Editing Individualist anarchism (section)

=== Individualist anarchism and anarcho-capitalism ===
{{main|Anarcho-capitalism and individualist anarchism}}
{{see also|Anarchism and capitalism|Anarcho-capitalism and anarchism}}
While [[anarcho-capitalism]] is sometimes described as a form of individualist anarchism,<ref name="Ostergaard"/><ref name="Avrich 1996"/><ref name="Outhwaite 2003"/> some scholars have criticized those, including some [[Marxists]] and [[right-libertarians]], for taking it at face value.<ref name="Adams & Levy 2018">{{cite book|editor-last1=Adams|editor-first1=Matthew S.|editor-last2=Levy|editor-first2=Carl|year=2018|title=The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism|location=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|pages=64–66|isbn=978-3-319-75619-6}}</ref> Other scholars such as Benjamin Franks, who considers anarcho-capitalism part of individualist anarchism and hence excludes those forms of individualist anarchism that defend or reinforce hierarchical forms from the anarchist camp,<ref name="Franks 2013"/> have been criticized by those who include individualist anarchism as part of the anarchist and socialist traditions whilst excluding anarcho-capitalism,{{sfn|Marshall|1992|pp=564–565}}<ref name="Adams & Levy 2018"/> including the authors of ''An Anarchist FAQ''.<ref name="AFAQ"/> Some anarchist scholars criticized those, especially in Anglo-American philosophy, who define anarchism only in terms of opposition to the state, when anarchism, including both individualist and social traditions, is much more than that.<ref>McLaughlin, Paul (2007). ''Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism''. Ashgate. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kkj5i3CeGbQC pp. 28] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208210722/https://books.google.com/books?id=kkj5i3CeGbQC |date=2024-02-08 }}–166. {{ISBN|9780754661962}}. "Anarchists do reject the state, as we will see. But to claim that this central aspect of anarchism is definitive is to sell anarchism short. [...] [Opposition to the state] is (contrary to what many scholars believe) ''not definitive of anarchism''."</ref><ref>Jun, Nathan (September 2009). "Anarchist Philosophy and Working Class Struggle: A Brief History and Commentary". ''WorkingUSA''. '''12''' (3): 505–519. {{doi|10.1111/j.1743-4580.2009.00251.x}}. {{ISSN|1089-7011}}. "One common misconception, which has been rehearsed repeatedly by the few Anglo-American philosophers who have bothered to broach the topic [...] is that anarchism can be defined solely in terms of opposition to states and governments" (p. 507).</ref><ref>Franks, Benjamin (August 2013). Freeden, Michael; Stears, Marc (eds.). "Anarchism". ''The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies''. Oxford University Press: 385–404. {{doi|10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199585977.013.0001}}. "[M]any, questionably, regard anti-statism as the irremovable, universal principle at the core of anarchism. [...] The fact that [anarchists and anarcho-capitalists] share a core concept of 'anti-statism', which is often advanced as [...] a commonality between them [...], is insufficient to produce a shared identity [...] because [they interpret] the concept of state-rejection [...] differently despite the initial similarity in nomenclature" (pp. 386–388).</ref> Anarchists, including both individualist and social anarchists, also criticized some Marxists and other socialists for excluding anarchism from the socialist camp.<ref name="AFAQ">{{cite book|editor-last=McKay|editor-first=Iain|year=2012|orig-year=2008|title=An Anarchist FAQ|volume=I/II|location=Stirling|publisher=AK Press|isbn=9781849351225}}</ref> In ''European Socialism: A History of Ideas and Movements'', Carl Landauer summarized the difference between communist and individualist anarchists by stating that "the communist anarchists also do not acknowledge any right to society to force the individual. They differ from the anarchistic individualists in their belief that men, if freed from coercion, will enter into voluntary associations of a communistic type, while the other wing believes that the free person will prefer a high degree of isolation".<ref name="AFAQ Appendix"/><ref>Landauer, Carl (1960). ''European Socialism: A History of Ideas and Movements''. University of California Press. p. 127.</ref>

