Anti-statism
Anti-statism refers to all philosophies that in some degree reject state control over personal, social or economic affairs. Philosophies which completely reject the State - that deem the State an unnecessary evil - are generally classified as "anarchist," though this usage has been disputed. Other philosophies may see a stateless society as an evolutionary tendency or a programatic goal. Henry David Thoreau expressed the evolutionary anti-statist view in his essay "Civil Disobedience:"
- I heartily accept the motto,—"That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe,—"That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.[1]
Anti-statist philosphies
Completely Anti-statist
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Partially anti-statist, or anti-statism as an ideal or deferred programmatic goal
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Chronology of anti-statist writing
- 1548 — Étienne de la Boétie, The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
- 1756 — Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society
- 1776 — Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
- 1793 — William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
- 1840 — Pierre Proudhon, What is Property?
- 1841 — Josiah Warren, Manifesto
- 1844 — Max Stirner, The Ego and Its Own
- 1849 — Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
- 1851 — Herbert Spencer, The Right to Ignore the State
- 1849 — Gustave de Molinari, The Production of Security
- 1866 — Michael Bakunin, Revolutionary Catechism
- 1867 — Lysander Spooner, No Treason
- 1886 — Benjamin Tucker, State Socialism and Anarchism: How far they agree, & wherein they differ
- 1902 — Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid
- 1935 — Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy, the State
- 1962 — Murray Rothbard, Man, Economy & State with Power and Market