Politics & International Relations
Collectivist Anarchism
Collectivist anarchism is a political theory that advocates for the abolition of private property and the establishment of a society based on collective ownership and control of the means of production. It emphasizes the importance of cooperation and mutual aid among individuals and communities, and rejects the idea of hierarchy and authority.
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5 Key excerpts on "Collectivist Anarchism"
eBook - PDFThe Modern State
Theories and Ideologies
- Erika Cudworth, Timothy Hall, John McGovern(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- EUP(Publisher)
Anarchists generally agree that forms of political authority restrict individual actions and beliefs and constitute a violation of their freedom (Goodwin 1982: 110–12). In light of this, they endorse egalitarianism, volun-tary co-operation, self-management, individualism and decentral-isation (Goodway 1989: 2). Like many feminists, anarchists tend to define politics very broadly and their analysis of political power is not restricted to the ‘state’ and ‘government’ (see Chapter 9). This said, an antipathy towards institutionalised authority has meant that historically a key feature of anarchism has been the contesta-tion of authority exercised by the state. While anarchism emerged in eighteenth-century Europe in the context of political authoritar-ianism, it has remained staunchly critical of liberal intimations of ‘democracy’. Liberal or ‘bourgeois’ democracy with the represen-tative institutions of parliamentarianism is seen as inherently incap-able of providing anything more than a justification for oligarchy. There are a variety of different kinds of anarchist theorising and, almost inevitably, individual thinkers may slip across the lines drawn by a typology. All anarchists have provided some broader critique of social and economic structures and processes than simply a denunciation of the state. In the nineteenth century, most anarchists were also involved in workers’ political organisations and most contemporary anarchists subscribe to some form of ‘anarcho-communism’ (Miller 1984) or more commonly, ‘social anarchism’, which is collectivist and in many ways, communitarian. In sharp contrast, ‘anarcho-capitalism’ (Miller 1984) or ‘individu-alist anarchism’, exemplified by the work of Murray Rothbard Anarchism: the Politics of Anti-Statism 139 (1978), is an extreme form of liberalism based on the absolute sov-ereignty of the individual (also Nozick 1974: Part 1).
eBook - PDF- John Horton(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Red Globe Press(Publisher)
This is a point to which we shall return later. While the spirit informing communal anarchism is very different from that of individualist anarchism, both share a general rejection of coercion (except under very specific and limited circumstances) and a desire to base social organization upon a principle of free association and some notion of equality. Communal anarchists are inclined to a more benign and cooperative conception of human nature – they believe that people will naturally join together to form groups to coordinate economic activ-ities and provide mutual aid and support for each other. People are not the atomistic bearers of natural rights so much as mutually concerned and interrelated, but independent-minded, individuals. In particular, communal anarchists reject individualistic anarchists’ views about the sanctity of private property. Nor is communal anarchism neglectful of, Anarchism: Political and Philosophical 117 or at all embarrassed by, the fact that individuals grow up within soci-eties and are socialized accordingly. This has two aspects for communal anarchists. On the one hand, it is the principal source of nationalism and the ‘false consciousness’ that explains people’s attachment to their state and their failure to appreciate the real situation in which they find them-selves in the modern state. On the other hand, it also offers hope for the future, for if people are brought up in accordance with their true nature, then this will make an anarchist community a genuine possibility. For communal anarchists, an authentic society is seen as a shifting series of common practices and cooperative arrangements to which people volun-tarily subscribe and which are subject to continuous reaffirmation and re-creation: relations are basically harmonious; although, as mentioned earlier, this does not preclude either diversity or non class-based disagreement and conflict.
