Anarchist social and political theory

This chapter discusses the development of anarchism from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The rejection of the state and a common misconception about the relationship between anarchism and Marxism provide the entry point. The argument is that Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract served as the foil for the development of an anarchist critique of domination and that anarchists used social evolution to produce a sociological analysis of the state as a monopolising, centralising and colonising force. The second part of the chapter uses these characteristics of the state to survey post-war anarchism, illuminating continuities and discontinuities. The discussion focuses on developments in cultural theory, the promotion of prefigurative organisational practices and the emergence of decolonising approaches.