Ideologies - Anarchism

Question 1

Define: Anarchism

Answer 1

An ideology that is defined by the central belief that political authority (in all its forms), especially in the form of the state is both evil and unnecessary.
• Hence, advocates a stateless society based on non-hierarchical free associations. ‘No rule’.

Question 2

What are the core principles of anarchism?

Answer 2

~REJECTION OF THE STATE AND GOVERNMENT - prefer to live in a stateless society, due to criticisms of the state.

~OPTIMISTIC VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE - William Godwin: “Perfectibility is the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species”. Where humans are flawed, it is due to the corrupting influence of state power and exploitation (product of nurture not nature).

~PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF FREEDOM - especially in the negative sense, positive freedom can be argued to be an illusion.

~REJECT ORTHODOX FORMS OF REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY - viewed as a facade where voters surrender their personal autonomy and thus collude in their own oppression. Direct democracy is better.

~REVOLUTIONARY - as they seek a fundamental transformation of society.

Question 3

Define: autonomy

Answer 3

Literally self-government: the ability to control ones own personal destiny, free from external control or coercion.

Question 4

Why do anarchists view the state to be unnecessary and undesirable?

Answer 4

Unnecessary:

• their view on human nature (highly optimistic) leads them to conclude that humans do not need the state to maintain social order and harmony.
• The state as a coercive power body will pervert our capacity for spontaneous social order and harmony.

Undesirable

• the state is a sovereign power body which is untameable (liberals are deluded in thinking it can be ‘limited’).
• State is compulsory, we did not opt to live under it and cannot opt out.
• It is coercive in that it can impose laws and punishments upon individuals (even death penalty).
• It is exploitative, it’s taxation powers amount to legalised theft.
• It is destructive, it wages devastating wars against other states.

Question 5

Why do Anarchists object to constitutionalism and consent?

Answer 5

• Constitutionalism is the exercise of set rules and principles which limit the power of state and gov. Consent is the concept that the right to govern derives from the explicit agreement of the governed, via free/fair elections.
• Anarchists however believe that you cannot limit or legitimise the power of the state due to it being an absolute evil/untameable, hence object to constitutionalism and consent. This derives from the idea of a coercive, exploitative and destructive state.
• Both principled recruit people into colluding with their own oppression by concealing the reality of state power. From an anarchist view, all law negates liberty (hence no such thing as a limited gov or rule of law). And as we can never opt out of state rule, it is not a legitimate authority ruling in the public interest.

Question 6

What are the 2 major strands to anarchist thought?

Answer 6

1. Ultra-socialists: (collectivism) left wing, revolutionary utopian who are strong believers in human-goodness, and seek varying degrees of egalitarian society.
2. Ultra-liberals: (individualism) who often advocate free-market economics. Arguably 19C liberalism pushed to its logical extreme - libertarianism.

Question 7

Describe collectivist anarchism

Answer 7

• Collectivism is the belief that cooperative social action is both more ethical and more efficient than selfish individualism.
• Based in the optimistic belief that humans are social creatures with an innate tendency towards altruistic, cooperative and social behaviour. Therefore a peaceful and harmonious society can be achieved naturally and spontaneously, without the need for a coercive state.
~ Divided into anarcho-communism and anarcho-syndicalism.

Question 8

What is anarcho-communism?

Answer 8

Advocacy of small, egalitarian and directly democratic communes, based on common economic ownership with no state present.

Anarcho-communists envisage a radically decentralised society of self-governing communes which operate/interrelate on the basis of communitarianism and cooperation.

E.g. Peter Kropotkin

Question 9

What is anarcho-syndicalism?

Answer 9

A form of revolutionary trade unionism which, via general strike, would establish workers’ syndicates with no state.

Anarcho-syndicalists are more focused on the collective ownership of industry and the economy by revolutionary workers’ syndicates representing the various sectors of economy - without a coercive workers’ state at the top.

