The Concealment of the State

This Contemporary Anarchist Studies volume examines how modern states tend to disguise their agency as a way to avoid accountability and hide their action

The Concealment of the State

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Concealing the state frees us from admitting the unpleasant truth-in today's world we are utterly dependent upon the state's increasingly frantic efforts to control risk. To this end, states have created systems of coercion and surveillance that are difficult to reconcile with our theories of political legitimacy. The dominant ideology of contemporary politics has become the concealment of the state's overwhelming power and role in daily life. We prefer the comfortable illusion that we are autonomous individuals pursuing our plans in a free market. If we hold fast to that idea, then our distance from policy makers and dwindling political influence seems less important. Nonetheless, this book draws upon the anarchist tradition and a wide range of accessible policy examples (ranging from military organization and environmental regulations to scientific investment and education) to reveal the active role of contemporary states behind this ideological screen. Lindsey argues that we need a new politics that focuses on exposing and challenging the contemporary state's hidden agency. Otherwise, how can we democratically control the state when it denies, from the outset, having the ability to meet our demands

The Concealment of the State

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Concealing the state frees us from admitting the unpleasant truth-in today's world we are utterly dependent upon the state's increasingly frantic efforts to control risk. To this end, states have created systems of coercion and surveillance that are difficult to reconcile with our theories of political legitimacy. The dominant ideology of contemporary politics has become the concealment of the state's overwhelming power and role in daily life. We prefer the comfortable illusion that we are autonomous individuals pursuing our plans in a free market. If we hold fast to that idea, then our distance from policy makers and dwindling political influence seems less important. Nonetheless, this book draws upon the anarchist tradition and a wide range of accessible policy examples (ranging from military organization and environmental regulations to scientific investment and education) to reveal the active role of contemporary states behind this ideological screen. Lindsey argues that we need a new politics that focuses on exposing and challenging the contemporary state's hidden agency. Otherwise, how can we democratically control the state when it denies, from the outset, having the ability to meet our demands

An anarchist policing? Some suggestive examples from speculative fiction

Anarchists of the 19th and early 20th centuries assumed that crime was a symptom of the capitalist order and expected it to wither away along with other social pathologies. Yet, regardless of how much scarcity is eliminated and how different the economy becomes, wouldn’t there still be anti-social behavior and crime? Drawing upon insights from utopian (and dystopian) fiction, I make a distinction between the use of coercive power that appeals to philosophical claims for its justification, and coercion that is justified by the facts of a past event. Thus, I argue that we can imagine some form of routine policing in an anarchist society grounded by factual necessity rather than policing that masks the violence of a political or social system’s ideology. By considering the form of coercion and policing acceptable to an anarchist society, we gain some insight into the moral limitations of growing “security” efforts in our very real society.Les anarchistes du xixe et du début du xxe siècle ont supposé que le crime était un symptôme de l’ordre capitaliste et s’attendait à ce qu'il se dissipe avec d’autres pathologies sociales. Pourtant, indépendamment de la quantité de pénurie éliminée et de la différence entre l’économie, il n’y aurait pas encore de comportement antisocial et de crime? S’appuyant sur les connaissances de la fiction utopique (et dystopique), je fais une distinction entre l’utilisation du pouvoir coercitif qui fait appel aux revendications philosophiques pour sa justification et la coercition qui est justifiée par les faits d’un événement passé. Ainsi, je prétends que nous pouvons imaginer une forme de police de routine dans une société anarchiste fondée sur une nécessité factuelle plutôt que sur une police qui masque la violence de l’idéologie d'un système politique ou social. En considérant la forme de coercition et de maintien de l’ordre acceptable pour une société anarchiste, nous avons une idée des limites morales des efforts croissants de « sécurité » dans notre société très réelle

Anthropologie et anarchisme

L’anarchisme s’invite de façon de plus en plus visible dans le champ de l’anthropologie. Ce dossier bilingue et internationaliste rassemble des contributions de chercheurs engagés dans la voie d’une anthropologie critique qui actualise les débats méthodologiques et idéologiques du mouvement de Mai 68. Ceux-ci touchent aux structures de pouvoir, aux espaces d’autonomie et d’entraide, aux marges et aux diverses façons de rejeter des normes. Anarchism is increasingly visible in the field of anthropology. This bilingual and internationalist dossier brings together contributions by researchers engaged in a critical anthropology, updating the methodological and ideological debates of the May 68 movement. These concern the structures of power, the spaces of autonomy and mutual aid, the margins, and the various ways of rejecting norms