Obligation, political

5. Anarchist theories

Anarchism comes in many forms (see Anarchism). Variants range from communist to libertarian (from Karl Marx to Lysander Spooner). Some anarchists deny the very possibility of a legitimate state, while others deny only the legitimacy of existing states. Some urge the destruction of existing states, others only selective disobedience to them. But all forms of anarchism are united in rejecting the conservative assumption that most citizens have political obligations.

It is illuminating to recall that much of the force of communitarian, nonvoluntarist fairness and voluntarist fairness theories of political obligation derives from the perceived failure of consent theory. Consent theory has been attacked as inapplicable to real political societies and alternative theories have been preferred for their superior ability to explain our obligations. But it is important to see that this attack rests squarely on a conservative approach to the problem of political obligation. If the conservative assumption is abandoned, consent theory no longer appears defective. Rather, it can be taken to specify the true grounds of political obligation, grounds that are simply not satisfied in actual or possible states. Voluntarist anarchism thus re-emerges as an interesting theoretical possibility.

Classical anarchism (of both communitarian and individualist varieties) recommended the abolition of the state. Late twentieth-century philosophical anarchism merely denies the existence of (widespread) political obligation, usually on voluntarist grounds, without making any revolutionary practical recommendations. Some philosophical anarchists have argued on a priori grounds that the authority of the state is inconsistent with individual autonomy (Wolff 1970). Others have argued only that existing states fail to satisfy the voluntarist requirements for political obligation (Simmons 1979). Both forms, however, have been attacked for failing to appreciate the overall force of multiple contributing grounds for political obligation (Gans 1992).