The diversity of tactics: Anarchism and political power
| Author | Elizabeth J. Frazer |
| DOI | 10.1177/1474885115627558 |
| Published date | 01 October 2019 |
| Date | 01 October 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Review Articles |
European Journal of Political Theory
2019, Vol. 18(4) 553–564
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1474885115627558
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Review Article
The diversity of tactics:
Anarchism and political
power
Elizabeth J. Frazer
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of
Oxford, UK
Peter Gelderloos, The Failure of Nonviolence. Seattle, WA. Left
Bank Books. 2015. $16.00.
Abstract
This review essay focusses on Gelderloos’s normative theory of diversity of tactics. The
book is worth serious attention by political theorists because of its sustained analysis of
violence, nonviolence, tactics and strategy, but the normative theory fails. The essay
endorses Gelderloos’s nuanced analysis of the violence-nonviolence distinction and
aspects of his account of tactics-strategy-goals. But the concepts ‘state’ and ‘politics’
are both treated by him in an overly simple way. Although aspects of his account show
how complex any state-society distinction is, in other contexts he suggests that it is easy
for actors to divide state enemies from oppressed society friends. He rejects politics as
the capture of state power for dominating and self-interested purposes, and dismisses
all other aspects of political power, institutions and relationships. He thereby denies any
role for politics in the sustainability of the anarchist activism he wishes to defend and
endorse. In particular his disavowal of any political power base to coalitions, means that
coalitional action can only be depicted as evanescent and episodic, while anarchist
action is premissed on putting fellow actors who are not comrades beyond the
realm of care of concern.
Keywords
Anarchism, Violence, Nonviolence, Politics, Protest
Introduction
The Failure of Nonviolence deploys readings of empirical historical examples to
show that many of the instrumentalist arguments made by pacifists and other
Corresponding author:
Elizabeth J. Frazer, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Manor Road,
Oxford OX13UQ, UK.
Email: elizabeth.frazer@politics.ox.ac.uk
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