Anti-statism is an approach tosocial,economic orpolitical philosophy that opposes the influence of thestate oversociety. It emerged in reaction to the formation of modernsovereign states, which anti-statists considered to work against the interests of the people. During the 19th century,anarchists formulated a critique of the state that upheld the inherentlycooperative anddecentralised aspects of human society. In the 20th century, anti-stateneoliberals sought to cut state investment in thepublic sector and expand investment in theprivate sector. Other anti-state social movements sought to overthrow states throughguerrilla warfare orlimit states by establishing autonomouslocal institutions.
The modern conception of thesovereign state emerged in the wake of thePeace of Westphalia, which defined the rights, obligations and boundaries of states, replacing the old system offeudalism. The consolidation of these new European states was supported by the concurrent rise ofcolonialism andmercantile capitalism, which built an economic base for sovereign states to establish amonopoly on violence and organise abureaucracy.[1] Anti-statist tendencies were constituted to critique and oppose the modern bureaucratic state, which anti-statism considers to be inherentlytyrannical and to act against individualliberty.[2]
A formalised opposition to the modern sovereign state began to emerge during the 19th century, as various political tendencies started arguing that states worked in counter to people's "natural tendency" towardsdecentralisation. These anti-statists argued thatcentralisation promoted state interests and subordinated popular interests, and considered the main motivation of states to beterritorial expansion, which they believed would inevitably result in inter-statewar.[3] Among the first to formalize a complete theory of anti-statism wereKarl Marx andFriedrich Engels, who in their workThe Communist Manifesto, written during theRevolutions of 1848, argued that thecapitalist state operated against the interests of theworking class and called for arevolution to overthrow existing states and establish afree association of producers in their place.[3]
One branch of anti-statism soon developed into the political philosophy ofanarchism, which through the works ofPeter Kropotkin andElisée Reclus, constituted anaturalist argument against the state.[4] Kropotkin theorised thathuman evolution had been driven by a process ofmutual aid and that humanity's natural tendency towardscooperation had thus influenced itssociocultural evolution.[5] Kropotkin believed thatcapitalism andstatism acted against human society's natural tendency towards cooperation and decentralisation, and viewed the territorial expansionism of modern states, including that of theRussian Soviet Republic, as antithetical tohuman geography.[6] Reclus likewise criticised stateborders as inherently "artificial" as they did not tend to corresponded withnatural regions, and saw violent conflict as an inevitable consequence of a state's territorial expansionism, which he criticised as pitting humanity against nature.[7]
In the 20th century, anti-statism evolved in two directions, one that sought to "hollow out the state" and another that sought to create a movement to overthrow the state.[7] The former tendency coagulated intoneoliberalism, which aimed to undoKeynesian reforms by cutting state investment inpublic infrastructure andwelfare and institutingderegulation, rather than abolishing the state entirely. Neoliberals tend to advocate forlaissez-faire economics, preferring to invest in theprivate sector rather than thepublic sector, as they think the former will provide a greater benefit to society than the latter.[8] In contrast, anti-statist social movements can seek to eitherlimit or eliminate the influence of the state, either through violent or non-violent means. Some carry outguerrilla warfare against the state, while others attempt to establish a form ofautonomy from the state or decentralise power tolocal institutions. In many cases, these social movements emerged in reaction against the policies of neoliberalism, as fewer people felt invested in a state that was increasingly divesting from the public sector.[9]
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