TRADITIONS OF POLITICAL THEORY: ANARCHISM

ANARCHISM

Introduction

• The word Anarchy comes from the Greek word Anarkhos which means “without rule”.

• It was first used in a negative sense during the French Revolution to discredit the protesters. Anarchism popularly means chaos and disorder.

• Anarchy is a belief system that rejects governmental authority in favor of self-governing or community consensus that has become a synonym for chaos and the breakdown of civil order.

• The first time the word was used in a positive sense by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his text What is Property? in which he declared, “I am an anarchist”.

• The core value of anarchism is unrestricted personal autonomy

• The first statement of the Anarchist principle wa