Anarchism
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KEY CONCEPT ANTI-GLOBALIZATION
voice to the disparate range of peoples and groups who have been marginalized or disenfranchised through the rise of global capitalism. However, there is no systematic and coherent anti- globalization critique of neoliberal globalization, still less a unified vision of an anti-global future. While some in the movement adopt a Marxist- style critique of global capitalism, many others seek merely to remove the ‘worst excesses’ of global capitalism, and some simply strive to create ‘a better world’.
The term ‘anti-globalization’ has been associated since the late 1990s with the so-called ‘anti- globalization’ (or ‘anti-capitalist’, ‘anti-corporate’, ‘anti-neoliberal’, ‘alternative globalization’ or ‘global justice’) movement. Anti-globalization refers to an ideological stance that seeks to expose and contest the discourses and practices of neoliberal globalization, thereby giving a political
CORE THEMES The defining feature of anarchism is its opposition to hierarchy and domination, with the state often being seen as the paradigmatic form of hierarchy and domination. Anarchists have a preference for a stateless society in which free individuals manage their affairs by voluntary agreement, without compulsion or coercion. However, anarchism has been bedevilled by misleading stereotypes and distortions of various kinds. The most common of these is the idea that anarchism rests on little more than a faith in natural ‘goodness’, the belief that human beings are, at heart, moral creatures. Anarchists certainly believe that people are capable of leading productive and peaceful lives without the need for rulers or leaders, but this view is rarely sustained simply by optimistic assumptions about human nature (Marshall, 2007). In the first place, anarchists do not share a common view of human nature. For example, despite sharing common individualist assumptions, Godwin stressed rational benevolence, while Max Stirner (see p. 118) emphasized conscious egoism. Second, rather than seeing human nature as fixed or determined, the majority of anarchists believe that human beings are products of their environment, even though they are also capable of changing it. In that sense, anarchists believe that human nature develops through creative and voluntary interaction with others. Third, to the extent that anarchists have a theory of human nature, it can be said to be viewed as realistic, even pessimistic. This is because anarchists are profoundly aware of the corruption inherent in the exercise of power. Indeed, if human nature were naturally good, it is difficult to see how hierarchy and domination, and for that matter the state, could have emerged in the first place.
Socialism
Liberalism
Anarchism
Figure 5.1 The nature of anarchism
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