Anarkismi ja politiikka

Kirjoittajat

• Veli-Jukka Närhi

Abstrakti

The article deals with the attitude and relation of the anarchist tradition to politics. As far as the »old» anarchism, i.e. the anarchism of the nineteenth century, is concerned, the author makes reference to three theorists: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Michael Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin. The »new», anarchism after the Second World War, is represented mainly by Paul Goodman and Murray Bookchin. — What seems to be common to these anarchists is that they reject the state, which they see as a permanent division of human beings into rulers and ruled; moreover, they do not believe in state politics, which they consider to be above all an effort to get governmental power and then maintain it. The conclusions drawn in the article steam from the view that politics tout court is not the same thing as state politics, and that the anarchists do not reject politics as such. In fact, anarchists have maintained the tradition of the »polis» better than the state politicians. As the centralized states have more and more drifted from »politics» to »despotism», the anarchist mode of action against that despotism has become more and more the politics of free action(praxis) and free speech(lexis). In contrast to state politicians, anarchists have emphasized the importance of the ethical perspective. They have tried to form federations of autonomous, small-scale communities — in which politics is the business of all, not only of professional politicians — instead of large political units controlled from above. * 1