E.g. James Guillaume

Question 10

Describe individualist anarchism

Answer 10

• Individualism asserts the primacy of the rights and freedoms of every individual above any collective group. This implies the need to remove the state (sovereign and coercive, constrains individual freedoms).
• Views human nature as rational and self-interested, therefore individuals do not need a state to determine their own best interests, but can do it themselves.
~Divided into anarcho-capitalism and egoism.

Question 11

What is anarcho-capitalism?

Answer 11

Advocacy of a completely laissez-faire, private enterprise economy, with no state.

Anarcho-capitalism envisages an absolutely free market without any oppressive state taxation, regulation and interference. Other individualists support libertarian visions based upon non-exploitative market interaction (time stores).

E.g. Murray Rothbard

Question 12

What is egoism?

Answer 12

The belief that the rational individual is at the centre of his/her moral universe, with absolute personal autonomy and no need of a state (or any source of control).

The rationalism of human beings will be the best guarantee of social order in such a stateless society.

E.g. Max Stirner - points towards nihilism or a belief in nothing. Also points to atheism (religion is a means to enslave people by superstition) as the individual is at the centre of their moral universe.

Question 13

“Government is not the solution to the problem of order, but its cause” What does this quote mean?

Answer 13

• The government forced people to do things they do not want to do, e.g. Pay taxes or fight wars.
• Causes all ills in society, e.g. By not aiding the cycle of deprivation.
• All governments engage in immoral coercive actions, e.g. Iran-Contra.

Question 14

KEY ANARCHIST THINKER: Mikhail Bakunin

Answer 14

• Closely associated with Marxism, but critics Marx’s insistence that following a revolution, a ‘workers-state’ should be established.
• A dictatorship of the proletariat is still a dictatorship - wrecks the goals of a revolution.
• Supports anarcho-communism.

Question 15

KEY ANARCHIST THINKER: Peter Kropotkin

Answer 15

• Founder of ‘mutual aid’ concept.

* Humankind will naturally form small-scale cooperative communities, and mutual benefit will replace capitalism.

Question 16

KEY ANARCHIST THINKER: Pierre-Joseph Proudhorn

Answer 16

• Developed theory of mutualism as another vision of the stateless society.
• Believed in fair and equitable bargaining, trade and exchange without exploitation or profiteering - somewhere between collectivism and individualism.
• E.g. Allowed for small-scale property ownership and mutual cooperation.

Question 17

KEY ANARCHIST THINKER: Henry Thoreau

Answer 17

• Adapted Jefferson’s motto: ‘government is best which governs the least’ to ‘that government is best which governs not at all’.

Question 18

How are anarchist views of the state similar/different to fundamentalist socialist and liberal views?

Answer 18

• Both Anarchists and liberals oppose the excessive exercise of power and see the state as the actual potential enemy of freedom.
• However, liberals see the state as essential in the preservation of liberty (provided it is a limited, liberal state). It should protect individuals from each other, and form accumulations of power.
• Anarchists insist that all forms of state are unacceptable as it is inevitable that even limited states will exercise the power of the few over the many and become too powerful. Anarchists also reject all forms of power and force, even if the state claims that they are used for good ends.
• However, fundamentalists socialists see the state as a vital component in the realisation of socialists goals, especially during the ‘transitional phase’ to communism. They see welfare, equality, common ownership and collective action of all kinds as best organised by the centralised state - only way of ensuring universal equality.
• Both fundamentalist socialists and anarchists see the state as corrupt in the way it is now. Also both believe in the exercise of collectivism (which is not what the current form of state advocates) - not all socialists are anarchists, but all anarchists are socialists.

