Dates

Individualist or social anarchist? Godwin is a strong believer in the value of individual private judgement which suggests that he should be categorised as an individualist anarchist but he believes also that human beings would use their individual freedom to make decisions and to behave in the interests of their community as a whole. He  recognises the importance of society to bring out the best in the individual and this combined with Godwin’s beliefs in the abolition of profit and private property, the communal ownership of property and the allocation of goods according to social need also moves him in the direction of social anarchism.

Human nature: very optimistic view of human nature ; individuals are rational and will freely come to recognise that they can develop fully as individuals only by recognising the necessity for community needs to be met.

Transition to Anarchism:  peaceful and gradual. Did not believe in the development of political organisations to promote anarchism but hoped instead for a spontaneous movement towards anarchism. In this view persuasion and education would contribute to the development of anarchism but there was a danger that state run education would only strengthen the state rather than lead to its abolition and so Godwin believed that education should reflect anarchist ideas rather than conventional support for the state.

Scale of Anarchist Society small scale

Communal Relations – belief that individuals will freely accept the need to behave in accordance with the needs of the community.

Profit/Exploitation should be abolished

Private property believe private property should be replaced my communal ownership

Economic equality high degree of economic equality allocation of goods and services in accordance with need. Individual liberty can be achieved only if there is a high degree of economic equality. [Socialists would agree with this but liberals and conservatives would not]

Decision making processes direct democracy, negotiation, consensus, persuasion, avoidance of majority voting to protect minority interest. Addition: if it is necessary to choose local representatives, for example to represent one commune in negotiations with other communes these would not remain in place permanently and could be easily removed if they are considered unacceptable for example  if they fail to reflect the wishes of the local community. These representatives would not form a special political elite as is the case in representative democracy.

Any additional information from Andrew Heywood

Dates

Individualist or social anarchist?

Human nature:

Transition to Anarchism:

Scale of Anarchist Society

Communal Relations

Profit/Exploitation

Private property

Economic equality

Decision making processes

Dates

Individualist or social anarchist? Individualist

Human nature fairly optimistic but recognising that individuals are motivated to a considerable extent by self interest.

Transition to Anarchism: peaceful and gradual setting up of small scale communities based on Warren’s version of anarchism/belief such communities would gradually become more popular.

Scale of Anarchist Society – small scale based on individual units of production e.g. small farms, small trading businesses.

Communal Relations – communal rules and regulations were to be kept to a minimum and individuals were to be encouraged ‘to mind their own business’

Profit/Exploitation kept to minimum because prices were to be determined by cost of production which were mainly labour costs so that no profit was added to the cost of production in order to arrive at prices

Private property limited amount of private property because this would increase individual freedom and also because the overall economic efficiency of the community would be increased.

Economic equality – some economic inequality in order to provide for financial incentives.

Decision making processes direct democracy, negotiation, persuasion, consensus but in any case an emphasis that very few decisions would be made by the community as a whole and the vast majority of decisions would be made by individuals so that individual freedom was protected.

Any additional information from Andrew Heywood

Dates

Individualist or social anarchist?

Human nature

Transition to Anarchism:

Scale of Anarchist Society

Communal Relations

Profit/Exploitation

Private property

Economic equality

Decision making processes

Any additional information from Andrew Heywood

Dates

Individualist or social anarchist?

Human nature

Transition to Anarchism:

Scale of Anarchist Society

Communal Relations

Profit/Exploitation

Private property

Economic equality

Decision making processes

Any additional information from Andrew Heywood

Dates

Individualist or social anarchist? Social anarchist

Human nature optimistic individuals will freely decide to work for the good of the community so that there is no conflict between individual freedom and the needs of the community.

Transition to Anarchism: revolutionary and therefore violent but violence kept to absolute minimum. Rejection of the idea of a Leninist political party and hope for the more spontaneous revolution. Rapid abolition of the state because otherwise it will retain it’s powers and stop the development of anarchism.

Scale of Anarchist Society small scale possibly but not necessarily rural.

Communal Relations- similar to Godwin and optimistic belief that individuals would freely accept community interests.

Profit/Exploitation both kept to a minimum

Private property abolition of private property, communal ownership of private property.

Economic equality high degree of economic equality; allocation of economic goods to needs.  As with Godwin economic equality is seen as necessary to secure individual liberty

Decision making processes- direct democracy, negotiation and persuasion. Decisions taken on the basis of consensus not on the basis of majority voting which would undermine the views of the minority. As with Godwin any representatives chosen must be fully accountable in every way to the community as a whole.

Any additional information from Andrew Heywood

Dates

Individualist or social anarchist? Social anarchist

Human nature – optimistic but recognition that financial incentives and some coercion might be necessary in the commune.

Transition to Anarchism: Revolutionary but more linked to revolutionary violence although this may have been overstated. Also there is some evidence that Bakunin had some sympathy with the idea of a Leninist style of party.

Scale of Anarchist Society – small scale.

Communal Relations – most individuals would recognise community interests but there would be coercion if not.

Profit/Exploitation kept to a minimum

Private property – abolished and replaced by communal ownership

Economic equality – high degree of economic equality but allocation of goods according to work done – to give greater financial incentive.

Decision making processes – direct democracy, persuasion, negotiation, consensus but if individuals rejected the communes views they could be forced to comply with them

Any additional information from Andrew Heywood.

Dates

Individualist or social anarchists?

Human nature

Transition to Anarchism:

Scale of Anarchist Society

Communal Relations

Profit/Exploitation

Private property

Economic equality

Decision making processes

Any additional information from Andrew Heywood

Dates

Individualist or social anarchists?

Human nature

Transition to Anarchism:

Scale of Anarchist Society

Communal Relations

Profit/Exploitation

Private property

Economic equality

Decision making processes

Any additional information from Andrew Heywood

Broadly speaking we could argue that the above anarchist theorists could be located along a spectrum from liberalism to socialism in the following order although this would have to be discussed in some detail thus the most liberal anarchists would be the anarcho-capitalists followed by Warren and Tucker then Proudhon then Godwin then Bakunin then Kropotkin although even then we could reverse the positions of Godwin and Bakunin perhaps.