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anarchist rejections of the state 45
philosopher Thomas Hobbes to describe it as ‘a monstrous body …
without any life of its own … a dead thing, a huge cadaver’. In whichever
way they choose to describe it the distinctive claim that anarchists
make about the state is that it is undesirable and unnecessary.
Anarchists have analysed the state in a number of ways. Some
have looked at the state’s formation. Kropotkin’s is probably the
best-known historical account of the state’s development but in
recent years John Zerzan and Fredy Perlman have also returned to its
history. Others have looked at the state’s functions, typically identifying
the state with exploitation or monopoly. A significant number
have attempted to describe the state by looking at the abstract
concepts with which it has been associated in the history of ideas.
This chapter reviews some of these analyses, first looking at the
ways anarchists have defined abstract ideas of government, authority
and power. There are a number of reasons for starting here. First, the
analysis of these ideas has occupied a central place in anarchist
theorizing – indeed, anarchists have often defined anarchy in terms
of their abolition. Second, because anarchists have defined and
combined these ideas in a variety of ways, their analysis helps to capture
the scope of the anarchist critiques. Third, anarchist critiques of
government, authority and power help to establish the limits of the
anarchists’ rejection of the state, pinpointing the difference between
illegitimate and legitimate rule. Finally, anarchist critiques of these
ideas provide a context for the discussions of liberty. Some theorists
– and many anarchists – have argued that the commitment to liberty
defines anarchist thought. However, in contrast to liberal thought, to
which anarchism is indebted, anarchists do not believe that liberty
requires law. To the contrary, anarchist conceptions of freedom are
posited on the state’s abolition.
government, authority, power and the state
Critics of anarchism have sometimes suggested that anarchists use
concepts of government, authority and power as synonyms for the
state rather than tools of analysis. When they call for the abolition of
the state, critics argue, they also mean to reject government, authority
and power. This critique of the anarchist position is not entirely
groundless since anarchists have often rejected these concepts in
blanket terms, habitually defining anarchy in terms of their abolition.
Anarchy, Malatesta argued, ‘comes from Greek and its literal meaning