Atlas / Organisations / Individualist Anarchism

Individualist Anarchism

Tucker, Stirner · 1844– · US, Germany · Anarchist · Doctrine / school · coding confidence medium

+06ECmarket
−03CUpluralist
−10AUpluralist
−10SClocal
−04IDuniversal
+01CHcoercive

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

The sovereign individual; no obligation not voluntarily contracted; monopoly, not exchange, is the enemy.

Economic model

Free-market exchange stripped of state-granted monopolies in land, money, tariffs and patents.

Organisation of powers

No state at all; defence and adjudication supplied competitively.

Reading note

The direct ancestor of modern market libertarianism, and evidence that the anarchist tradition spans the entire economic axis.

Check a claim about Individualist Anarchism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored +06

Coded +6: free exchange stripped of state-granted monopoly.

  • Programme textTucker named four monopolies — land, money, tariff and patent — as the source of exploitation.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −03

Coded −3: individual sovereignty over conduct.

  • Programme textLiberty magazine defended free love, atheism and free speech against Comstock-era prosecution.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −10

At the floor: no state at all, with defence supplied competitively.

  • Programme textStirner's The Ego and Its Own rejects every claim of state, society and morality over the individual.

SC · Scale of decision · scored −10

At the floor: the individual as the only unit.

  • Programme textNo collective body holds authority in the doctrine, including a commune.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −04

Coded −4: contractual membership.

  • Programme textAssociation is by agreement, with no ascriptive criterion.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +01

Coded +1: propaganda and resistance rather than organised insurrection.

  • Programme textTucker opposed the bombings of the 1890s and argued for passive resistance and refusal to pay tax.

Where it came from, and what came after

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Germany · United States

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Individualist Anarchism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/indanarch/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.