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Edexcel Anarchism revision notes
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Detailed notes which allowed me to achieve an A* throughout the year. Includes: detailed notes on key principles detailed notes on key strands thinkers profiles
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Core ideas and PrinciplesAnarchism
Human Nature- anarchists hold very different views about human nature
Positive view of Humans have universal qualities, with the potential for development but also for corruption.
human nature HN is moulded by the environment, explaining why the state/existing society is responsible f
the selfish, anti-social, competitive traits in society.
Removal of the state will reveal true universal qualities and allow them to develop.
Disagreement over the nature of universal qualities- collectivists seeing humans as altruistic
Differences operative, while individualists see humans as self-interested, rational and competitive.
Authority and Hierarchical authorities should be rejected as commanding, controlling and corrupting of
Hierarchy human nature:
1. Commanding: State forces individual to act in a certain way forcing individuals to sus
their reason/autonomy – their freedom/responsibility to decide for themselves.
2. Controlling: Authority exerts control over people stifling creativity/initiative losing
individuality stopping them expressing themselves.
Max Stirner rejected the authority of the state, the church, moral truths, fam
values and existing sexual morality.
3. Corrupting: Those with authority are raised above others by power, privilege and wea
and lose all sense of their true nature (co-operation/altruistic). Those who are subje
authority are brutalised by a state that creates social conflict through inequality and
resolves disputes through violence/coercion, not through reason.
Liberty Individualist anarchists
Humans are rational, individualist and autonomous. Authority is commanding, the individua
cannot be autonomous in making decisions based on reason and conscience; as authority is
controlling
Liberty is the freedom to be autonomous. It is freedom from control by the state/social
institutions, such as the church, which are based on hierarchical authority.
Collectivists
Humans are rational, altruistic and co-operative but cannot be due to the state
No such thing as liberty under capitalism- means nothing more than the ability for the wage
slave to choose their own boss.
Individuals can only be free when all are free to realise their potential. Liberty is only possible
there is equality- treated equally, equal economic position and equal say in their
workplace/community.
Liberty is achieved by the overthrow of class-based, hierarchical society based on inequalitie
power, wealth and privilege
Differing views of liberty between anarchists
Collectivists Individualists
Bakunin emphasise the collective more, arguing that Most radical of individualists, Max Stirner- individual need
the liberty of the individual should be absolute and voluntary associations with others, but never common good
unlimited, but that individuality can only be achieved and always for their own personal interest.
through work and the collective. Proudhon- critical of the obsession with individuality/felt
collectivism devalued the individual. His ideas sought a
balance between the two- first element of human nature is
individuality, but that individuals coming together in a group
create a force that is more than the sum of the individuals.
State
, Core ideas and Principles
Rejection of Emma Goldman described the state as a ‘cold monster’, a sovereign body that exerts total authority
the state over all individuals living.
Oppose government, authority and political power. ‘Government’ here generally means a system of
rule which anarchists see as immoral because it restricts liberty
Government rules by deceit, backed by the threat of violence. Never been a social contract, so the
state always restricts liberty
If individuals were sovereign the state would not exist. Voting hides the power of the state based on
the police, banks and the army-uses to secure its authority. Goldman famously stated: ‘If voting
changed anything, they’d make it illegal.
violence will only be used when deceit fails- brutal repression of the miners’ strike 1984/85
Authority and Reject the state/all forms of authority based on hierarchy: authority that divides society into the
Hierarchy few (who give orders) and the many (who take orders) - includes social institutions such as the
church, social relationships, and capitalism.
State is unjust State is a relatively new creation, emerging with the creation of private property. Since then its role
has been one of exploitation.
Different Individualist anarchists- state is like a parasite that robs its citizens through taxation, backed up by
anarchist view the threat of force – nothing more than organised banditry.
Collectivist anarchists- state develops as a body to protect private property and the inequalities
between the wealthy and the masses. State is controlled by the wealthy, who use mechanisms of
the state to protect their privilege.
Global stage- state protects the interests of elites through organisations such as the World Bank
and the IMF
Tactics + state 1. Direct action: Bakuninist approach– including non-payment of taxes/rents, mass strike or refusal of
conscription to acts of violence – to stir up a revolution.
Modern examples- non-payment of the poll tax in the UK under Thatcher.
2. Acts of violence: DA has become associated with acts of violence, and acts of terror
E.g. Alexander Berkman’s attempt to murder US businessman Henry Frick in 1892.
3. Emerging revolution: Revolution will emerge out of a process of direct action and DIY politics that
exposes and undermines the nature of the state.
Involves acting already free rather than trying to influence/change the decisions of the
government allowing individuals to become autonomous/learn the benefits of solidarity
and collective action, creating a spirit of revolt. Spread of ideas will reach a boiling point,
hastened by misery and oppression, and then explode into revolutionary action.
4. Creating new institutions: Proudhon rejected any form of violence arguing that change would be
won by an evolutionary process of creating new institutions, within the cracks of the current state,
to replace the existing ones.
Done through education, instruction and peaceful action, as well as mutualist experiments,
such as worker associations and a People’s Bank.
5. Insurrection: Stirner opposed revolution as a political/social act, and an authoritarian one, as
revolution involves overthrowing existing conditions replacing them with new ones.
Insurrection – Rising up of individuals who elevate themselves above the established
institutions through self-liberation, leaving the establishment to decay rather than be
overthrown.
Society
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