Anarchism Anarchism.
 This article is about anarchism an anti authoritarian philosophy that rejects capitalism While this is the most widespread form of the anarchist tradition there are other political philosophies that make alternative use of the term For anarchism favoring capitalist economic relations see anarcho capitalism.
Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of all forms of social hierarchy In place of centralized political structures private ownership of the means of production and exploitative economic institutions such as rent and profit these movements favor social relations based upon voluntary interaction and self management and aspire to a society characterised by autonomy and freedom These philosophies use anarchy to mean a society based on voluntary interaction of free individuals and the idea that communities and individuals have a say in decisions to the degree that they are affected by their outcomes.
While opposition to coercive institutions and socially constructed hierarchies are primary tenets of anarchism anarchism is also a positive vision of how a voluntary society would work There is considerable variation amongst anarchist philosophies Opinions differ in various areas such as whether violence should be employed to foster anarchism what type of economic system should exist questions on the environment and industrialism and anarchists' roles in other movements.
The terms anarchy and anarchism are derived from the Greek without archons rulers Thus anarchism in its most general meaning is the belief that rulership is unnecessary and should be abolished The word anarchy as most anarchists use it does not imply chaos or anomie but rather a stateless society with voluntary social relations.
 Precursors of anarchism.
Primitive cultures
Anarcho primitivists assert that for the longest period before recorded history human society was organized on anarchist principles They point to the egalitarian structure of hunter gatherer bands to the lack of division of labour and accumulated wealth and the lack of decreed law as indicators of such primitive anarchy.
Philosophical traces
Some anarchists have embraced Taoism which developed in Ancient China as a source of anarchistic attitudes Similarly anarchistic tendencies can be traced to the philosophers of Ancient Greece such as Zeno the founder of the Stoic philosophy and Aristippus who said that the wise should not give up their liberty to the state.Later movements such as Stregheria in the the Free Spirit in the Middle Ages.the Anabaptists The Diggers and the Ranters. have also expounded ideas that have been interpreted as anarchist.
Ancient Greece
The first known usage of the word anarchy appears in the play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus dated BC There Antigone openly refuses to abide by the rulers' decree to leave her brother Polyneices' body unburied as punishment for his participation in the attack on Thebes saying that even if no one else is willing to share in burying him I will bury him alone and risk the peril of burying my own brother Nor am I ashamed to act in defiant opposition to the rulers of the city ekhous apiston t nd anarkhian polei.
Ancient Greece also saw the first western instance of anarchism as a philosophical ideal in the form of the stoic philosopher Zeno of Citium who was according to Kropotkin t he best exponent of Anarchist philosophy in ancient Greece As summarized by Kropotkin Zeno repudiated the omnipotence of the state its intervention and regimentation and proclaimed the sovereignty of the moral law of the individual Within Greek philosophy Zeno's vision of a free community without government is opposed to the state Utopia of Plato's Republic Zeno argued that although the necessary instinct of self preservation leads humans to egotism nature has supplied a corrective to it by providing man with another instinct sociability.