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anarchy

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English

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Etymology

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From New Latin anarchia, from Ancient Greek ἀναρχία (anarkhía). By surface analysis, an- +‎ -archy.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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anarchy (countable and uncountable, plural anarchies)

  1. (uncountable) The state of a society being without authorities or an authoritative governing body.
    • 1876 [1840], Pierre Joseph Proudhon, “Chapter V, Part Second, § 2”, in Benjamin Tucker, transl., What Is Property?, translation of original in French, page 277:
      Property and royalty have been crumbling to pieces ever since the world began. As man seeks justice in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy.
      Anarchy, — the absence of a master, of a sovereign, — such is the form of government to which we are every day approximating, and which our accustomed habit of taking man for our rule, and his will for law, leads us to regard as the height of disorder and the expression of chaos.
      [original: La propriété et la royauté sont en démolition dès le commencement du monde ; comme l’homme cherche la justice dans l’égalité, la société cherche l’ordre dans l’anarchie.
      Anarchie, absence de maître, de souverain, telle est la forme de gouvernement dont nous approchons tous les jours, et que l’habitude invétérée de prendre l’homme pour règle et sa volonté pour loi nous fait regarder comme le comble du désordre et l’expression du chaos.      ]
    • 1876 [1840], Pierre Joseph Proudhon, “Chapter V, Part Second, § 2”, in Benjamin Tucker, transl., What Is Property?, translation of original in French, page 277:
      The meaning ordinarily attached to the word “anarchy” is absence of principle, absence of rule; consequently, it has been regarded as synonymous with “disorder.”
      [original: Le sens ordinairement attribué au mot anarchie est absence de principe, absence de règle ; d’où vient qu’on l’a fait synonyme de désordre.]
    • 2002 [1850], Anselme Bellegarrigue, “Manifeste de l’Anarchie [Anarchist Manifesto]”, in Paul Sharkey, transl., L'anarchie, Journal de l'Ordre [Anarchy, a Journal of Order], number 1, translation of original in French:
      Yes, anarchy is order, whereas government is civil war.
      [original: Oui, l’anarchie c’est l’ordre; car, le gouvernement c’est la guerre civile.]
  2. (uncountable) Anarchism; the political theory that a community is best organized by the voluntary cooperation of individuals, rather than by a government, which is regarded as being coercive by nature.
    • 1990 [1873], Mikhail Bakunin, chapter VII, in Marshall Shatz, transl., Statism and Anarchy‎[1], translation of original in Russian:
      Our polemics against them have forced them to recognize that freedom, or anarchy – that is, the voluntary organization of the workers from below upward – is the ultimate goal of social development, and that any state, including their people’s state, is a yoke which gives rise to despotism on the one hand and slavery on the other.
      They say that this state yoke, this dictatorship, is a necessary transitional device for achieving the total liberation of the people: anarchy, or freedom, is the goal, and the state, or dictatorship, the means. Thus, for the masses to be liberated they must first be enslaved.
      [original: Своею полемикою против них мы довели их до сознания, что свобода или анархия, т. е. вольная организация ра­бочих масс снизу вверх, есть окончательная цель общественного развития, и что всякое государство, не исключая и их народного, есть ярмо, значит с одной стороны порождает деспотизм, а с другой рабство.
      Они говорят, что такое государственное ярмо-диктатура есть необходимое переходное средство для достижения полнейшего народного освобождения: анархия или свобода — цель, государство или дикта­тура — средство. Итак для освобождения народных масс надо их сперва поработить.      ]
      Svojeju polemikoju protiv nix my doveli ix do soznanija, što svoboda ili anarxija, t. je. volʹnaja organizacija ra­bočix mass snizu vverx, jestʹ okončatelʹnaja celʹ obščestvennovo razvitija, i što vsjakoje gosudarstvo, ne isključaja i ix narodnovo, jestʹ jarmo, značit s odnoj storony poroždajet despotizm, a s drugoj rabstvo.
      Oni govorjat, što takoje gosudarstvennoje jarmo-diktatura jestʹ neobxodimoje perexodnoje sredstvo dlja dostiženija polnejševo narodnovo osvoboždenija: anarxija ili svoboda — celʹ, gosudarstvo ili dikta­tura — sredstvo. Itak dlja osvoboždenija narodnyx mass nado ix sperva porabotitʹ.
  3. (countable) A chaotic and confusing absence of any form of political authority or government.
    • 1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Masque of Anarchy. A Poem. […], London: Edward Moxon […], published 1832, →OCLC:
      And each dweller, panic-stricken,
      Felt his heart with terror sicken
      Hearing the tempestuous cry
      Of the triumph of Anarchy.
    • 1853, Leon Faucher, “IV.”, in Thomson Hankey, transl., Remarks on the Production of the Precious Metals, and on the Demonetization of Gold in Several Countries in Europe‎[2], 2nd revised edition, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., →OCLC, page 50:
      Anarchy still reigns in this new country;—not only have the miners to defend their persons and their acquisitions against the incursions from Indian tribes; not only are crimes and offences common (lynch law maintaining a permitted existence instead of laws and police); but every one appears to hold his property by right of first comer: a miner choses the spot he likes best; a strong arm and a carbine, with a steady eye, are his title deeds. To seize upon a rich "placer" from a miner too weak to resist, is called in the slang of the district, to "jump a claim." The President of the United States himself, stated in his last message, that "The mineral lands should remain free to every citizen;" and the Secretary of State has added, "that the right of occupancy should be submitted only to such laws as the miners themselves thought fit to make."
  4. Confusion in general; disorder.
    It was total anarchy in the clothes shop on Black Friday as soon as they opened the doors.
    • 1907 [1883], Friedrich Engels, chapter III, in Edward Aveling, transl., Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, translation of original in German, page 59:
      The contradiction between socialized production and capitalistic appropriation now presents itself as an antagonism between the organization of production in the individual workshop and the anarchy of production in society generally.
      [original: Der Widerspruch zwischen gesellschaftlicher Produktion und kapitalistischer Aneignung stellt sich nun dar als Gegensatz zwischen der Organisation der Produktion in der einzelnen Fabrik und der Anarchie der Produktion in der ganzen Gesellschaft.]
    • 1949 May, Albert Einstein, “Why Socialism?”, in Monthly Review‎[3], number 1:
      The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of production—that is to say, the entire productive capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as additional capital goods—may legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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  • (antonym(s) of “all senses”): nonanarchy (rare)
  • (antonym(s) of “disorder”): order

Derived terms

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Translations

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