Anarchist Studies |
ABSTRACT: John Locke's Second Treatise of Government is generally regarded as an apology for modern liberalism, private property and laisser-faire capitalism. The view that Locke was a liberal, however, is misleading in two fundamental ways. First, it ignores the fact that Locke was a Radical Whig; in the political context of seventeenth century England, Locke stood considerably to the left of liberalism. Second, the idea that Locke was a liberal does not do justice to the radical content of the Second Treatise itself. The Second Treatise contains a theory of consent and a doctrine of resistance which, taken together, provide a dramatic and profound challenge to even the most liberal state. Locke's philosophy thus underwrites a revolutionary politics which should be of substantial interest to contemporary anarchists.
ABSTRACT: This article is a critical discussion of Ursula Le Guin's science fiction novel, The Dispossessed. It uses her fictional representation of a futuristic anarchist world to illustrate the central defects of a stateless society. It argues that anarchism embodies a blunt and, in Le Guin's case, idealist conception of freedom which disarms people from struggling against alienation and concentrations of power. It recognises that a contradictory, incomplete, and thus alienated freedom is an inevitable feature of life in a modern society, and that only by acknowledging this fact can political communities limit its significance.
The primary inspiration for this sympathetic critique of Le Guin's anarchism is the work of André Gorz. Indeed, Gorz himself has referred to The Dispossessed as 'the most striking description I know of the seductions - and snares - of self-managed communities'.
ABSTRACT: In Anarchist Studies 4:2 (1996), Susan Brown and Janet Biehl debated Brown's concept of individualism. In this short paper, Thomas Martin suggests that the differences between them may not be so great. These papers raise some of the most complex issues within anarchist political philosophy. Readers are invited to send in further contributions to this debate
Abstract: Paul Nursey-Bray's article on Godwin's anarchism appeared in Anarchist Studies 4:2 (1996). In the papers published below, John Doheny argues that Nursey-Bray has misrepresented Godwin's politics by implying that there is an authoritarian impulse in his thinking. Nursey-Bray responds by clarifying his understanding of Godwin.
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