Without the [[labor theory of value]],<ref name="Avrich 1996">Avrich, Paul (1996). ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America'' (abridged paperback ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 282. {{ISBN|9780691044941}}. "Although there are many honorable exceptions who still embrace the 'socialist' label, most people who call themselves individualist anarchists today are followers of Murray Rothbard's Austrian economics, and have abandoned the labor theory of value."</ref> some argue that 19th-century individualist anarchists approximate the modern movement of anarcho-capitalism,<ref name="Ostergaard"/><ref name="Outhwaite 2003">Outhwaite, William (2003). ''The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought''. "Anarchism". Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 13. {{ISBN|9780631221647}}. "Their successors today, such as Murray Rothbard, having abandoned the labor theory of value, describe themselves as anarcho-capitalists."</ref> although this has been contested<ref name="Franks 2013"/> or rejected.<ref>Wieck, David (1978). [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-wieck-anarchist-justice "Anarchist Justice"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928054827/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-wieck-anarchist-justice |date=2020-09-28 }}. In Chapman, John W.; Pennock, J. Roland Pennock, eds. ''Anarchism: Nomos XIX''. New York: New York University Press. pp. 227–228. "Out of the history of anarchist thought and action Rothbard has pulled forth a single thread, the thread of individualism, and defines that individualism in a way alien even to the spirit of a Max Stirner or a Benjamin Tucker, whose heritage I presume he would claim – to say nothing of how alien is his way to the spirit of Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Malatesta, and the historically anonymous persons who through their thoughts and action have tried to give anarchism a living meaning. Out of this thread Rothbard manufactures one more bourgeois ideology." Retrieved 7 April 2020.</ref> As economic theory changed, the popularity of the labor theory of [[classical economics]] was superseded by the [[subjective theory of value]] of [[neoclassical economics]] and [[Murray Rothbard]], a student of [[Ludwig von Mises]], combined Mises' [[Austrian School]] of economics with the absolutist views of [[human rights]] and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the 19th century such as Tucker and Spooner.<ref>Miller, David, ed. (1987). ''The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought''. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 290. {{ISBN|0-631-17944-5}}.</ref> In the mid-1950s, Rothbard was concerned with differentiating himself from communist and socialistic economic views of other anarchists, including the individualist anarchists of the 19th century, arguing that "we are not anarchists [...] but not archists either [...]. Perhaps, then, we could call ourselves by a new name: nonarchist".<ref name="Franks 2013"/>

There is a strong current within anarchism including anarchist activists and scholars which rejects that anarcho-capitalism can be considered a part of the anarchist movement because anarchism has historically been an [[anti-capitalist]] movement and anarchists see it as incompatible with capitalist forms.<ref>{{harvnb|Marshall|1992|pp=564–565}}: "Anarcho-capitalists are against the State simply because they are capitalists first and foremost. [...] They are not concerned with the social consequences of capitalism for the weak, powerless and ignorant. [...] As such, anarcho-capitalism overlooks the egalitarian implications of traditional individualist anarchists like Spooner and Tucker. In fact, few anarchists would accept the 'anarcho-capitalists' into the anarchist camp since they do not share a concern for economic equality and social justice. Their self-interested, calculating market men would be incapable of practising voluntary co-operation and mutual aid. Anarcho-capitalists, even if they do reject the state, might therefore best be called right-wing libertarians rather than anarchists."</ref><ref>Meltzer, Albert (2000). [https://archive.org/details/anarchism00albe ''Anarchism: Arguments For and Against'']. Oakland: AK Press. p. 50. "The philosophy of 'anarcho-capitalism' dreamed up by the 'libertarian' New Right, has nothing to do with Anarchism as known by the Anarchist movement proper."</ref><ref>Goodway, David (2006). ''[[Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward]]''. