ABSTRACT
Anarchism is not only a political theory in the narrow meaning of the term, but also a social theory understood in the broad sense. Anarchism as a social ideology is really a modern phenomenon. To use an analogy, it may be said that anarchism is like a tree which attained its full development in the nineteenth century, while some of its roots were firmly implanted in the eighteenth, and some of its branches have reached into the twentieth century. Anarcho-syndicalism lays emphasis on the economic as opposed to the political struggle of the working class. Acts of individual terrorism, committed by some anarchists, especially toward the end of the last century, expressed their impatience and frustration, born of impotence and inability to face and solve social problems, and alienated even those who might otherwise have been sympathetic. However, as a libertarian philosophy, anarchism cannot be dismissed as unimportant, particularly in the field of social and political ethics.
