ANARCHISM

a social philosophy whose central tenet is that human beings can live justly and harmoniously without government and that the imposition of government upon human beings is in fact harmful and evil. Anarchists are distinguished from Marxists and other socialists in that the latter believe that the state must first be taken over before it can wither away; anarchists are too suspicious of the corruptions of power to believe that this is desirable or even possible. The word anarchism derives from an archos (Greek: without a rule). When the word first appeared it was used as a pejorative term; the Levelers of the English Civil War and the Enrags of the French Revolution were labeled anarchists by their opponents. In 1793 William Godwin anticipated many later anarchist views in his An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, although he did not use the word. Godwin not only supplied an outline of a decentralized society but also made explicit many of the theoretical assumptions involved. He insisted on the natural benevolence of individual human beings apart from governmental institutions and on the natural harmony of such individuals in their interactions. He therefore advocated the progressive breaking down of all institutions that contributed to coercion and inequalityeventually to include even marriage. Future organizations would be loose and voluntary associations. The French writer Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted the word anarchism as a positive term for the first time in Qu'est ce que la proprit? (What Is Property?) in 1840. Proudhon's book laid much of the theoretical groundwork for later anarchist movements, of which he is generally considered to be the father. First praised and later viciously attacked by Karl Marx, Proudhon denounced personal property (property is theft) but rejected Communism in advocating the relative autonomy of local communities. The various heresies that Marxism faced during the last half of the 19th century consisted chiefly of different forms of anarchism that grew out of the work of Proudhon. The earliest of these, and Marx's chief obstacle in the First International, was that of Mikhail Bakunin. Bakunin's brand of anarchism came to be called collectivism. He and his followers agreed with Marx in stressing the role of workers' associations and the need for violent revolutionary action but protested what Bakunin called Marx's German authoritarianism in favour of a looser confederation of associations. When the International disbanded in 1872, Bakunin and his followers retained control of workers' organizations in Latin countries such as Spain and Italy. It was in those countries that anarchist movements attained their greatest strength, and they were finally and decisively crushed only by the victories of Fascism just before the onset of World War II. Bakunin's emphasis on violence and revolutionary action inspired later anarchists, such as the Italian Errico Malatesta, to stress the value of violent acts as means of revealing the vulnerability of the state. A string of assassinations by anarchists took a heavy toll on world leaders around the turn of the century, including President Sadi Carnot of France (1894), Empress Elizabeth of Austria (1898), King Umberto I of Italy (1900), and President William McKinley of the United States (1901). Not all anarchist movements were associated with violence. Many forms, such as that developed by Proudhon and known as Mutualism, rejected revolutionary activity; certain of Proudhon's followers even rejected strikes as a tactic, since they represented a form of coercion. The form of anarchism to attract the largest following was known as anarcho-syndicalism, which developed in the late 1880s after the crushing of the Paris Commune. Anarcho-syndicalism combined the anarchists' distrust of political action with the tactics of the trade union movement; the labour syndicats were to become the basis for direct action by the working class, to culminate in a general strike that would paralyze the economy and the state. Anarcho-syndicalism generated a mystique of the working class instead of the mystique of the individual that was characteristic of other forms of anarchism. Owing to their repudiation of political action and to their vision of a just and harmonious society of individuals linked only by voluntary associations, many anarchist thinkers tended to take a high moral tone; notable among them was Peter Kropotkin. Anarchism as a social movement did not survive World War II. Nevertheless, some of its tenets, such as that human beings can be naturally moral and complete without governments, continue to attract followers. cluster of doctrines and attitudes united in the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary. Derived from a Greek root signifying without a rule, anarchism, anarchist, and anarchy are used to express both approval and disapproval. In early contexts all these terms were used pejoratively: during the English Civil Wars of the 17th century the