2009/04/20 by Jesse Cohn · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Anarchism and Radical Politics
paper · doi:10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0039
openalex publication_date 2009/04/20 · openalex created_date 2022/05/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
In common parlance “anarchy” refers to a state of chaos or violent disorder and “anarchism” to the rebellious or merely perverse pursuit of this state. Indeed, the word “anarchist” was first used in the seventeenth century as an epithet against the defeated Levellers in the English Civil War. While the ideas and practices that would become known as anarchism were distinctly foreshadowed by movements such as the Diggers and the Ranters in the seventeenth century as well as by eighteenth‐century thinkers such as William Godwin (and arguably by far more ancient schools of thought, from the Cynics of the fifth century bce to the Taoists of a century later), it was not until Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon turned this epithet into a positive self‐description that we can speak of anarchism per se , as a historical entity. Historically speaking, however, anarchism is the name for a movement, originating in mid‐nineteenth‐century Europe, characterized by its vision of a society of generalized self‐management, its opposition to all forms of hierarchy and domination, and its particular emphasis on means of transformative action that prefigure the desired ends. The word also serves to name the goal of the movement – substantive and universal freedom, sometimes called “anarchy” – elements of which may be found in every society that has ever existed, particularly among peoples living without private property and the state.