Anarchism in Local Governance

Stephen Condit

Description

Stephen Condit begins ‘Anarchism in Local Governance’ arguing that anarchism and anarchists must engage with the ruling order in a more inclusive manner than radical opposition, at least in the environment of a stable and cautious welfare society like Finland. This encounter may enlarge the purposes and values of municipal governance towards some of the fundamental values of anarchism, primarily individual and communal self-governance, and as well develop anarchist thought and praxis, not to renounce radical and non-conventional action, but to enlarge its scope and opportunities by strengthening the legitimacy of anarchist values and praxis, and their practical relevance to the social order.

The discussion entails three intertwined discourses: anarchist thought in philosophical and theoretical terms with an emphasis on the possibilities of its praxis; a descriptive examination of municipal governance through its organisations, strategies and policies; and a rather anecdotal account of Condit’s 30-year career in attempting to combine these dimensions of anarchism, municipal governance and citizen participation in civil society. The counterfactual ideal of Bookchin's libertarian municipalism is a significant measure of evaluation.

Condit’s self-assessment is equivocal. He failed to instil much practical anarchism into the municipality and possibly diluted his own demonstration of anarchism beyond what most anarchists would accept. Nevertheless he considers his project justified because it has clarified potentialities for the municipality, citizen associations and anarchism, and because it may express in more coherent conceptual and ethical form significant emerging trends in Western society.

1. Introduction: The Prospects of My Situation; 2. Evoking Anarchism; 3. Municipal Possibilities for Anarchist Praxis; 4. The Impossible Ideals of Libertarian Municipalism; 5. A Municipal Expedient for Anarchists; 6. Latent Anarchism in Citizen Associations; 7. An Equivocal Vindication; References; Index.

Sujets

• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• PHILOSOPHY
• Ideology
• Politics
• Anarchism

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 28 juin 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785270772
• Langue: English

