Definition of "anarchism" []

• The theory or doctrine that all forms of government are oppressive and undesirable and should be abolished. (noun)
• Active resistance and terrorism against the state, as used by some anarchists. (noun)
• Rejection of all forms of coercive control and authority: "He was inclined to anarchism; he hated system and organization and uniformity” ( Bertrand Russell). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "… 1. For the purposes of this essay, I will mostly be using the term anarchism as shorthand for individualist anarchism; since the defense of anarchism I will offer rests on individualist principles, it will not provide a cogent basis for communist, primitivist, or other non-individualist forms of anarchism."
• "We are not using the term anarchism as shorthand for armed activities."
• "And the word anarchism has been so stripped of substance that it has come to be equated with chaos and nihilism."