opponents of the radical Levellers referred to them as Switzerising anarchists, and during the French Revolution the Girondin leader Jacques-Pierre Brissot accused his most extreme rivals, the Enrags, of being the advocates of anarchy. Laws that are not carried into effect, authorities without force and despised, crime unpunished, property attacked, the safety of the individual violated, the morality of the people corrupted, no constitution, no government, no justice, these are the features of anarchy. These words uttered by the leader of the French Revolutionary moderates in 1793 could serve as a model for the denunciations delivered by all opponents of the anarchists. The latter, for their part, would admit many of Brissot's points. They deny man-made laws, regard property as a means of tyranny, and believe that crime is merely the product of a society based on property and authority. But they would argue that their denial of constitutions and governments leads not to no justice but to the real justice inherent in the free development of man's sociality, his natural inclination, when unfettered by laws, to live according to the principles and practice of mutual aid. Additional reading The principal anarchist classics are mentioned in the article above. In recent years many have been reprinted, notably William Godwin, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness, 3rd ed., 3 vol. (1798, reprinted 1976); Peter Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist, 2 vol. (1899, reissued in 1 vol., 1989), and Mutual Aid (1902, reissued 1989); and P.J. Proudhon, What Is Property? (1876, reissued 1970; originally published in French, 1840). G.P. Maximoff (ed.), The Political Philosophy of Bakunin: Scientific Anarchism (1953, reissued 1964), is a good anthology of Bakunin's writings; additional essays may be found in George Crowder, Classical Anarchism: The Political Thought of Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, and Kropotkin (1991). Vernon Richards (ed.), Errico Malatesta: His Life and Ideas (1965, reissued 1977), contains a collection of writings by Malatesta, many of which were previously unavailable in English. Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God Is Within You, The Slavery of Our Times, and What I Believe, available in standard editions, are his principal writings in the anarchist vein. Herbert Read, Anarchy and Order, rev. ed. (1974), The Cult of Sincerity (1968), and Education Through Art, 3rd rev. ed. (1974), should also be consulted.The best general accounts of anarchist thought and history are Richard D. Sonn, Anarchism (1992), an accessible contemporary account; David Miller, Anarchism (1984); James Joll, The Anarchists, 2nd ed. (1979); Daniel Gurin, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (1970; originally published in French, 1965); Chaim Gans, Philosophical Anarchism and Political Disobedience (1992); and April Carter, The Political Theory of Anarchism (1971). A useful collection of essays is David E. Apter and James Joll (eds.), Anarchism Today (1971). Two anthologies that contain writings drawn from the whole libertarian tradition are Leonard I. Krimerman and Lewis Perry (eds.), Patterns of Anarchy (1966); and Irving Louis Horowitz (ed.), The Anarchists (1964). Paul Eltzbacher, Anarchism (1908, reissued 1972; originally published in German, 1900), is a classic account of leading anarchist thinkers. Alan Ritter, Anarchism: A Theoretical Analysis (1980), studies the writings of major anarchistic theorists in a lucid and sympathetic fashion. Jacques Ellul, Anarchy and Christianity (1991; originally published in French, 1988), analyzes anarchism in the context of religion.Anarchism in various countries is explored in the following: in Russia, Paul Avrich, The Russian Anarchists (1967, reissued 1980); the work by Franco Venturi cited above; and David Footman, Civil War in Russia (1961, reprinted 1975); in China, Arif Dirlik, Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution (1991); in Mexico, James A. Sandos, Rebellion in the Borderlands (1992); and Colin M. MacLachlan, Anarchism and the Mexican Revolution (1991); in Spain, Gerald Brenan, The Spanish Labyrinth: An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Civil War, 2nd ed. (1950, reissued 1990); Stanley G. Payne, The Spanish Revolution (1970); Burnett Bolloten, The Grand Camouflage (1961); and Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, 3rd ed., rev. and enlarged (1986); in Italy, Richard Hostetter, The Italian Socialist Movement, vol. 1, Origins (18601882) (1958); and Christopher Seton-Watson, Italy from Liberalism to Fascism, 18701925 (1967); in the United States, James J. Martin, Men Against the State: The Expositors of Individualist Anarchism in America, 18271908 (1953, reissued 1970); and Rudolf Rocker, Pioneers of American Freedom (1949); and in France, Eugenia W. Herbert, The Artist and Social Reform: France and Belgium, 18851898 (1961, reissued 1980). George Woodcock The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica