Anarchy is a form of

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

without

rulers A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long ...

. It is primarily advocated by

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

who propose replacing the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

with a

stateless society A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state. In stateless societies, there is little concentration of authority; most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in power and are generally not permanently held p ...

based on

voluntary Voluntary may refer to: * Voluntary (music) * Voluntary or volunteer, person participating via volunteering/volunteerism * Voluntary muscle contraction See also * Voluntary action * Voluntariness, in law and philosophy * Voluntaryism Volunt ...

free association. These institutions or free associations are generally modeled to represent concepts such as

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

and

economic self-reliance Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems. Autarky as an ideal or method has been embraced by a wide range of political ideologies and movements, especially ...

interdependence Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its struc ...

, or

individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...

. In simple terms anarchy means 'without rulers' or 'without authority'. As such, under anarchy there is no coercive rule by a single group or individual, rather instead by an individual upon themselves or by the people entirely.

Definition

As a concept, anarchy is commonly defined by what it excludes. Etymologically, anarchy is derived from the gr, αναρχία, translit=anarkhia; where "αν" ("an") means "without" and "αρχία" ("arkhia") means "ruler". Therefore, anarchy is fundamentally defined by the absence of

. While anarchy specifically represents a society without rulers, it can more generally refer to a

, or a society without

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

. Anarchy is thus defined in direct contrast to the

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

, an institution that claims a

monopoly on violence In political philosophy, a monopoly on violence or monopoly on the legal use of force is the property of a polity that is the only entity in its jurisdiction to legitimately use force, and thus the supreme authority of that area. While the mon ...

over a given

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

. Anarchists such as

Errico Malatesta Errico Malatesta (4 December 1853 – 22 July 1932) was an Italian anarchist propagandist and revolutionary socialist. He edited several radical newspapers and spent much of his life exiled and imprisoned, having been jailed and expelled from ...

have also defined anarchy more precisely as a society without

authority In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''The N ...

, or

hierarchy A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...

. Anarchy is also often defined synonymously as chaos or social disorder, reflecting the

state of nature The state of nature, in moral and political philosophy, religion, social contract theories and international law, is the hypothetical life of people before societies came into existence. Philosophers of the state of nature theory deduce that ther ...

as depicted by

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influent ...

. By this definition, anarchy represents not only an absence of government but also an absence of

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, social norm, norms, power (social and political), power or language of an organized society over a social system (family, tribe, formal organization, formal or informal organization, a ...

. This connection of anarchy with chaos usually assumes that, without government, no means of governance exist and thus that disorder is an unavoidable outcome of anarchy. Sociologist

Francis Dupuis-Déri Francis Dupuis-Déri (born 1966, in Montreal) is a French Canadian researcher and professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is best known for his political commentary on anti-feminism and anarchism, for his books ''L’Erreur hum ...

has described chaos as a "degenerate form of anarchy", in which there is an absence, not just of rulers, but of any kind of political organization. He contrasts the "rule of all" under anarchy with the "rule of none" under chaos. Since its conception, anarchy has been used in both a positive and negative sense, respectively describing a free society without coercion or a state of chaos.

Overview

Anthropology

Peter Leeson Peter T. Leeson (born July 29, 1979) is an American economist and the Duncan Black Professor of Economics and Law at George Mason University. The website Big Think listed him in 2012 among "Eight of the World's Top Young Economists". He is a Fello ...

examined a variety of institutions of

private law enforcement Private police or special police are law enforcement bodies that are owned or controlled (or owned and controlled) by non-governmental entities. Additionally, the term can refer to an off-duty police officer while working for a private entity, ...

developed in anarchic situations by eighteenth century pirates, preliterate tribesmen, and Californian prison gangs. These groups all adapted different methods of private law enforcement to meet their specific needs and the particulars of their anarchic situation.

International relations

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

, anarchy is "the absence of any authority superior to nation-states and capable of arbitrating their disputes and enforcing international law".

Political philosophy

Anarchism

As a

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

, anarchism advocates

self-governed __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form o ...

societies based on voluntary institutions. These are often described as

stateless societies A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state. In stateless societies, there is little concentration of authority; most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in power and are generally not permanently held p ...

, although several authors have defined them more specifically as institutions based on non-

hierarchical A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...

free associations. Anarchism holds the

to be undesirable, unnecessary, or harmful. While opposition to the state is central, it is a

necessary but not sufficient In logic and mathematics, necessity and sufficiency are terms used to describe a conditional or implicational relationship between two statements. For example, in the conditional statement: "If then ", is necessary for , because the truth of ...

condition. Anarchism also entails opposing unnecessary

or hierarchical organisation in the conduct of all human relations, including yet not limited to the state system.

Immanuel Kant

The German philosopher

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

treated anarchy in his ''

Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View ''Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View'' is a non-fiction book by German philosopher Immanuel Kant. The work was developed from lecture notes for a number of successful classes taught by Kant from 1772 to 1796 at the Albertus Universität ...

'' as consisting of "Law and Freedom without Force". For Kant, anarchy falls short of being a true civil state because the law is only an "empty recommendation" if force is not included to make this law efficacious. For there to be such a state, force must be included while law and freedom are maintained, a state which Kant calls a republic. Kant identified four kinds of government: # Law and freedom without force (anarchy) # Law and force without freedom (

despotism Despotism ( el, Δεσποτισμός, ''despotismós'') is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. Normally, that entity is an individual, the despot; but (as in an autocracy) societies which limit respect and ...

) # Force without freedom and law (

barbarism Barbarism, barbarity, or barbarous may refer to: * Barbarism (linguistics), a non-standard word, expression, or pronunciation ** Hybrid words, formerly called "barbarisms" * Any society construed as barbarian ** Barbarian invasions, a period of m ...

) # Force with freedom and law (

republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

)

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

Emma Goldman, ''Anarchism and Other Essays''

by Matt Stone. Online version of book, hosted by Anarchism.net.
"Who Needs Government? Pirates, Collapsed States, and the Possibility of Anarchy"
August 2007 issue of

Cato Unbound The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...

focusing on Somali anarchy.
"Historical Examples of Anarchy without Chaos"
a list of essays hosted by royhalliday.home.mingspring.com.
Anarchy Is Order
Principles, propositions and discussions for land and freedom.

classic essays and modern discussions. Online since 1994.

from th
Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress
{{authority control Anarchist theory Economic systems