Legal Definition and Related Resources of Anarchy

The absence of all political government; by extension, confusion in government. A state of society where there is no law or supreme power. 122 111. 253.

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This definition of Anarchy is based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary . This entry needs to be proofread.

Vocabularies (Semantic Web Information)

noun

• absence of authority
• breakdown of administration
• chaos
• confusion
• discord
• disobedience
• disorder
• disorderliness
• disorganization
• disregard
• disunion
• indiscipline
• insubordination
• insurgence
• insurrection
• interregnum
• irresponsibility
• lawlessness
• li centia
• misgovernment
• misrule
• mob law
• mob rule
• nihilism
• political disorder
• rebellion
• revolution
• riot
• sedition
• terrorism
• tumult
• turmoil
• unruliness
• uprising
• Associated Concepts: criminal anarchy

Anarchy in Law Enforcement

Main Entry: Law Enforcement in the Legal Dictionary. This section provides, in the context of Law Enforcement, a partial definition of anarchy.

Grammar

This term is a noun.

Etimology of Anarchy

(You may find anarchy at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).

1530s, “absence of government,” from French anarchie or directly from Medieval Latin anarchia, from Greek anarkhia “lack of a leader, the state of people without a government” (in Athens, used of the Year of Thirty Tyrants, 404 B.C., when there was no archon), abstract noun from anarkhos “rulerless,” from an- “without” (see an- (1)) + arkhos “leader” (see archon). From 1660s as “confusion or absence of authority in general;” by 1850 in reference to the social theory advocating “order without power,” with associations and co-operatives taking the place of direct government, as formulated in the 1830s by French political philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865). Either the State for ever, crushing individual and local life, taking over in all fields of human activity, bringing with it its wars and its domestic struggles for power, its palace revolutions which only replace one tyrant by another, and inevitably at the end of this development there is … death! Or the destruction of States, and new life starting again in thousands of centers on the principle of the lively initiative of the individual and groups and that of free agreement. The choice lies with you! [Prince Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), “The State: Its Historic Role,” 1896]

Resources

See Also

• Law Enforcement Officer
• Police Officer
• Law Enforcement Agency

Further Reading

• anarchy in A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (Oxford University Press)
• anarchy in the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement
• A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis

The absence of government in a particular social system.

The absence of government in a particular social system.

Notion of Anarchy

The meaning of Anarchy may be as follows: implies not the complete chaos or absence of structure or rules, but rather than lack a of a central government that can enforce rules

Definition of Anarchy

In relation to social issues, a meaning of anarchy is provided here: Absence of any form of political authority. A state of lawlessness, confusion, and disorder (usually resulting from a failure of government.)

Anarchy

See Also

• Governance
• Communism
• Community Organizing
• Failed State
• Heterarchy
• Self-Organizing System

Further Reading

• Bookchin, M. (1992). Urbanization without cities. Montreal,
  PQ, Canada: Black Rose Books.
  Graham, R. (Ed.). (2005). Anarchism: A documentary history
  of Libertarian ideas (Vol. 1). Montreal, PQ, Canada:
  Black Rose Books.
  Kropotkin, P. (1906). The conquest of bread. London:
  Chapman & Hall.
  Nettlau, M. (1996). A short history of anarchism. London:
  Freedom Press.
  Rocker, R. (1938). Anarcho-syndicalism. London: Secker and
  Warburg.
• Anarchy in the Encyclopedia of Governance, Mark Bevir – University of California, Berkeley, USA, 2007, SAGE Publications