Does anarchy make political sense?

Bernard Dauenhauer

pp. 191-206

in: Bernard Dauenhauer, Elements of responsible politics, Berlin, Springer, 1991

Abstract

Tyranny, Aristotle says, either is the worst of politics or is no politics at all.¹ And though he does not specifically discuss anarchy, he says that that form of democracy which always appeals from laws to the people is the worst form of democracy. For "such a democracy is fairly open to the objection that it is not a constitution at all; for where laws have no authority, there is no constitution."² It is easy then to infer that Aristotle would find anarchy little better than tyranny.