Anarchism

Anarchist political philosophy, key thinkers, and historical case studies

What is anarchism?

Anarchism is a political philosophy that holds that hierarchical, coercive authority — most centrally the state — is illegitimate and unnecessary, and that society should instead be organized through voluntary cooperation and association between individuals and communities, without a centralized, compulsory governing authority.

A common misconception

Anarchism is often popularly associated with chaos or disorder, but this is a misconception of the philosophy as academically and historically understood. Most anarchist thinkers and movements have specifically advocated for organized, cooperative social structures — just voluntary ones, based on mutual agreement, rather than ones imposed and enforced through state coercion. Anarchism's core objection is specifically to compulsory, hierarchical authority, not to social organization itself.

Core tenets

Anarchists generally hold that meaningful individual freedom requires the absence of coercive hierarchy, and that people are capable of organizing cooperative, functional societies voluntarily, through mutual aid and consensual association, without requiring a state to compel this cooperation through force or the threat of force. Different anarchist thinkers and traditions, covered further in the advanced article, have proposed different specific visions for how such voluntary organization might actually work in practice.

Historical development

Anarchism developed as an organized, named political philosophy substantially during the 19th century, particularly in Europe, alongside and often in dialogue and disagreement with the socialist and labor movements of the period, discussed further in the advanced article.