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 4. "'Libertarian' and 'libertarianism' are frequently employed by anarchists as synonyms for 'anarchist' and 'anarchism', largely as an attempt to distance themselves from the negative connotations of 'anarchy' and its derivatives. The situation has been vastly complicated in recent decades with the rise of anarcho-capitalism, 'minimal statism' and an extreme right-wing laissez-faire philosophy advocated by such theorists as Rothbard and Nozick and their adoption of the words 'libertarian' and 'libertarianism'. It has therefore now become necessary to distinguish between their right libertarianism and the left libertarianism of the anarchist tradition."</ref><ref>Newman, Saul (2010). ''The Politics of Postanarchism''. Edinburgh University Press. p. 43. "It is important to distinguish between anarchism and certain strands of right-wing libertarianism which at times go by the same name (for example, Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism)." {{ISBN|0748634959}}</ref><ref>McKain, Ian, ed. (2008). [http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/secFcon.html "Is 'anarcho'-capitalism a type of anarchism?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190909065550/http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/secFcon.html |date=2019-09-09 }} ''An Anarchist FAQ''. '''I''' Oakland: AK Press. {{ISBN|9781902593906}}.</ref> Although some regard anarcho-capitalism as a form of individualist anarchism,<ref name=marx>{{cite book|last=Bottomore|first=Tom|year=1991|chapter=Anarchism|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionarymarxis00bott|url-access=limited|title=A Dictionary of Marxist Thought|location=Oxford|publisher=Blackwell Reference|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionarymarxis00bott/page/n22 21]|isbn=0-63118082-6}}</ref><ref name="accounts">See
* Alan and Trombley, Stephen (Eds.) Bullock, ''The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought'', W. W. Norton & Co (1999), p. 30.
* Barry, Norman. ''Modern Political Theory'', 2000, Palgrave, p. 70.
* Adams, Ian. ''Political Ideology Today'', Manchester University Press (2002) {{ISBN|0-7190-6020-6}}, p. 135.
* Grant, Moyra. ''Key Ideas in Politics'', Nelson Thomas 2003 {{ISBN|0-7487-7096-8}}, p. 91.
* Heider, Ulrike. ''Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green'', City Lights, 1994. p. 3.
* [[Paul Avrich|Avrich, Paul]]. ''[[Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America]]'', Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282.
* Tormey, Simon. ''Anti-Capitalism'', One World, 2004. pp. 118–119.
* [[Ralph Raico|Raico, Ralph]]. ''Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century'', École Polytechnique, Centre de Recherche en Épistémologie Appliquée, Unité associée au CNRS, 2004.
* Busky, Donald. Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey, Praeger/Greenwood (2000), p. 4.
* Heywood, Andrew. Politics: Second Edition, Palgrave (2002), p. 61.
* Offer, John. ''Herbert Spencer: Critical Assessments'', Routledge (UK) (2000), p. 243.</ref> others contend individualist anarchism is largely socialistic and contest the concept of a socialist–individualist divide.<ref name="Franks 2013"/><ref>{{cite book|editor-last=McKay|editor-first=Iain|year=2012|title=An Anarchist FAQ|volume=II|location=Stirling|publisher=AK Press|isbn=9781849351225}}</ref> Some writers deny that anarcho-capitalism is a form of anarchism<ref>See
* K, David. "What is Anarchism?" Bastard Press (2005)
* {{harvnb|Marshall|1992}}, Chapter 38
* MacSaorsa, Iain. "Is 'anarcho' capitalism against the state?" Spunk Press (archive)
* Wells, Sam. "Anarcho-Capitalism is Not Anarchism, and Political Competition is Not Economic Competition" Frontlines 1 (January 1979)</ref> and that capitalism is compatible with anarchism.<ref>See
* Peikoff, Leonard. 'Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand' Dutton Adult (1991) Chapter "Government"
* Doyle, Kevin. 'Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias' New York: Lexington Books, (2002) pp. 447–48
* Sheehan, Seán M. 'Anarchism' Reaktion Books, 2003 p. 17
* Kelsen, Hans. The Communist Theory of Law. Wm. S. Hein Publishing (1988) p. 110
* Egbert. Tellegen, Maarten. Wolsink 'Society and Its Environment: an introduction' Routledge (1998) p. 64
* Jones, James 'The Merry Month of May' Akashic Books (2004) pp. 37–38
* Sparks, Chris. Isaacs, Stuart 'Political Theorists in Context' Routledge (2004) p. 238
* Bookchin, Murray. 'Post-Scarcity Anarchism' AK Press (2004) p. 37
* Berkman, Alexander. 'Life of an Anarchist' Seven Stories Press (2005) p. 268.</ref>

