Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion or hierarchy, above all the state and, in many of its currents, capitalism.

The word comes from the Ancient Greek «anarkhia», formed from the prefix «an-» (without) and «arkhos» (leader or ruler), and literally means «without a ruler». For a long time it was used in a negative sense, as a synonym for disorder or chaos. The decisive shift came with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who in 1840 called himself an anarchist and defined anarchy as a form of government without master or sovereign. From then on, anarchists have proposed replacing the state with stateless societies made up of voluntary associations that coordinate horizontally and operate on the principles of free association and reciprocity.

Anarchist ideas have very old roots, such as the reflections of some Chinese Taoist philosophers or the Greek Cynics, who questioned the legitimacy of laws imposed by authority. Modern anarchism, however, emerged during the Enlightenment, with figures such as William Godwin, and developed as a political movement in the second half of the nineteenth century, above all through Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin. Within this movement arose very different currents, from individualism to collectivism, libertarian communism and anarcho-syndicalism, which is why there is no single doctrine.

Anarchists have employed very diverse strategies for social change. Some favour gradual and peaceful transformation, while others defend the revolutionary destruction of oppressive institutions. Anarchism played a major role in the labour movement and in revolutions such as the Paris Commune, the Russian Civil War and the Spanish Civil War, and it re-emerged strongly in the late twentieth century within anti-globalisation and anti-war movements.

A central debate concerns whether anarchism is compatible with liberalism or should be understood above all as a form of socialism, which is why many prefer the term libertarian socialism. Another debate concerns so-called market anarchism, such as anarcho-capitalism, which many scholars reject as incompatible with the egalitarian principles of anarchism.