anarchism essays

anarchism essays The aim of this essay is to explain Anarchism and to comprehend if it is a political ideology. There are a lot of anarchist thinkers and ordinary people which believe that anarchism is not a political ideology is only a theory in contradiction to the others which believe that anarchism is a political ideology because it is based upon ideas and values that a group of people believe and fight for. An ideology is more or less coherent set of ideas, which provide the basis for an organized political society. However, it is essential to go back and look at anarchism roots, ideas, historical arguments etc, to deepen into this human political theory that is connected with societal behavior and function. Anarchism is an ideology that regards abolition of government as the necessary precondition for a free and just society. The term itself comes from the Greek words anarchy (an-achy) which means "without a ruler, without authority . Anarchism rejects all forms of hierarchical authority, social and economic as well as political. What distinguishes it from other ideologies, however, is the central importance it attaches to the state. To anarchists, the state is a wholly artificial and illegitimate institution, the bastion of privilege and exploitation in the modern world. For this reason anarchism is primarily a movement against hierarchy. Also hierarchy is the organizational structure that embodies authority. Since the state is the "highest" form of hierarchy, anarchists are, by definition, anti-state; but this is not a sufficient definition of anarchism. This means that real anarchists are opposed to all forms of hierarchical organization, not only the state. The "classical" anarchists such as Proudhon, Bakunin and Kropotkin did use the word hierarchy, but preferred "authority,", it's clear from their writings that theirs was a philosophy against hierarchy, against any inequality of power or...