Politics & International Relations
Anti-statism
Anti-statism is a political ideology that opposes the role of the state in society. It advocates for limited government intervention in the economy and individual freedoms. Anti-statists believe that the state should only exist to protect citizens' rights and maintain law and order.
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5 Key excerpts on "Anti-statism"
eBook - PDFThe Modern State
Theories and Ideologies
- Erika Cudworth, Timothy Hall, John McGovern(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- EUP(Publisher)
CHAPTER SIX Anarchism: the Politics of Anti-statism Erika Cudworth Despite its uncompromising Anti-statism, anarchism has been largely ignored in discussions on state theory, and sometimes seen as unilluminating or implausible (Dunleavy and Leary 1987: 10). Anarchist state theory is difficult to consider given the fact that anarchist writing on the state is focused on specific aspects of insti-tutions (for example, education provision). In addition, anarchism has been accused of having a moral objection to the state but no theory of the operation of the state, for it is ‘stronger on moral assertion than on analysis’ (Heywood 2003: 190). Much anarchist writing has centred on encouraging our instincts of freedom and autonomy rather than analysing the state as an oppressive social formation, thus, anarchism has a smaller contribution to state theory than might be expected. This is perhaps because anarchists reject a state-centric focus in their own theorising. While some (social democrats, fundamen-talists, some liberal pluralists) see the state as a tool for positive social change others (some liberals, conservatives old and new) are more cautious, seeing the state as a ‘necessary evil’ fulfilling the imperative function of maintenance of law and order. Like instrumentalist Marxists and feminists, anarchists consider the state to be an instrument of social domination serving those with power and privilege but, in all its variants, anarchism is dis-tinguished by its rejection of the state. For anarchist anthropolo-gists like Harold Barclay (2003: 11) a problem for anarchism is 137 that statism is a ‘universal myth’ of modernity, and bedrock of both theoretical and practical political understandings of the world. This chapter considers the emergence of anarchism and the themes that have, historically, made anarchism distinct in its contribution to state theory.
eBook - ePub- Vittorio Mete(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Taylor & Francis(Publisher)
The meanings that this concept refers to, which are partly shared with other concepts, are: hostility towards the political profession, political parties, representative institutions etc. The empirical referents of such meanings are, among others: feelings of hostility towards political parties and politicians expressed by citizens; the forms of conduct that reveal such hostility (such as abstentionism, supporting anti-party parties and anti-political politicians, or protesting against mainstream politics); and the symbolic gestures and discourse of political leaders as they distance themselves from traditional forms of politics. As seen above, an overview of the literature also reveals other concepts, once again denoted by the term “anti-politics”, which however indicate a series of completely different meanings and empirical referents, such as political opposition to authoritarian regimes or “anti-political machines” in developing countries. Figure 1.4 offers a simple graphical breakdown of the concept of anti-politics and of other concepts closely linked to it. Figure 1.4 The concept of anti-politics Figure 1.4 Long Description Antipolitics includes the concepts of antipoliticians, antiestablishment, and antiparty. Populism overlaps antipolitics. Opposition and resistance in authoritarian regimes, Antipolitical machines in developing countries, and Dethrone and banish politics; conquest and colonize politics are outside the realm of antipolitics. Among the various possible configurations of a concept presented by Sartori (1984, p. 47), the concept of anti-politics appears to be the most problematic, given that the corresponding term is characterised by synonyms, homonyms and uncertain semantic overlapping. Even in such circumstances, Sartori invites the reader not to give in to the reigning chaos, and to try to clarify the concept in question
eBook - PDFShaped by War and Trade
International Influences on American Political Development
- Ira Katznelson, Martin Shefter, Ira Katznelson, Martin Shefter(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Princeton University Press(Publisher)
Embedded antistatism may help to explain why the great episodes of American state building have followed a similar pattern: events originating either inside the United States or beyond its boundaries, are interpreted by some Americans as requiring a strengthening of the federal government in response. Dramatic events, wars and economic or social crises, are especially important, because, at least for a time, they can have the effect of galvaniz- ing opinion and temporarily suppressing resistance to expansions in state power. But proposals for movement in this direction inevitably provoke a counterreaction from those who are opposed in principle to state expansion or because they fear that a stronger state will be able to act in ways that are contrary to their individual or group interests. Or, as is often the case, they are motivated by some inextricable blend of abstract belief and material self- interest. A period of political struggle ensues, in which the opponents of a stronger state use their institutional and ideological advantages to block some of the initiatives of their opponents, and, in some cases, to advance alternative solutions to the problems at hand that they regard as less offen- sive to their beliefs and less threatening to their interests. What emerges ultimately is a package of new policies and institutional innovations that is the product of many conflicting influences, but which bears the strong and readily recognizable imprint of the antistatist inclinations that have been present since the creation of the American republic. This dynamic is visible in the turn-of-the-century debate over how best to deal with the rise of large- scale industrialism, in the American mobilization for the First and Second World Wars, in the nation's response to the Great Depression, and, as I will demonstrate, in its reaction to the onset of what would turn out to be a half- century-long strategic competition with the Soviet Union.
