Anarchism

According to Wikipedia, “Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society.”

So if we look at some of the terms used to define anarchism we may refine our understanding of the word. One f the key words in this definition is the word state. Man in the state of nature before social compacts would be said to be in a sovereign state of freedom with certain inalienable right.

But what man or woman could say he or she is or has been born in such a state?

All mankind is born under the power and authority of their parents who we depend upon for our life. Your parents may depend upon others in ways that relinquishes their own natural sovereignty by creating corporate, political or legal obligations.

“Anarchism is from Greek word anarkhos ‘without a chief’ or ‘without a ruler’ later influenced by French anarchisme.

Does having no ruler in a state of nature mean having no government?

According to Wikipedia:

• A state is a type of polity that is an organized political community living under a single system of government. States may or may not be sovereign.

If a state is not sovereign they may be merely constituents or members of a state which exercises authority over them. If people depart from a state of nature through social compacts they and their offspring may become less than sovereign through the elements of the world they are dependent upon.

According to Wikipedia:

• A government is the system by which a state or community is controlled.

When we say terms like government we think of a form o government where the power of control is in the hands of a few people who control the actions of everyone else. Those few people who exercise control are the "arche" or rulers of society.

An anarchist is not really against control but in fact desires the original control of his or her own life in a state of nature. In the beginning man was endowed by natural right of dominion over himself and the world in which he lived but not the dominion or right to rule his fellowman.

Are their forms of government that accept and even promote the right of the people to control or rule themselves?

According to Wikipedia:

• Forms of government, or forms of state governance, refers to the set of political systems and institutions that make up the organisation of a specific government.
  • In the Commonwealth of Nations, the word government is also used more narrowly to refer to the collective group of people that exercises executive authority in a state.

In a pure republic the people rule over themselves individually and their leaders are not rulers or lawmakers but merely titular representatives.

In a democracy, direct or indirect, the people as a collective may rule over each other by some form of majority. A democracy with in a republic may grow in power giving elected leaders ore and more control by giving them more and more responsibility.

According to Wikipedia:

• Sovereignty is understood in jurisprudence as the full right and power of a governing body to govern itself without any interference from outside sources or bodies.

In that pure republic the people would be sovereign since the outside sources or bodies including the elected government because the government and whatever administration it was empowered with would be separate from the people.

In other words what the people chose to give the government the government would have power over but the people themselves would not relinquish any of their personal liberty.

The term "government" could be referring to the titular representatives on the one hand which would be separate from the people or it may include the most general sense the people who remain the rulers of their own lives and possessions. Together they are "one form of government".

Since the "A state is a type of polity" it is important to understand the term and the types entity the term may represent.

According to Wikipedia:

• A polity is any kind of political entity. It is a group of people that are collectively united by a self-reflected cohesive force such as identity, that have a capacity to mobilize resources, and are organised by some form of institutionalized hierarchy.
  • A hierarchy (from the Greek ἱεραρχία hierarchia, "rule of a high priest", from ἱεράρχης hierarkhes, "leader of sacred rites") is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another.

A hierarchy can link entities either directly or indirectly, and either vertically or diagonally.

• Sovereign state, a sovereign political entity in international law, commonly referred to as a "country"
• The Estates or the States, a national assembly of the estates, a legislature

Rechtsstaat, the legal state (constitutional state, state subordinated to law) in philosophy of law and as principle of many national constitutions

• Constituent state, a type of political subdivision of a nation

Federated state, a constituent state that is part of a federal model and shares sovereignty with the federal government