Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

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The Origins qf The Anarchist
Movement And The Internationa{
18. Proudhon: On Federalism (1863/65)
By the 1860's, when Proudhon wrote the fo llowing selections, he had considerably moderated his pC)litical
views. "Anarchy, " a society without government, was for him to remaill a perpetual desideratum.
He attempted to develop a democratic, anti-authoritariall conceptioll of the state as a
vohmtmy federation oj autonomous political groupings. In ProudhoIl'S theory offederalism, power
was to remain firmly based in the constitutive units of society, with the role of any central authority
beiIlg strictly defilled and limited to the express pwposes agreed to by the contracting parties. Later
anarchists accepted the idea of voluntary foderation as a basis for organization, but rejected any role
for a central authority. seeing it as rmnerc.