Professional Documents
Culture Documents
as Political
Philosophy
Anarchism
as Political
Philosophy
Robert Hoffman
editor
~~ ~~~!!~n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1975 by Transaction Publishers
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
HX833.H63 2010
321’.07--dc22
2010005519
ELY CHINOY
Smith College
SOCIOLOGY
GILBERT GElS
California State College, Los Angeles
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
MAXINE GREENE
Teachers College, Columbia University
EDUCATION
ROBERT S. HIRSCHFIELD
Hunter College
POLITICAL SCIENCE
ARNOLD S. KAUFMAN
University of Michigan
PHILOSOPHY
JEROME L. SINGER
City College, CUNY
PSYCHOLOGY
DAVID SPITZ
Ohio State University
POLITICAL THEORY
NICHOLAS WAHL
Princeton University
COMPARATIVE POLITICS
FREDERICK E . WARBURTON
Barnard College
BIOLOGY
Contents
Introduction 1
ROBERT HOFFMAN
1 What Is Government? 15
PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON
2 What Is Anarchism? 17
ALEXANDER BERKMAN
7 Essentials of Anarchism 86
DA YID THOREA U WIECK
8 The Impossibilities of Anarchism 98
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
the person and spirit of man. Both by its own violations and by
sustaining such institutions as private property and authoritari-
an churches, government keeps society fragmented and at war
with itself. It keeps citizens too repressed and impoverished,
materially and spiritually, for them really to be men, much less
social beings.
Thus, in the anarchist view, people are deluded when they
suppose that order and justice are created and regulated by law
and powerful institutions. Such order is mere appearance, be-
hind which actually is the chaos of men struggling to subjugate
and hurt each other, to gain at the expense of others. Such
justice is a sham, called righteous by those able to dominate
while making law serve their own interests. This is what
Proudhon meant when he said that government is anarchy-
the anarchy of disorder and the rule of force.
Outrage at this supposed state of affairs is the common
denominator of anarchists, but besides those mentioned earlier
there are few specifications of their beliefs that can be applied
equally to all of them. Anarchism has always been a matter
more of distinctive temper and relative degrees of emphasis than
of specific defining convictions. While many anarchists may
share a particular idea, few would agree with anyone else
about a whole structure of ideas. Nevertheless, they have been
able to form close bonds with each other, basing their collabo-
ration upon a common spirit of outrage at injustice and of
yearning for a better world. Lacking the agreement about
doctrine and program that generally united men in comparable
movements, anarchists have been more loosely knit and more
dependent on sustaining a spirit itself closely tied to contem-
porary events.
Because there has been continuing change in the character
of these events, and of ideas generally prevalent on the left
which affect anarchism, the apparent character of anarchism
has shifted. These changes, however, have been more in rela-
tive emphasis than anything else. The first anarchists were
philosophers with no movements in which their ideas could be
applied, and they gave more stress to individualism than was
6 Introduction
common later. Then revolutionary and labor movements began
to develop in the mid-nineteenth century and afterward; anar-
chists became more action oriented, and more concerned with
developing plans for a postrevolutionary society. (For an anar-
chist transitional between these first two stages, see the selec-
tions by Proudhon.)
As the movements grew in strength, so did the intensity of
repressive efforts leveled against them by governments and
employers. This struggle was prolonged and bitter, and both
sides often initiated bloody violence. In this stage (see the
selections by Berkman and Goldman) most anarchists were
more preoccupied with the immediate struggle than with what
might follow its successful conclusion; some had no use what-
ever for general theorizing. It was then that violent rhetoric
and sometimes concomitant action were employed by a num-
ber of anarchists: destruction of supposed oppressors appeared
to be the only possible or satisfying response to events.
When anarchists were no longer able to lead revolutionary
mass movements, they again became more concerned with
ideas, revising old concepts to fit changing conditions. Action
tended to be confined to resisting authority while actively com-
bating it only in limited ways, as in opposition to military
conscription, and to developing projects that could both in-
crease liberty and lead a few steps toward an anarchist future.
