Sociology Index

Anarchism

Anarchism is political philosophy where society has no government, laws, or other authority. A free association of all its members. Anarchism considers government and hierarchical forms of social organization to be unnecessary and undesirable. Libertarianism was often used as a synonym for anarchism. Anarchism is anti-authoritarian interpretations of communism, collectivism, syndicalism or participatory economics.

Anarchism is therefore considered to be a radical left-wing ideology. Anarchism derives from the Greek anarchos, meaning "without rulers", from the prefix an-, "without"+ archê, "sovereignty or magistracy". Leonard Read rejected the concepts of "left" and "right" libertarianism, calling them "authoritarianism." Libertarian socialism is often used as a synonym for non-individualist anarchism or socialist anarchism, to dilineate it from individualist libertarianism.

People who do not use "libertarianism" as a synonym for anarchism but use it to refer to individualistic free-market philosophy only, refer to free-market anarchism as libertarian anarchism.