''The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism'' writes that "[a]s Benjamin Franks rightly points out, individualisms that defend or reinforce hierarchical forms such as the economic-power relations of anarcho-capitalism are incompatible with practices of social anarchism based on developing immanent goods which contest such as inequalities". Laurence Davis cautiously asks "[I]s anarcho-capitalism really a form of anarchism or instead a wholly different ideological paradigm whose adherents have attempted to expropriate the language of anarchism for their own anti-anarchist ends?" Davis cites [[Iain McKay]], "whom Franks cites as an authority to support his contention that 'academic analysis has followed activist currents in rejecting the view that anarcho-capitalism has anything to do with social anarchism'", as arguing "quite emphatically on the very pages cited by Franks that anarcho-capitalism is by no means a type of anarchism". McKay writes that "[i]t is important to stress that anarchist opposition to the so-called capitalist 'anarchists' does ''not'' reflect some kind of debate within anarchism, as many of these types like to pretend, but a debate between anarchism and its old enemy capitalism. [...] Equally, given that anarchists and 'anarcho'-capitalists have fundamentally ''different'' analyses and goals it is hardly 'sectarian' to point this out".<ref name="Adams & Levy 2018 p. 64">{{cite book|editor-last1=Adams|editor-first1=Matthew S.|editor-last2=Levy|editor-first2=Carl|year=2018|title=The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism|location=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|page=64|isbn=978-3-319-75619-6}}</ref>

Davis writes that "Franks asserts without supporting evidence that most major forms of individualist anarchism have been largely anarcho-capitalist in content, and concludes from this premise that most forms of individualism are incompatible with anarchism". Davis argues that "the conclusion is unsuistainable because the premise is false, depending as it does for any validity it might have on the further assumption that anarcho-capitalism is indeed a form of anarchism. If we reject this view, then we must also reject the individual anarchist versus the communal anarchist 'chasm' style of argument that follows from it".<ref name="Adams & Levy 2018 p. 64"/> Davis maintains that "the ideological core of anarchism is the belief that society can and should be organised without hierarchy and domination. Historically, anarchists have struggles against a wide range of regimes of domination, from capitalism, the state system, [[patriarchy]], [[heterosexism]], and the domination of nature to [[colonialism]], the war system, [[slavery]], [[fascism]], [[white supremacy]], and certain forms of [[Organized religion|organised religion]]". According to Davis, "[w]hile these visions range from the predominantly individualistic to the predominantly communitarian, features common to virtually all include an emphasis on [[Socialist self-management|self-management]] and self-regulatory methods of organisation, [[voluntary association]], decentralised society, based on the principle of free association, in which people will manage and govern themselves".<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Adams|editor-first1=Matthew S.|editor-last2=Levy|editor-first2=Carl|year=2018|title=The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism|location=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|page=65|isbn=978-3-319-75619-6}}</ref> Finally, Davis includes a footnote stating that "[i]ndividualist anarchism may plausibly be re regarded as a form of both socialism and anarchism. Whether the individualist anarchists were ''consistent'' anarchists (and socialists) is another question entirely. [...] McKay comments as follows: 'any individualist anarchism which support wage labour is ''inconsistent'' anarchism. It ''can'' easily be made ''consistent'' anarchism by applying its own principles consistently. In contrast 'anarcho'-capitalism rejects so many of the basic, underlying, principles of anarchism [...] that it cannot be made consistent with the ideals of anarchism'".<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Adams|editor-first1=Matthew S.|editor-last2=Levy|editor-first2=Carl|year=2018|title=The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism|location=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|pages=65–66|isbn=978-3-319-75619-6}}</ref>