Anarchist Economics
Part of the series where I am trying to learn more about each of the major economic schools of thought.
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Anarchist economics is the set of theories and practices of economic activity within the political philosophy of anarchism. Anarchists are anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist, with anarchism usually referred to as a form of libertarian socialism, i.e. stateless system of socialism. Anarchists support personal property and oppose capital concentration, interest, monopoly, private ownership of productive property such as the means of production, profit, rent, usury, and wage slavery which are viewed as inherent to capitalism.
- Anarchism is often considered a radical left-wing or far-left movement and much of its economics as well as legal philosophy reflect anti-authoritarian, ant-statist and libertarian interpretations of left-wing and socialist politics such as communism, collectivism, free-market, individualism, mutualism, and syndicalism, among other libertarian socialist economics.
- Anarchists argue that characteristic capitalist institutions promote and reproduce various forms of economic activity which they consider oppressive, including private productive property hierarchal productive relations, collecting rents from private property, taking a profit in exchanges and/or collecting interest on loans.
Historical Overview
- John Warren is widely regarded as the first American Anarchist and the four-page weekly paper he edited during 1833, The Peaceful Revolutionist, was the first anarchist periodical published. Warren termed the phrase
Cost the limit of price
with "cost" here referring not to monetary price paid but the labor one exerted to produce an item. Therefore,he proposed a system to pay people with certificates indicating how many hours of work they did. They could exchange the notes at local time stores for goods that took the same amount of time to produce
. - Early views recognized that it was the state that was the only thing ensuring private property.
- Early views focused on specialization of labor and exchange.
- By the early 1880s, most of the European anarchist movement has adopted an anarcho-communist position, advocating the abolition of wage labor and distribution according to need.
- Anarchist views are very similar to communist views but probably less practical.
Theoretical Economic Systems
Classical Theoretical Economic Systems
Mutualism
- Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought which can be traced back to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who envisioned a society where each person might possess a means of production, either individually r collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in the free market.
- Mutualism is based on a labor theory of value which holds that when labor or its product is sold, in exchange it ought to receive goods or services embodying
the amount of labor necessary to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility
Collectivist Anarchism
- Collectivist anarchism is a revolutionary doctrine that advocates the abolition of both the state and private ownership of the means of production. Instead, it envisions the means of production being owned collectively and controlled and managed by the producers themselves.
Arancho-Communism
- Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism and occasionally as free communism or libertarian communism, is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state markets, money, capitalism, and private property (while retaining respect for personal property) and in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy, and a horizontal network of voluntary associations and workers' councils with production and consumption based on the guiding principle:
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs
Post-Classical Theoretical Economic Systems
Participatory Economics
- Participatory Economics, often abbreviated parecon, is an economic system proposed by activist and political theories Michael Albert and radical economist Robin Hahnel. For Albert,
participatory economics and participatory society provide a worthy, viable, and even necessary and potentially sufficient anarchist revolutionary vision
/ It uses participatory decision making as an economic mechanism to guide production, consumption, and allocation of resources in a given society. It is described as "an anarchistic economic vision"
Anarcho-Capitalism
- I have already looked into this.