From the Riot to the Ballot Box: Political Realism in Anarchist Theory

Abstract

Anarchism is subject to many misrepresentations. Leaving aside popular images of anarchism as violent lawlessness, serious academic treatments as well as ostensibly sympathetic radical accounts, perpetuate a simplistic stereotype of anarchism as the most naively idealistic of radical perspectives. The standard representations in political theory cast anarchism as committed to an overly optimistic view of human nature, a simplistic view of sudden, total revolution, and a purist rejection of the state and any interaction with political institutions. This thesis demonstrates, however, that within the diverse field of anarchist thought there exist tendencies and thinkers which together reveal th..