Anti-statism is present in a variety of greatly differing positions and encompasses an array of diametric concepts and practices. Anti-statists differ greatly according to the beliefs they hold in addition to anti-statism as significant difficulty in determining whether a thinker or philosophy is anti-statist is the problem of defining the state itself. Terminology has changed over time and past writers often used the word state in a different sense than we use it today. AnarchistMikhail Bakunin used the term simply to mean a governing organization while other writers used the term state to mean any lawmaking or law enforcement agency. Revolutionary socialistKarl Marx defined the state as the institution used by the ruling class of a country to maintain the conditions of its rule. According to liberalMax Weber, the state is an organization with an effective legal monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force in a particular geographic area.
Civil disobedience is the practiced rejection of the legislative authority of the state. This is usually defined as pertaining to the relationship between the laws of the state and the citizen. Civil disobedience often aims to challenge the legitimacy of a political or judicial ruling through protest.
Self-governance is the ability of a group or individual to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority.
Surveillance saw the advent of technologies such as high speed surveillance computers and biometrics software. As governments now possess an unprecedented ability to monitor the activities of their subjects, many civil rights and privacy groups have expressed concern that allowing continual increases in government surveillance of citizens will end up in a mass surveillance society, with extremely limited, or non-existent political and personal freedoms.
Anti-statism is a common element in anarchist and libertarian political philosophy. Anarchism is defined by its principle aim of abolishing the state and its institutions. According to anarchist doctrine, the state is a tool of domination and coercion that is illegitimate regardless of political tendencies. On the other hand, libertarianism seeks to maximize liberty and political freedom as its core principles. This may include either a complete or partial opposition to state power, with the goal of abolishing or restricting the state. Communist approaches to anti-statism centre on the relationship between political rule and class struggle. Karl Marx defined the state as the institution used by the ruling class of a country to maintain the conditions of its rule. To this extent, the ultimate goal of communist society was theorized as both stateless and classless. Political movements may adopt anti-statist principles for other reasons such as aesthetic, ideological or religious beliefs, or as a result of social or political marginalization. Examples of this may include resistance movements under military occupation or a conflicting regime.
