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Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which consider the state, as compulsory government, to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable, and favors the absence of the state that creates an anarchy.Slevin, Carl. "Anarchism." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Ed. Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan. Oxford University Press, 2003. While some dictionaries define "anarchy" or "anarchism" as chaos and/or disorder Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation[http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=anarchy&o2=&o0=1&o7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=1&h=0 Princeton University's WordNet®]WiktionaryMerriam-Webster Online. 18 October 2009 this narrow scope of the term is not how it is used in this article.

Specific anarchists may have additional criteria for what constitutes anarchism, and they often disagree with each other on what these criteria are. According to The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, "there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance.""Anarchism." The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 31.

There are many types and traditions of anarchism, not all of which are mutually exclusive. Different versions of anarchism have been categorized as socialist anarchism and individualist anarchism or similar dual classifications.Ostergaard, Geoffrey. "Anarchism". The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought. Blackwell Publishing. p. 14. Anarchism is often considered to be a radical left-wing ideology, and much of anarchist economics and anarchist legal philosophy reflect anti-statist interpretations of communism, collectivism, syndicalism or participatory economics; however, anarchism has for some time included an economic and legal individualist strain, with that strain supporting an anarchist free-market economy and private property (like old anarcho-individualism and today's anarcho-capitalism).Brooks, Frank H. 1994. The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881?1908). Transaction Publishers. p. xi.Narveson, Jan (2002). [http://books.google.es/books?id=a6hBXZOepB4C&pg=PA186&dq=free-market+anarchism&as_brr=3 Respecting Persons in Theory and Practice. Chapter 11: Anarchist's Case]. "To see this, of course, we must expound the moral outlook underlying anarchism. To do this we must first make an important distinction between two general options in anarchist theory ... The two are what we may call, respectively, the socialist versus the free-market, or capitalist, versions."Tormey, Simon, Anti-Capitalism, A Beginner's Guide, Oneworld Publications, 2004, pp. 118-119.

Others, such as panarchists and anarchists without adjectives, neither advocate nor object to any particular form of organization as long as it is not compulsory. Some anarchist schools of thought differ fundamentally, supporting anything from extreme individualism to complete collectivism. The central tendency of anarchism as a social movement have been represented by communist anarchism, with anarcho-individualism being primarily a philosophical/literary phenomenon.Skirda, Alexandre. Facing the Enemy: A History of Anarchist Organization from Proudhon to May 1968. AK Press, 2002, p. 191. Some anarchists fundamentally oppose all forms of aggression, supporting self-defense or non-violence, while others have supported the use of some coercive measures, including violent revolution and terrorism, on the path to anarchy.Fowler, R.B. "The Anarchist Tradition of Political Thought." The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 4. (December, 1972), pp. 743?744.

The term anarchism derives from the Greek ???????, anarchos, meaning "without rulers",Anarchy. Merriam-Webster online.Liddell, Henry George, & Scott, Robert, "A Greek-English Lexicon"[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%237439]. from the prefix ??- (an-, "without") + ???? (archê, "sovereignty, realm, magistracy") + -????? (-ismos, from a stem -?????, -izein). There is some ambiguity with the use of the terms "libertarianism" and "libertarian" in writings about anarchism. Since the 1890s from France, the term "libertarianism" has often been used as a synonym for anarchism and was used almost exclusively in this sense until the 1950s in the United States;Russell, Dean. Who is a Libertarian?, Foundation for Economic Education, "Ideas on Liberty," May, 1955. its use as a synonym is still common outside the U.S.Ward, Colin. Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press 2004 p. 62Goodway, David. Anarchists Seed Beneath the Snow. Liverpool Press. 2006, p. 4MacDonald, Dwight & Wreszin, Michael. Interviews with Dwight Macdonald. University Press of Mississippi, 2003. p. 82Bufe, Charles. The Heretic's Handbook of Quotations. See Sharp Press, 1992. p. ivGay, Kathlyn. Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy. ABC-CLIO / University of Michigan, 2006, p. 126Woodcock, George. Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements. Broadview Press, 2004. (Uses the terms interchangeably, such as on page 10)

Skirda, Alexandre. Facing the Enemy: A History of Anarchist Organization from Proudhon to May 1968. AK Press 2002. p. 183.Fernandez, Frank. Cuban Anarchism. The History of a Movement. See Sharp Press, 2001, page 9.

Accordingly, "libertarian socialism" is sometimes used as a synonym for socialist anarchism,Noam Chomsky, Carlos Peregrín Otero. Language and Politics. AK Press, 2004, p. 739. to delineate it from "individualist libertarianism" (individualist anarchism). On the other hand, some use "libertarianism" to refer to individualistic free-market philosophy only, referring to free-market anarchism as "libertarian anarchism."Morris, Christopher. 1992. An Essay on the Modern State. Cambridge University Press. p. 61. (Using "libertarian anarchism" synonymously with "individualist anarchism" when referring to individualist anarchism that supports a market society).