Talk:Anti-authoritarian

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I was wondering how anti-authoritarianism differs with anarchism, specifically. Is it that it's more just a way of going about things than a broad theory? It's just that I've never seen anyone proclaim to be anti-authoritarian but not an anarchist, and obviously all anarchists are anti-authoritarian. --Tothebarricades.tk 03:54, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

In my understanding anarchy is a pretty unequivical rejection of anything resembling a state, anti-authoritarian is more open ended. I'm tempted to make the analogy that anarchism is to anti-authoritarianism as atheism is to agnosticism. --Brian Z 04:50, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

I'd like a source for the definition: "Anti-authoritarianism is the belief that communities should have the right to govern themselves and not be ruled by an outside force." Or, I'm just going to have a put in a definition from the dictionary. I think this article is absurd. RJII 16:22, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Merriam-Webster defines it as ": opposed or hostile to authoritarians or authoritarianism". Then it defines authoritarianism as : 1 : of, relating to, or favoring blind submission to authority <had authoritarian parents> 2 : of, relating to, or favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people"


RJII 16:32, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Here's one from Roget's Thesaurus: authoritarianism: "A political doctrine advocating the principle of absolute rule: absolutism, autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, totalitarianism" ...so from that anti-authoritarianism would be anti-dictatorship ...not anarchist as the article was claiming. RJII 16:40, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Regardless of what the dictionaries say, it should be mentioned somewhere that anarchists generally use the term as meaning opposition to any kind of authority, primarily the state and capitalism, but also other institutions of domination like patriarchy and religion. narkisto 19:53, 23 October 2005 (UTC)


All those "citation needed" things should be taken out. If you know anything about anti-authoritarianism, you know these basic facts describing it. It's not like they're derived from original research or controversial understandings of anti-authoritarian movements. They're just basic, encyclopedic info. Aroundthewayboy 19:27, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] VfD results

This article was nominated for deletion. The result was keep. For details, please see Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Anti-authoritarian. -- BD2412 talk 04:50, August 16, 2005 (UTC)