Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism,[1] which is defined as "a form of social organisation characterised by submission to authority",[2] "favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom".[3] Anti-authoritarians usually believe in full equality before the law and strong civil liberties. Sometimes the term is used interchangeably with anarchism, an ideology which entails opposing authority or hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations, including the state system.[4][5]
After World War II, there was a strong sense of anti-authoritarianism based on anti-fascism in Europe. This was attributed to the active resistance from occupation and to fears arising from the development of superpowers.[6] Anti-authoritarianism has also been associated with countercultural and bohemian movements. In the 1950s, the Beat Generation were politically radical and to some degree their anti-authoritarian attitudes were taken up by activists in the 1960s.[7] In the 1970s, anti-authoritarianism became associated with the punk subculture.[8]
"Authority is defined in terms of the right to exercise social control (as explored in the "sociology of power") and the correlative duty to obey (as explored in the "philosophy of practical reason"). Anarchism is distinguished, philosophically, by its scepticism towards such moral relations – by its questioning of the claims made for such normative power – and, practically, by its challenge to those "authoritative" powers which cannot justify their claims and which are therefore deemed illegitimate or without moral foundation."Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism by Paul McLaughlin. AshGate. 2007. p. 1 Brown, L. Susan (2002). "Anarchism as a Political Philosophy of Existential Individualism: Implications for Feminism". The Politics of Individualism: Liberalism, Liberal Feminism and Anarchism. Black Rose Books Ltd. Publishing. p. 106.
- Cantoni, Davide; Yang, David Y.; Yuchtman, Noam; Zhang, Y. Jane (2017). The Fundamental Determinants of Anti-Authoritarianism (PDF) (Thesis). University of Munich.
- Futter, Dylan B. (2016). "Philosophical Anti-authoritarianism". Philosophia. 44 (4): 1333–1349. doi:10.1007/s11406-016-9781-0.
- Gutherz, David (2019). "On Not Getting What You Want: Elvio Fachinelli's Anti-Authoritarianism". Psychoanalysis and History. 21 (3): 267–291. doi:10.3366/pah.2019.0307.
- Meloen, Jos (1991). "Anti-authoritarianism and political activism". South African Journal of Psychology. 21 (4): 261–266. doi:10.1177/008124639102100410.
- Newman, Saul (2001). From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power. Lexington Books. ISBN 0-7391-0240-0.
- Orenstein, David M.; Luken, Paul C. (1978). "Anarchistic Methodology: Methodological Anti-Authoritarianism as a Resolution to Paradigmatic Disputes in the Social Sciences". Sociological Focus. 11 (1): 53–68. doi:10.1080/00380237.1978.10570308.
- Rorty, Richard (2021). Pragmatism as Anti-authoritarianism. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674270060.
- Witoszek, Nina (2019). The Origins of Anti-Authoritarianism. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.4324/9781315164540. hdl:20.500.12657/76411. ISBN 9781315164540.
