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Anyone who opposes modern forms of governance (particulary, the notion of a republic) is usually considered an anarchist. One can distinguish two main trends in anarchist traditions, differing by the general focus of their philosophical arguments. These trends are not necessarily mutually exclusive and do not cover all the nuances of anarchism:
In contrast to common misconceptions, the anarchy sought by most anarchists is not chaos or anomie -- that is, anarchists do not desire an absence of order, rules, and organized structure. Anarchists oppose hierarchy, power and authority, which they argue to be immoral, oppressive, and detrimental to society. They philosophise on the distinctions between order and hierarchy, rules and authority, organised structure and power.
Anarchists are divided on both the methods to use to achieve their goal and the nature of the goal itself. Although anarchists all wish to reach a stateless society, the proposed methods of political, economic and social organisation vary immensely. William Godwin's late eighteenth century vision (in 1793's Enquiry Concerning Political Justice) was to be achieved by discussion and reason and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's mutualism was to be reached by a similarly peaceful evolution of society. Later in the nineteenth century, though, revolutionaries like Mikhail Bakunin saw a need for violence to overthrow the existing society to reach anarchism; this view encouraged acts of political violence such as the assassinations of heads of state at the end of the nineteenth century, though these lacked support from the anarchist milieu as a whole. Peter Kropotkin's anarchist communism developed from a scientific approach based on an alternative theory of evolution as illustrated in Mutual Aid (1897).
Anarchism first achieved mass media attention during the Second Industrial Revolution, when anarchists assassinated rulers of Russia (1881); the French Republic (1894); Italy (1900); and the United States (1901). Although anarchists are divided on whether, or not, to accept violence as a political tool, most anarchists reject such "propaganda by deed" as ineffectual at best and counterproductive at worst. Although some are pacifists, most would accept the need for a robust self defence of a revolution by the working class.
Anarchists played an important role in many of the labour movements, up-risings and revolutions of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the Russian Revolution (1917) and the Spanish Civil War (1936-9). However, increasingly authoritarian rule and political repression across Russia and southern Europe in the first half of the twentieth century put an end to anarchism as a mass movement for most of that century.
After World War II, a new form of anarchism developed, mainly in North America. This new strand has become known as anarcho-capitalism, and owed more to classical liberalism than to previous anarchist traditions, only being politically related via individualism.
A surge of popular interest in anarchism occured during the 1970s in Britain following the birth of the punk rock movement. Though the early punk scene appropriated anarchist imagery mainly for it's shock value, the band Crass expounded 'serious' anarchist and pacifist ideas, and were to become a notable influence within various late twentieth century protest movements.
At the beginning of the 21st century, anarchism has incorporated strong influences from the feminist and animal rights movements. North American anarchism also takes strong influences from the American Civil Rights Movement and the movement against the war in Vietnam. European anarchism has developed out of the labour movement. Globally, anarchism has also grown in popularity and influence as part of the anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation movements.
Though anarchists took control of large areas of the east of Spain during the civil war in the 1930s, anarchism was never taken as a central ideology for any nation or society for any significant length of time. However, it's influence on modern political thought is still significant. As Andrew Heywood writes in Political Ideologies,
Some also interpret the Ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism as the oldest example of anarchist doctrine[1].
Anarcho-primitivists assert that for the longest period of human history, human society was organised on anarchist principles.