Anarchism is the view that
AnarchY is the best state of political affairs.
All anarchists are united in their opposition to the existence of government, but they part company soon after on issues of private property and social institutions generally.
Traditionally, the term
anarchism has been applied to a movement, here named
TraditionalAnarchism just for convenience, dedicated to the abolition of illegitimate authority and the establishment of a social order without hierarchy. Proponents of the extent system equate its abolition with the abolition of all social order. In their time, Monarchists accused Republicans of seeking the destruction of all social order.
Prominent anarchists of the traditional sort include EmmaGoldman?, MikhailBakunin?, and NoamChomsky?.
See TraditionalAnarchism.
More recently, the term
anarchism has been used to describe
AnarchoCapitalism, which may be loosely defined as the idea that there should not be a single government, but rather that the traditional functions of government might be best handled by private courts and defense agencies.
The most prominent theorist of AnarchoCapitalism is DavidFriedman?, son of NobelPrize/EconomicSciences winner MiltonFriedman?.
See AnarchoCapitalism.
Proponents of these two views sometimes view each other with some hostility. Proponents of
TraditionalAnarchism may view
AnarchoCapitalism as either a grave misunderstanding of anarchism proper (or not a kind of anarchism at all), or a special case of the rejection of government authority in favor of capitalist authority. Terms such as "baseless" and "oversimplistic" may be used.
Advocates of AnarchoCapitalism may contend that TraditionalAnarchism is ill-defined, and most likely will reject the view that there is any such thing as 'capitalist authority' and may also claim that many anarchists of the traditional sort are economically illiterate.
This page will not settle any disputes between the two, but hopes instead to acknowledge the facts of the situation (that both use the term, rightly or wrongly), and to point to separate treatments of both.
You can see a little bit of the lively debate here: /AnarchyTalk
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