On Savage Democracy: Global Politics of New Anarchism

Abstract

Marx-Leninism had justified its proletariats' dictatorship and had suppressed anarchism under the pretext of promoting emancipation from the oppression and exploitation of capitalism. Anarchism gradually re-emerged while oppression by Stalinism became conspicuous. Following the collapse of state socialism, neo-liberalism became hegemonic and rapid de-regulation brought in social polarization, which foregrounded the crisis of the electoral representative democracy as well as contradictions of capitalism. Responding to the crisis of the competitive democracy and neoliberal capitalism, new anarchism began to emerge including Zapatista insurgency (1994) and direct actions in Seattle (1999) or in New York (2011). Although some scholars also begin to examine its implications of new anarchism in the global politics, it is still remain marginalized in IR.
This article will explore the politics of new anarchism in the context of global democratization beyond the territorial sovereignty system. First we critically examine the intricate relation between Hobbesian realism and anarchy by focusing upon the marginality of anarchism in the mainstream IR. Second we probe the current crisis of competitive representative democracy and emerging new anarchist movements by examining the incompatibility between the territorial state sovereignty and deepening of democracy. Third we probe implications of democracy against the state, savage democracy, by re-examining an argument on society against the state in the political anthropology. Last we examine the (im-)possibilities that anarchism would play a role of ‘democracy as a movement’ to promote ‘democracy as an institution’ such as electoral representative democracy beyond the limits of state sovereignty.
As the global financial crisis indicates, the states cannot control a flow of powers effectively and tend to be shaken by its excess liquidity. While a growing flow of powers aggravates the crisis of the representative democracy based upon the territorial sovereignty, new anarchism begins to constitute a part of globalization from below by aiming to minimize domination. It is certain that the history of anarchism has continued to be a history of losers except a few cases of temporal autonomous zones such as the Paris commune (1871). However it is also certain that philosophical anarchism provides a valuable foundation for promoting global democracy by activating savage democracy.