Toward a New Understanding of Anarchism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3203096 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William O Reichert (Bowling Green State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1967 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 856-865 |
| Publication date | 1967-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Western Political Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-4078 • E-ISSN: 2325-8675 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296702000403 |
| OpenAlex | W2050160963, W4252088864 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
America, not one. Toward the end of the first quarter of the present century it became accepted practice for political scientists to draw a hard and fast distinction between anarchism and anarchist communism or collectivism on the grounds that the former did not embrace violence whereas the later did. Thus in 1926 Charles E. Merriam maintained that anarchist groups in the United States may be divided into the philosophical and the fighting anarchists, one believing in the attainment of anarchy by the peaceful processes of evolution and the other by the employment of force and by revolution.' A few years later Westel W. Willoughby gave support to Merriam's definition when he maintained that the anarchist is to be distinguished from the anarchist of deed or of action on the grounds that the former believes that anarchism must be established by the peaceful processes of persuasion and enlightenment, whereas the latter does not believe that society will naturally evolve toward its perfection without the assistance of the revolutionary act.2 This neat but misleading dichotomy has dogged the anarchist movement ever since with the persistence of a shadow. But a careful study of anarchist theory reveals that the division of anarchist ideas into two separate categories on the basis of whether or not violence is considered a legitimate social means is not a valid distinction
Action (physics) · Aesthetics · Communism · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Perfection · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Shadow (psychology) · Sociology · Anarchism and Radical Politics · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.12 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1976 - 2023 (48) |
| Highly cited | No |