 People without Government
Harold Barclay
Publisher: Kahn & Averill
Paperback: 160 pages
ISBN-10: 1871082161
ISBN-13: 9781871082166
Price: £9.00
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In a completely revised and updated edition of his seminal work, Barclay describes briefly the anarchic political structures of a number of societies. He ranges over (mainly) small-scale hunting, gathering, and horticultural groups, both in antiquity and today, but includes larger scale (and complex) groups too. This book seeks to show what anarchy has been like in practice. Special attention is paid to the techniques of leadership, maintaining order, and decision-making. The dynamic interplay between freedom and authority is considered, particularly the apparent tendency of anarchic polities to degenerate into states with government and for organizations to become oligarchies. Anarchy, as Barclay ably demonstrates, is neither chaos nor some impossible Utopian dream. In fact it is a very common form of political organization and one which has characterized much of the human past.
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