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Table of contents

1.  Introduction  3

2.  The study  3

2.1  The reason for the change: democracy  4

2.2  The state and its central problem  4

2.3  How to change the state  5

2.4  Organization  6

2.5  Religion  7

2.6  The range of violence  7

3.  Conclusion  7

  Bibliography  9

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1. Introduction

Marxism and anarchism are two political ideologies. Both are part of Political Theory. Is Marxism contrary to anarchism? Or is anarchism in some views similar to Marxism? What makes the difference between them?

While thinking about the two subjects there are some keywords coming to my mind: class-struggle, bourgeoisie/ proletariat, a classless society on the one hand and total individualism without laws, institutions and a government on the other hand. Furthermore violence often is associated with anarchism because of the inexistence of laws. Hence the topic gets a negative sound.

The introducing questions shall be answered in this composition by the main work of the comparison between Marxism and anarchism in reference to the state. To anticipate, both Marxism and anarchism are political ideologies which were rising up in different times of the last centuries. A political ideology is an organized collection of ideas and has several philosophical tendencies. In view to Marxism and anarchism both represent a construct of political thoughts which explain how the society should work, how the state and the government are constructed to have a certain social order. The main task is to find out the view upon the state within the comparison. A state is an organized political community with elements like a territory, government and international and external sovereignity.

In this academic paper I will compare the anarchist view of the state with the one of Marxism and find out similarities and differences. The comparison includes elements like the state, the government, the society and the privat property. Finally I will sum up the study in a conclusion and may point out how far the ideologies are standing to each other.

2. The study

Anarchism in its definition means the total thought of individualism. The word derived from the Greek and carries out the destruction of the organization of society and replaces a harmonious anti-authoritarian society. In this case it is different to the thoughts of the German philosopher Karl Marx. Marxism is based on the political philosophy written by Marx. Marxism carries out the thought of community and socialism while Marx asserted the revolution of the proletariat due to unequal class power and in the end supposed a classless society.

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2.1 The reason for the change: democracy

Many are against undemocratic ruling forms, but the anarchists for instance criticise liberal democracy. They believe that a democracy is not the government of the people, because it is the rule of a few over many. Therefore it is a contradiction in terms. Moreover the anarchists refuse democracy as a society order. The political power is practiced with force, because the people cannot make decisions on its own. In this sense anarchism is also against social contracts and governmental administrations. On the other hand anarchism for its own can be seen as “the purest form of democracy” (Baradat, 2006:143) in the way that people can make decisions and conduct themselves on its own without power systems.

In opposition Marxism criticised the liberal democracy because of “the inherent tension between democracy and capitalism” (Heywood, 1999:228). For Marx, democracy was the foundation of class-struggle. Therefore the system is to be “overthrown in proletarian revolution” (Heywood, 1999:81) to finally establish a classless society.

2.2 The state and its central problem

Anarchism looks upon the state as the representative of the economy where the wealthy oppresses the employees and prevents the fair distribution of the means. The state is seen exploitive with oppressive institutions.

The system has to be destroyed, but not be replaced through a new state, because every society created by a state becomes a class society again. Anarchists want to eliminate the state control and the government. Due to the different philosophical directions – the Pacifists, the Revolutionaries and the individualist Anarchists(Baradat, 2006:147, 152, 156) – some want the total elimination of the government while the others just prefer a reduced government (Baradat, 2006:147, 152, 156). The maximum of human liberty takes centre stage. The elimination also includes the end of all forms of institutional government like schools, universities, banks and public institutions, because they are founded by force and guided by the state. “They [anarchists] view the government and its supporting institutions as antithetical to freedom.” (Baradat, 2006:145).

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