Description
This Handbook offers an authoritative, up-to-date introduction to the rich scholarly conversation about anarchy—about the possibility, dynamics, and appeal of social order without the state. Drawing on resources from philosophy, economics, law, history, politics, and religious studies, it is designed to deepen understanding of anarchy and the development of anarchist ideas at a time when those ideas have attracted increasing attention.
The popular identification of anarchy with chaos makes sophisticated interpretations—which recognize anarchy as a kind of social order rather than an alternative to it—especially interesting. Strong, centralized governments have struggled to quell popular frustration even as doubts have continued to percolate about their legitimacy and long-term financial stability. Since the emergence of the modern state, concerns like these have driven scholars to wonder whether societies could flourish while abandoning monopolistic governance entirely.
Standard treatments of political philosophy frequently assume the justifiability and desirability of states, focusing on such questions as, What is the best kind of state? and What laws and policies should states adopt?, without considering whether it is just or prudent for states to do anything at all. This Handbook encourages engagement with a provocative alternative that casts more conventional views in stark relief.
Its 30 chapters, written specifically for this volume by an international team of leading scholars, are organized into four main parts:
I. Concept and Significance
II. Figures and Traditions
III. Legitimacy and Order
IV. Critique and Alternatives
In addition, a comprehensive index makes the volume easy to navigate and an annotated bibliography points readers to the most promising avenues of future research.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Gary Chartier and Chad Van Schoelandt
Part I: Concept and Significance
1. Anarchism, Anarchists, and Anarchy
Paul McLaughlin
2. The Anarchist Landscape
Roderick T. Long
3. On the Distinction between State and Anarchy
Christopher W. Morris
4. Methodological Anarchism
Jason Lee Byas and Billy Christmas
5. What Is the Point of Anarchism?
Aeon J. Skoble
Part II: Figures and Traditions
6. Anarchism against Anarchy: The Classical Roots of Anarchism
Stephen R. L. Clark
7. Kant on Anarchy
Oliver Sensen
8. Barbarians in the Agora: American Market Anarchism, 1945-2011
J. Martin Vest
9. Rights, Morality, and Egoism in Individualist Anarchism
Eric Mack
10. Transcending Leftist Politics: Situating Egoism Within the Anarchist Project
David S. D’Amato
11. De facto Monopolies and the Justification of the State
Ralf M. Bader
12. Two Cheers for Rothbardianism
Cory Massimino
13. Christian Anarchism
Sam Underwood and Kevin Vallier
Part III: Legitimacy and Order
14. Anarchism and Political Obligation: An Introduction
Magda Egoumenides
15. The Positive Political Economy of Analytical Anarchism
Peter J. Boettke and Rosalino A. Candela
16. Moral Parity Between State and Non-state Actors
Jason Brennan
17. Economic Pathologies of the State
Christopher Coyne and Nathan P. Goodman
18. Hunting for Unicorns
Peter T. Leeson
19. Social Norms and Social Order
Ryan Muldoon
20. Anarchy and Law
Jonathan Crowe
21. Anarchism, State, and Violence
Andy Alexis-Baker
22. The Forecast for Anarchy
Tom W. Bell
Part IV: Anarchy and Critique
23. Social Anarchism and the Rejection of Private Property
Jesse Spafford
24. The Right Anarchy: Capitalist or Socialist?
Michael Huemer
25. Anarchist Approaches to Education
Kevin Currie-Knight
26. An Anarchist Critique of Power Relations within Institutions
Kevin A. Carson
27. Anarchism for an Ecological Crisis?
Dan C. Shahar
28. States, Incarceration, and Organizational Structure: Towards a General Theory of Imprisonment
Daniel J. D’Amico
29. The Problems of Central Planning in Military Technology
Abigail R. Hall
30. Anarchy and Transhumanism
William Gillis
Annotated Bibliography