(For this stage, see Wieck's essay.)
Most recently, anarchism has appeared in more widespread
and active movements of rebellion. Like anarchists in mass
movements half a century ago, the "new breed" often is more
concerned with immediate action than with the details of what
may happen later, and they are bitterly, sometimes violently,
antagonistic toward established authorities. Most do not, how-
ever, adopt positions of pure anarchism, combining instead
elements of its ideas and spirit with qualities and concepts of
other radical movements. (Today's rebels are discussed in
Goodman's article. For further historical details, see Novak's
essay.)
ROBERT HOFFMAN 7
Explaining this frequency of anarchist attitudes among con-
temporary rebels also says something about past differences
between anarchism and other left-wing groups. The others,
especially Marx and his followers, and anarchists often were
deeply antagonistic toward each other, much more so than
conflicts in ideas may seem to have required. To a large degree
this was a matter of factional and personal rivalries and of the
exclusiveness of parties insisting on adherence to a single ideol-
ogy, but the issues dividing them ran deeper.
The key issue is how the new world is to be reached. Many
socialists would concede that the state structure can ultimately
be dismantled, reduced to administrative machinery with mini-
mal functions. However, they attack anarchists for claiming
that this can and must be done immediately.
Marxists have maintained that the dominant power of the
oppressors-aristocrats and after them the bourgeoisie-can be
ended solely by making the power of the oppressed still
greater. The conflict is irreconcilable. A victorious people will
in time eliminate the last vestiges and roots of power of the
former ruling classes, doing so by eliminating class distinctions
themselves. Only then will there no longer be a need for the
state's authority. To reduce it any sooner would just permit the
antisocial struggle between rich and poor to continue indefinite-
ly. To Marxists, anarchism was a betrayal of the revolutionary
cause- hence the sharpness of their antagonism.
Others less concerned with class struggle than conventional
Marxists have further elaborated this type of criticism. Wheth-
er or not they regard a stateless society as a desirable final
goal, they maintain that the instruments of governmental au-
thority are necessary for reshaping society into the desired
forms. Even without aggravated class conflict, resistance by
many to change can be anticipated and must be overcome. A
directive force is required to coordinate and organize the joint
efforts needed to develop an economy of abundance, improved
education, and other essential social conditions. Moreover,
though men in a just society may restrain themselves from
8 Introduction
antisocial behavior, until such a society develops there will be a
need for government regulation of behavior.
Many moderate socialists have maintained that the only
moral path to the good society-and perhaps the only one
actually practicable-is the normal process of democratic po-
litics and legislation. By definition such an evolutionary series
of reforms requires continuing governmental institutions; it also
reflects a pragmatic, compromising temperament not compati-
ble with the sharply rebellious spirit typical of anarchists.
In emphatically rejecting all such criticisms, anarchists
reflect a very different conception of the nature of government.
Others on the left have believed that the main objection to
existing regimes and laws is the assertion that they are con-
trolled by people of privilege; laws act mainly to protect this
privilege, to the disadvantage of the masses. By the extension
of democracy or, more radically, by the destruction of all
middle and upper class power, government can be made the
instrument of the people, acting in their service for good and
necessary purposes.
Anarchists, however, insist that any imperative authority,
even that of a popular socialist government or the joint deci-
sion of an egalitarian community, must violate individual lib-
erty. Such violation must, in turn, prevent achieving justice and
genuine community, a society undivided by internal antago-
nism and antisocial feeling and action.
They believe, moreover, that elements of irremediable cor-
ruption are inherent in any system of authority, even those
ostensibly controlled by the masses. They do not want a revo-
lution that merely replaces old power centers with new ones,
for any power by its very nature will be tyrannical.
The reasons for this conviction are many; most are summed
up in the notion that the State, no matter how constituted, is
alien from most or all of the society it governs. It can not be
the embodiment of the citizenry, but is instead an institution
with needs, views, and goals peculiar to itself. Rather than
expressing and enacting the needs and wishes of society's mem-
bers, the State has a life of its own, and serves society as it sees
ROBERT HOFFMAN 9