Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

which usually meant adjusting to the shock of moving
from a rural to an urban environment, these individuals,
and in fact entire ethnic groups, began to ascend
the economic ladder, their places at the bottom being
t a ken b y sue c e e din g ge nera t ion s 0 f i mm i gran t s • Thus,
wh i let her e is a perma nen t "bo t tom twen type r cen t" the
i nd i v i dua 1 occupan ts of that category were constant ly
changing.(47) In brief, markets produce classes.
In contrast, a caste is characterized by its rigid
i t y: on e bo r n in t 0 a cas t e r ema ins in i t for 1 i f e. If
the individualist anarchist is correct and the wealthy
are able to use government to institutionalize their
p 0 sit ion 0 n e can ref e r tothis as the t rails forma t ion
of a class into a caste. What is important for the
anarchist position is that it is only through governmen
t t hat a soc i 0 - e conom i cposit ion can be ins tit uti 0 n ­
ali zed. Ass hown i n Fig. 1, t his me a n s t hat wh i 1e rna r ­
ket results in classes, governments produce castes.
These concepts are pure types. The question is not:
wh i ch is pr esent class or caste? Elements of both can
market
government
I
class
caste
(fluidity; movement
(rigidity; no
between groups)
intergroup
movement)
Fig. 1: Class and Caste Distinctions
be found in all societies. The key question is the
cause of the relative mix of class and caste. If the
anarchist analysis is correct, one would expect to find
relat ively fewer castelike features, i.e., more fluidit
y, i n m0 r e rna r ketor i e nted soc i e ties t han inthe m0 r e
go v ernmen t d 0 min atedon e s. A d i c tat 0 r s hip wo u 1d be
expected to contain more castelike features than a
democracy.
For both of these reasons, to avoid confusion with
the Mar x ian a n a I y sis and t 0 rna ke c 1ear the a narchis t
bel ief that in statist societies the distinction between
the rul ing el i te and other social groups is qui te
rigid, the term caste has been adopted.
The second point needing clarification is the
notion of conspiracy. The anarchist's caste analysis
should not be interpreted as a conspiracy theory.
Analyses of the distribution of power in society are
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