eBook - PDF- George J. Sefa Dei, Meredith Lordan(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
Despite the anti-canonical nature and difficulty in finding a precise definition, there are four points of agreement consistent across all strands of Anarchism: 1. All anarchists share a principled rejection of the state and its institutions, and in doing so they: 2. Do not reject the notion of social organization or order per se; 3. Do not necessarily regard freedom—specifically, individual freedom—as the primary value and the major goal of social change, and; 4. Do not propose any “blueprint” for the future society. (Suissa, 2010, p. 14) For the purposes of this discussion, the Anarchist position being described is based on these four general principles, but is also guided more specifically by the Social Anarchist school of thought, broadly made up by thinkers such as Peter Kropotkin and Mikhail Bakunin. Social Anarchism emphasizes a collectivist vision and has made up the majority of theoretical work produced by Anarchists. There are two major strands that make up Social Anarchist thought: Anarcho-Communism and AGAINST ALL AUTHORIT Y | 37 Anarcho-Syndicalism. Anarcho-Communism “is the view that the products of labour should be collectively owned and distributed according to the principle of from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (Suissa, 2010, p. 14). Anarcho-Syndicalism makes central the issues surrounding labour, and contends that trade unions, as an expression of the working class, should form the basis for a new social reality (Suissa, 2010). While it is clear that one can make immediate connections between Social Anarchism and Marxism, the defining distinction is the Anarchist’s rejection of the state. Ultimately, Anarchism works to resist all interlocking forms of oppression and domination. ANTI - COLONIALISM We should understand that Anti-Colonialism “challenges any form of economic, cultural, political, and spiritual dominance” (Dei & Kempf, 2006, p. 5).
eBook - PDFUnderstanding Democratic Politics
An Introduction
- Roland Axtmann(Author)
- 2003(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
There is another distinction that can be made between two forms of anarchism, namely individualists and collectivists. Indi-vidualist anarchists, for example Stirner (1844), start from the perspective of the indi-vidual, hence his statement: (in The Ego and His Own ), ‘I hold nothing higher than I’ (Stirner, 1963: 5). By this he meant that one can see the world only from one’s own point of view. Attempts to impose an external per-spective are inherently oppressive. This was not a celebration of selfishness. Rather, it meant that one must first liberate oneself before choosing whether (and if so, how) to link with others. On the other hand, collectiv-ists such as Kropotkin (in Mutual Aid , 1902) see the community as the basic building-block. This distinction clearly represents a difference in emphasis, but in practice both individualist and collectivist anarchists have significant features in common: a hostility to authoritarian institutions and a common stress on the values of autonomy and liberation. ANARCHIST CRITICISMS OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY Anarchists have made a number of criticisms of liberal democracy. Tyranny of the majority First, liberal democracy is representative democracy. This means that minority views can consistently be out-voted. Anarchists find this unpalatable, as do some liberal thinkers such as John Stuart Mill who, in On Liberty (1859/1991), pointed out the danger of a ‘tyr-anny of the majority’ who could impose their views on minorities, imposing a social homo-geneity which stifled freedom of expression. Unrepresentative government? In addition, many so-called representative democracies do not genuinely represent the will of the majority of the electorate. No post-war British government has won the votes of a majority of those entitled to vote. And some states make it very hard for even second-or third-generation immigrants to obtain citizenship.
- Z. Kazmi(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
It begins by exploring the emergence of a dissident strand of socialism in Europe in the nineteenth century, with which anarchism has come to be mainly identified, and what has been termed individualist anarchism, prevalent particularly in America, illustrating how anarchism has been subject to contested ownership by ideo- logues of both the Left and Right. It then outlines some contemporary ideas 18 ● Polite Anarchy in IR Theory associated with the more recent resurgence of anarchism since the 1960s that, though more amorphous and less programmatic in content, echo the historical and ideological contestation of anarchist theory and practice in three main ways, by (1) appeals to direct action; (2) revolutionary agitation; and (3) a critique of global hegemony. I then turn to the peripheral presence of anarchist ideas in the contem- porary academic study of political thought to set the wider context for my own treatment of anarchist ideas in IR theory, commenting on the social and ideological activism that, periodically, has driven interest in the subject in academic circles and pointing to the perennial significance of the link between anarchism as a theory and a practice. As with other ideologies such as Marxism and liberalism, there is no clear boundary between the work of anarchist “activists” and the academic reflections of “scholars” on the sub- ject. The world of learning, like the world at large, is a battlefield of compet- ing ideas and movements and equally succumbs to ideological suasion. The fact that anarchism has been commonly utilized to undergird free-market libertarian agendas, on the one hand, or as a form of transformative critical theory of the Left-libertarian variety, on the other, is thus uncontroversial.
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