyone receives what they are entitled to as long as it is honestly obtained through their own labour
- Negative view of the anarchist utopia - conservatives argue they are too optimistic about human nature, private property is seen by liberals and conservatives to be a natural aspect of human society and is a fundamental right, socialists believe abolition of the state is incompatible with aims they hold in common (equality and common ownership) and without a state everything anarchists dislike will simply return, anarchism is unscientific as it is based on assumptions and generalisations about man and anarchists are not able to agree on what they want, and so there is no anarchist utopia
