Anarchism - Strands

Question 1

Collectivist anarchism - Kropotkin

Answer 1

• Anarcho-communism and mutualism - man is a social animal, and are naturally empathetic and sociable; society is like the animal kingdom, and people are capable of self-government; mutualism and mutual aid are key aspects of human nature (people seek to help not compete) and it ensures solidarity and progress and this is best done by grouping people based on occupation as similar work = collective consciousness
• State is unnecessary when there is social solidarity, and if people are allowed to form their own communities they will create a self-governing and well ordered one - no need for laws to coerce, and labour rewards are equally divided
• Democracy - decisions reached collectively through natural democratic processes; this prevents tyranny of a majority and corrupt representatives
• Proudhon - mutualism - society is based upon the ties provided by economic cooperation - capitalism creates a competitive struggle and it is inevitable inequality will be created by the strong oppressing the weak
• Mutually beneficial societies ensures all are equal and economic outcomes ensure equality - capitalism is an unnatural construction of the ruling class and a false value on labour is created (similar to Marx) and so people are exploited and alienated and exchange value creates a web of exploitation
• No creation of a workers state - what is preferable is an arrangement of workers who are independent, not governed and use syndicalism (decentralised socialism)
• Trade unions own all the means and modes of production associated with them and trade would happen between these independent syndicates would take place on mutually beneficial terms whereby prices are based on effort not profit
• HOWEVER - too vague on outcome!

Question 2

Individualist anarchism - anarcho-capitalism

Answer 2

• Anarcho-capitalism (Rothbard and Friedan) - The worker is an individual economic unit, free to negotiate with other workers in cooperative ventures and and in mutual trade - found in the USA (state threatens natural economy)
• Reaction against the increasing involvement of western governments in the regulation of capitalism, associated with libertarianism and Nozick and the idea of a minarchist state - most laws abolished to create a free society
• Rothbard - it is a synthesis of classical liberalism’s small, minimalist state, individualist anarchism proposed by Spooner on the grounds of individual sovereignty being a reason to oppose the state and the Austrian school of economics which proposed a complete free market for goods, labour and finance with no government regulation
• Economic freedom is a fundamental value, but in every way is threatened by the power of the state - political and economic freedom cannot be separated - taxation was Rothbard’s main hatred, as we should be entitled to everything we earn - tax is institutionalised theft
• Pursuit of one’s own self interest was both natural to human nature and good for economic growth - capitalism relies on free competition between self-serving individuals giving incentives and dynamism
• Friedman - free market economics - people are economic, not social, animals with an innate sense of entitlement to anything in nature we have worked for, and private property is allowed as long as we freely enter this economic relation with others, and must be unregulated to be mutually beneficial
• State is the enemy of the individual - regulations prevent true outcomes of competition between rational people pursuing self-interests and as long as scarcity exists, self-interested activity will persist
• Free competition creates a balance of interests as disorder is prevented through people being interested in order and all state functions can be provided by market forces, individuals and private firms - as long as there is demand, there is supply - education, healthcare etc all come to being without needing a state
• Simplistic view of economics - world is a competitive place, which is normal due to scarcity and competition of social darwinism; free market is healthy because it creates incentives and promotes innovation and growth, with state interference not being justifiable as a denial of what is natural
• Trade unions, powerful monopolies and companies inhibit free competition, and all will dissolve in an anarcho-capitalist society

Question 3

Individualist anarchism - egoism

Answer 3

• Stirner; Europe - human nature is a focus on self-realisation at the expense of others and the ego is the main driver of the individual’s life aspirations (state threatens individual)
• We are rational creatures that understand our self interest but we are without morality and social morality constrains us from being fully liberated and we only cooperate for selfish reasons (egoist unions) - desire for complete autonomy
• Solipsism - any social intercourse threatens freedom and individuality and the state has to be abolished because of the threat to the autonomy of the individual
• Egoist unions develop a reputation for extreme violence and opposing any form of an organised society - revolutionaries cannot be moral as their intent is for speedy and total destruction and so have no sympathy for the world - they are a collection of individuals bound together by their common desire to serve their own interests
• Unions of egoism in nihilism = existentialists; see the meaning of our existence as the ability to impose our will upon the world and social ties are artificial constraints
• Egoists are pessimistic about human nature and the possibility of creating an anarchist community - hate the state, but no coherent idea of how to replace it or the economy
• Economic life - egoists see it as the accumulation of property and our drive to obtain possessions and retain them - Stirner asserts that our relationships with others are purely based on self-interest
• Nihilism - belief that individual liberty is a more powerful force than society or morality - mankind is fundamentally sociable and so a post-state society should consist of communes; naturally individualistic