Authors: Kuper & Kuper
Summary: This 350-word entry discusses anarchism as a concept; identifies anarchists and anarchist movements in traditional, medieval and modern societies; and traces the development of anarchism from the distant past to the present.
Anarchism is defined succinctly as a "a political philosophy which holds that societies can and should exist without rulers." Anarchists believe that the absence of rulers will lead not to chaos but rather to an increase in social order, and that the state is a source not of order but of corruption and disorder. The entry then notes several societies, both traditional and modern, that anarchists have pointed to as examples of free cooperation without coercion: the African Nuer, the Russian mir, the 16th-century German Anabaptists, the Paris Commune of 1871, and anarchist efforts in Catalonia and Andalusia during the Spanish Civil War.
The entry's second paragraph traces the development of anarchism. Christ and Buddha may be considered among the earliest anarchists. The modern era of anarchism begins with the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. The significance of anarchism during the Russian Revolution and its aftermath is also emphasized. The entry concludes by mentioning the radical student movements of the 1950s and 1960s.