eBook - PDFBeyond Right and Left
Democratic Elitism in Mosca and Gramsci
- Maurice A . Finocchiaro(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Yale University Press(Publisher)
Nevertheless, such stato-latry must not be abandoned to itself; in particular, it must not turn into theoretical fanaticism and be regarded as perpetual; it must be criti-cized, precisely in order for it to develop and to produce new forms of state life in which individual and group initiative has a state character, even if it does not stem from the government of the officials (one must make state life become spontaneous). [Q 8,130/Q 1020-21] That is, state intervention is not an end in itself, but rather it is normally a means to promote the autonomy and the cultural and moral development of individuals and groups; to phrase it differently, methods of coercion are normally a means of protecting and encouraging methods of persua-sion. An emphasis on state intervention and methods of coercion may be occasionally justified; but such an emphasis (statolatry) is an exception to the norm, and in any case its justification is based on ideals pertaining to civil society. This criticism of statism corresponds to Gramsci's idea of the night-watchman state, which we discussed earlier (Chapter 4, section 4). In that context, he argued that a night-watchman state is best conceived as [ 161 ] L I B E R A L I S M AND A N T I - L I B E R A L I S M a stage of political development in which the primary function of gov-ernmental institutions is the defense and promotion of individual liberty. However, the same note makes it clear that it would be unrealistic and Utopian to expect that the state could ever wither away or that a com-pletely self-regulated society could ever be actually reached (as opposed to approached), or (to use the language of the note just quoted) that self-government could ever completely replace the government of the officials.
eBook - PDF- Alexander Moseley(Author)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- Continuum(Publisher)
But dissenters proclaim the horror of permitting the one (monarchy), the few (oligarchy), or the many (democracy) to rule on behalf of anyone else – the one or few over the many, the many over the few. The ancients were aware of the dangers involved in all the known political systems of the day – sup-porters claiming that the other systems necessarily collapsed into tyranny. The modern labels for the philosophies that are examined in this work (Statism, Realism, Conservatism, Socialism, Libertarianism, 159 APPLIED POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Liberalism, Anarchism and Environmentalism) seek to explain how the good life may be promoted through political change. They are not quite the same as the Ancient Greek ideals, as societies and economies have changed enormously since then. Nonetheless, each idealism has its supporters who believe that the others must collapse into chaos or tyranny, so we face the archetypal Charybdis and Scylla between which modern statesmen and theoreticians seek to steer their polities. Radical thinkers reject the metaphor however: the dilemma or the implicit fear besetting politics is imaginary, a device like Marx’s religion acting as the opium of the people to keep the faith in the existence of the state. Thus the anarchist reminds us to assail the assumptions on which we base our own political theory, for assumptions can be dangerous when unchallenged. Securing the peace is precisely the state’s purpose for many thinkers, but detractors will complain that it is the state that gener-ates war and violence in the first place by imposing regulations, demands and taxes that necessarily disturb the peace. But there will always be people who will exploit their fellows by stealing, abusing, threatening and fighting; why else, Thomas Hobbes asks, do we lock our doors at night and take precautions against our neighbour’s tres-pass? Thus we need a state to secure our lives and property.
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