Question 19

Compare and contrast Anarchism with Marxism

Answer 19

• Clear similarities between the goals and end visions of collectivist anarchism and Marxism, however differ mostly on their view of the state.
• Marxism is a materialistic theory which focuses primarily on the economic infrastructure and perceived human progress resulting from economic conflict. The state is merely a reflection of the class system and the political agent of the economic ruling class, rather than being oppressive in its own right.
• For Marxism, the inevitability of gradualism must occur, a ‘transitional phase’ to communism which will eventually wither away. Society cannot be transformed by a quick eradication of the state.
• For Anarchists, the state is the primary target of attack. The idea of a temporary proletariat/workers state is unwarranted as it is still dictatorship which exercises coercive power. Anarchists will thus reject any form of state.
• Marxists (who share the anarchist goal of a stateless society) also point out that anarchists, although very good at condemning the state, are not very good at explaining it. If human nature is potentially so good and the state is so intrinsically evil, how and why did it come to exist in the first place?

Question 20

Compare and contrast Anarchism with Liberalism

Answer 20

• Both perceive individual freedom as a primary doctrine, as they have faith in the rationality of human nature and our capacity to exercise freedom responsibly, without any coercion or control.
• Individualist anarchist (extreme form of liberalism) view the state as a ‘realm of coercion’. Mill’s dictum: “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign”.
• Anarcho-capitalism is an extension of classical laissez faire liberalism. Max Stirner’s theory of egoism also shares with liberalism the belief that the individual should primarily be concerned with their own interest.
• However, all anarchists believe that humans cannot have freedom with a state, whilst liberals believe that humans cannot have freedom without a state. Anarchists see it as evil and oppressive whilst liberals believe it to be a ‘necessary evil’ to protect and enhance individual freedom (e.g. Via safeguarding law and order).
• Hence all anarchists are revolutionary, whereas liberals are at most reformists. Liberals would also largely reject the violent tactics employed by some anarchists.

Question 21

Are anarchists just extreme liberals?

Answer 21

• The roots of some anarchist thinking lies in classical liberalism, e.g. Human rationality and a fundamental desire for freedom.
• Both share the idea of laissez faire to ensure negative freedom.
• However, even CL advocated a ‘night watchman state’ to ensure order. ML have become more pro-state with the advocacy of positive freedom.
• No liberal, however extreme, would want the complete abolition of state and government. Anarchists and Liberals therefore have qualitatively different views about freedom and the role of state in protecting/threatening it.
• Moreover, there is a major school of collectivist anarchism which arose out of opposition to classical free-market liberalism itself.
• Anarchism therefore is not just extreme liberalism. It is a much more diverse, revolutionary and anti-constitutional theory than liberalism.

Question 23

Give examples of methods of political action and social transition that anarchists can participate in

Answer 23

• Peaceful education and persuasion
• Non-payment of taxes
• Propaganda
• Strikes/riots
• Boycotts of key institutions, products and companies
• Committing ‘acts of senseless beauty’
• Marches/demonstrations
• Acts of violence/terrorism
• Civil disobedience

**They cannot participate in mainstream, orthodox, ballot-box and party politics - as this would be subscribing to the policies of the state.

Question 24

Contrast individualist and collectivist anarchism

Answer 24

• Ultra-liberalism v. Ultra-socialism
• Sovereign individual v. Common humanity
• Civil disobedience v. Social revolution
• Atomism v. Class politics
• Contractual obligation v. Social duty
• Market mechanism v. Common ownership

Question 25

Describe the change in method of political action advocated by anarchists

Answer 25

• Anarchism was originally (and logically) pacifists - e.g. Proudhorn and Kropotkin. Some anarchists reject coercion in all its forms, and since violence is the ultimate form of coercion, most anarchists naturally reject it.
• Some (recent) anarchists however have turned to violence - either in the form of terrorism (e.g. Bakunin) or the potentially violent general strike (e.g. Guillaume). This is due to the frustration at their lack of success, a belief in the nihilistic virtue of destruction, or to counter a violent state.

*This tactical divide between pacifist and violent anarchism is found mainly within the left-wing, collectivist strand of the philosophy.