Extrait

Anarchism in Local Governance
Anarchism in Local Governance
A Case Study from Finland
Stephen Condit
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2019
by ANTHEM PRESS
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or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
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© Stephen Condit 2019
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-075-8 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78527-075-3 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
For the citizens of Savonlinna, who sustain a good community, the municipal officials who serve them and the local politicians who represent them.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Chapter One Introduction: The Prospects of My Situation
Chapter Two Evoking Anarchism
Bracketed Perspectives
Anarchist Potentialities
Prefiguring Post-municipal Community
Empowering Participation
Associational Voluntariness in Civil Society
Chapter Three Municipal Possibilities of Anarchist Praxis
Municipal Strategy
Central Administration Department
Social Services and Healthcare Department
Anarchist Praxis Enabled
A Preliminary Assessment
Education Department
Visions of Anarchist Praxis
The Discipline of Anarchist Praxis
Technical Department
Supportive Anarchist Praxis
Adversarial Anarchist Praxis
Chapter Four The Impossible Ideals of Libertarian Municipalism
Municipal Purposes
The Aspirations of Social Ecology
The Imperatives of Citizenship
Sovereignty in Assembly
The Possibility of Potential Realities
A Praxis of Critique
The Intimidating Prospect of Community
Chapter Five A Municipal Expedient for Anarchists
The Antinomy of Democratic Obligation
Self-Governance in Obligation
Demonstrating Ethical Commitment
Dysfunctions of Compliance
Authorising Obedience
Proportioning Obligation through the Municipality
Empowerment in Representational Politics
Exploiting Its Defects
Harnessing Its Strengths
From Political Party to Civil Society
Chapter Six Latent Anarchism in Citizen Associations
Practicing Associational Democracy
Engaging Municipal Policy by Other Means
Accountability as Anarchist Praxis
The Epigenesis of Anarchist Communality
Elaborating Self-Interest
Assuming Future Responsibility
Chapter Seven An Equivocal Vindication
References
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Of my numerous intellectual debts I must mention the following, to represent all the others. In Berkeley: Gene Lunn, for enticing me into the disciplines of anarchism; Jim Burnett, for demonstrating the responsibilities of practical participation; in London: John W Burton, for developing alternatives to power; and in New York: Brian Kates, for his experienced wisdom in helping me through the emotional turbulence of this project. I thank also the staff of Anthem Press for their assistance in producing this book.
Chapter One
INTRODUCTION: THE PROSPECTS OF MY SITUATION
In the spring of 2017, I lost re-election to my seventh consecutive, four-year term on the city council of Savonlinna, Finland, thereby curtailing my career as a local politician. Savonlinna is a small industrial city in an economically depressed region of eastern Finland, located in the infrastructurally difficult and ecologically sensitive Saimaa archipelago. It is increasingly dependent on tourism, although its strategy prioritises investment in environmental technology, with some success. The municipality has high unemployment and is relatively disadvantaged on nearly all social indicators. It has regularly incurred budget deficits, leading to continual cutbacks in social, educational, environmental and recreational services. Nevertheless, it sustains a vigorous cultural life, most notably the internationally renowned opera festival. Recorded levels of citizen satisfaction are consistently satisfactory.
During my tenure, I have served at various times on the culture, environment, technical and education committees and numerous working groups, and chaired my party’s council faction for over 18 years. Presently, I am on the scrutiny and auditing committee, as well as being an alternative member of the council. I have held a number of elected posts in my political party, the Green League, at local, regional and national levels, including 10 years on the national central committee and six years on the national council. For an even longer period, I have been active as a member of steering committees or as chair in numerous citizen associations of civil society, dealing with such matters as environmental and nature protection, environmental education, human rights, school and university governance, international and sustainable development, culture and science, land use and urban planning as well as the development and internal cooperation of the third sector. Throughout my career, I have considered myself an anarchist and publicly declared so. In this context, I seek a tentative justification of my participation in the municipality and its civil society. My focus is not so much my contributions to local governance but rather my reasons and purposes as acknowledgement of a personal obligation to nudge public policy towards anarchist praxis. Insofar as my justification is valid, it may indicate spheres of anarchism’s ideals which are now obscured by the complexities of local governance and the hostility or indifference of many anarchists to it.
Because of the recurrent conflicts of citizen associations with the municipality, and my frequent stance of opposition to municipal policies and council decisions, I consider these two complementary dimensions of my public career to be a coherent whole. In both state and municipal roles, and similarly in civic activism, I have understood my purpose to be committed to the strengthening of civil society and the accountability of official institutions to it, and the extension of public policy to engage citizen associations in its formulation and implementation. Although this participation is not oppositional in the manner Gordon describes as demonstrating that anarchism is alive (Gordon 2008 , 1–27), it may have a similar effect of encouraging public authorities to seek a legitimacy they might otherwise take for granted or disdain. In spite of Finland’s history of the state fostering civil society for its interests, I have assumed and sought to enhance the independence of citizen associations from statist interests.
My account is not based on what I have achieved or on the consequences of my actions. My successes have been modest and infrequent, and my consequences difficult to assess. I propose, instead, to focus on what I have intended to promote and the values which I have sought to express, always implicitly, often explicitly and, on occasion, vociferously. At the heart of these values is anarchism. In spite of the restrictiveness of municipal and associational participation, I consider myself an anarchist. Certainly, I am not of the fiery sort. Neither my temperament nor my situation would abide militancy. I seek to espouse what McLaughlin describes as a ‘weak but engaged philosophical anarchism’, which enjoins me to a duty to act for purposes intrinsic to anarchism with neither the absolutism of dogma nor the quietism of conformist obedience (McLaughlin 2010 , 13). There is space in civil society and the public sector between these alternatives. But the compatibility of my public career with even weak anarchism is uncertain, and so my declaration of anarchist principles may be contestable.
I am venturing a defence of ‘soft’ anarchism, not only as a heuristic device to set standards for ruling liberal institutions, but also as an engaged praxis with and in them. This may, as Roxburgh argues, entail a tacit or explicit recognition of the priority and legitimacy of the liberal state, thereby sacrificing anarchism’s definitive purpose of opposition to the state and commitment to its abolition (Roxburgh 2018 , 55–64). She assumes that any engagement with ruling liberal institutions will result in liberalism’s co-optation of anarchist praxis, severing it from anarchism’s transformational purpose and contributing ‘to the construction of a liberal discourse of anarchism which in effect co-opts and dilutes the radical critiques of anarchism’. Anarchism is negated in both theory and praxis. I cannot gainsay this risk. Nevertheless, I consider it a diminution of anarchism to dogmatic anti-statism which ill serves the needs of public policy. Anti-statism is a deficient anarchist ideal and too often a futile or destructive purpose of participation. When dogmatically adhered to, it weakens the praxis of transformational prefiguration which can further the self-governance necessary to anarchism. Contrary to Roxburgh, I hold, or perhaps hope, that anarchist thought and praxis can be enriched in and for the municipality.