Anarchy

Anarchy is an ordered state of society without government and domination. Anarchists argue that domination opposes human interests and that all aspects of society should not be ruled by authorities, but can be voluntarily organized based on self-organization, self-management, self-government, bottom-up decision making, grassroots democracy, decentralized networks, free agreements, and free associations. Anarchists see capitalism and the nation-state as limitations to self-determination, freedom, and the full development of human faculties. The basic idea of anarchism is that decisions shouldn't be taken by minorities but, instead, in bottom-up processes by all those who are affected by them. Utopian socialists such as William Godwin, Charles Fourier, or Robert Owen didn't call themselves anarchists, but anticipated the idea of a society without government. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first scientist who systematically developed the idea of anarchism, defining it in 1840 in What Is Property? as the absence of a master, of a sovereign. There are different types of anarchist thought; the basic difference is the one between individual and collective forms of anarchism.

Individual anarchism stresses that domination limits the free development of the individual and that all domination should be abolished. This line of thought goes back to the ideas of Max Stirner, who advocated the supremacy of the individual, individual freedom and self-determination, the uniqueness of the “I,” the abolition of all social and moral bonds on the individual, and an association of egoists. Another form of individual anarchism is Proudhon's mutualism, which is based on the idea of an equal distribution of private property among individuals.

Historically, collective forms of anarchism have been more influential than individualistic ones. Mikhail Bakunin considered capitalism, the nation-state, and religion as forms of domination that should be abolished. He described his approach as collective anarchism that is based on the idea that the means of production and the structures of decision should be controlled in collective processes of self-organization by communes that freely associate themselves in federations. The ideas of anarchy and communism as forms of society are homologous insofar as they both conceive a free society as a self-organized association where all human beings live in peace, wealth, and social security, where people can fully participate in society, which is based on the principle “to each according to his needs, from each according to his ability.” The main historical difference between anarchists and communists that fuelled a controversy between Karl Marx and Bakunin and resulted in the [Page 19]split of the International Labour Association in 1872 is the question whether the nation-state and the monopoly of the means of violence can be immediately abolished in a situation of social discontinuity.

The main form of collective anarchism is communist anarchism, as conceived by Peter Kropotkin. Kropotkin argues that the human being is cooperative, but cooperation would be alienated by forces such as capital and the nation-state. A free society would be possible based on the principle of mutual aid and by making use of modern technology so that necessary labor can be reduced to a minimum and a maximum of free time is available. In such a society, communes would control the means of production and social organizations would have a decentralized and networked form. Kropotkin conceived Communist Anarchism as a communism without government that is based on voluntary associations and free agreements. In The Conquest of Bread, Kropotkin developed detailed suggestions for how an anarchocommunist society could be organized. Other historically important forms of collective anarchism are anarchosyndicalism as conceived by Rudolf Rocker and Murray Bookchin's libertarian communalism.

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