Anarchy

Anarchy is a political philosophy that seeks to abolish hierarchical coercive authority, especially the state, and replace it with voluntary associations and decentralized coordination. The term derives from the Greek anarkhos, literally “without a ruler.” In common usage, anarchy is often equated with chaos, but for theorists it denotes a principled commitment to stateless organization rather than disorder.

Core principles include anti-statism, anti-authoritarianism, mutual aid, voluntary association, direct democracy or consensus decision-making, and federated or confederal networks of communities or workplaces. Anarchists emphasize local autonomy, worker self-management, and federations of communes or syndicates that coordinate without a central sovereign.

Historical currents trace to 19th-century thinkers such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who declared “property is theft” and articulated mutualist ideas; Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin who influenced collectivist and anarcho-communist strands; Errico Malatesta and Louise Michel on insurrectionary or pragmatic approaches; and Emma Goldman on individualist libertarianism. Major branches include anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, mutualism, and individualist anarchism, differing mainly on property arrangements and organizational methods while sharing anti-statist aims.

Historically, anarchist currents have played prominent roles in various experiments, such as the CNT-FAI-led Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War, and the Makhnovshchina and the Free Territory in Ukraine. Modern discussions include urban mutual-aid networks and grassroots co-ops inspired by anarchist principles, though actual stateless societies have remained rare in practice.

In public discourse, anarchy is often used to mean social disorder, yet scholarly debates distinguish the envisioned stateless order from disorder and identify challenges such as coordination, defense, and potential power vacuums during transitions. Anarchism remains a pluralist tradition that seeks to replace coercive authority with voluntary, cooperative association.