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Concept

Anarchy

Anarchy
unbekannt, möglicherweise Elisabeth von Stägemann (Schule von Anton Graff) · Public domain · source

Overview

Anarchy is a form of society without rulers. As a type of stateless society, it is commonly contrasted with states, which are polities that claim a monopoly on violence over a permanent territory. Beyond a lack of government, it can more precisely refer to societies that lack any form of authority or hierarchy. While viewed positively by anarchists, the primary advocates of anarchy, it is viewed negatively by advocates of statism, who see it in terms of social disorder.

The word "anarchy" was first defined by Ancient Greek philosophy, which understood it to be a corrupted form of direct democracy, where a majority of people exclusively pursue their own interests. This use of the word made its way into Latin during the Middle Ages, before the concepts of anarchy and democracy were disconnected from each other in the wake of the Atlantic Revolutions. During the Age of Enlightenment, philosophers began to look at anarchy in terms of the "state of nature", a thought experiment used to justify various forms of hierarchical government. By the late 18th century, some philosophers began to speak in defence of anarchy, seeing it as a preferable alternative to existing forms of tyranny. This lay the foundations for the development of anarchism, which advocates for the creation of anarchy through decentralisation and federalism.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Anarchy is discussed.

  1. Meanwhile, we will hate Anarchy as Death, which it is; and the things worse than Anarchy shall be hated _more._ Surely Peace alone is fruitful. Anarchy is destruction: a burning up, say, of Shams and Insupportabilities; but which leaves Vacancy behind. Know this also, that out of a world of Unwise nothing but an Unwisdom can be made.

    Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution

    names the idea; states what it is; opens on it

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  2. Hence all commonwealths, with the form of government established, have rules also of appointing those who are to have any share in the public authority, and settled methods of conveying the right to them: for the anarchy is much alike, to have no form of government at all; or to agree that it shall be monarchical, but to appoint no way to know or design the person that shall have the power, and be the monarch…

    John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

    states what it is; names the idea; author linked in the graph

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  3. But free states and aristocracies are mostly destroyed from want of a fixed administration of public affairs; the cause of which evil arises at first from want of a due mixture of the democratic and the oligarchic parts in a free state; and in an aristocracy from the same causes, and also from virtue not being properly joined to power; but chiefly from the two first, I mean the undue mixture of the democratic and…

    Aristotle, Politics

    states what it is; author linked in the graph

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  4. In 1775, again, there began, over seas, another Anarchy much more considerable,--little dreaming that IT could be called an Anarchy; on the contrary, calling itself Liberty, Rights of Man; and singing boundless Io-Paeans to itself, as is common in such cases; an Anarchy which has been challenging the Universe to show the like ever since. And which has, at last, flamed up as an independent Phenomenon, unexampled in…

    Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 21

    names the idea

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  5. His majesty desires nothing more sincerely than thus to terminate a war, which he in vain endeavoured to avoid, and all the calamities of which, as now experienced by France, are to be attributed only to the ambition, the perfidy, and the violence of those, whose crimes have involved their own country in misery, and disgraced all civilized nations."--"The king promises, on his part, the suspension of hostilities…

    Edmund Burke, Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke

    names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it

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Philosophers who discussed Anarchy

Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Political philosophy.

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