Are there any liberal thinkers close to anarchism?
As noted in the last section, there are thinkers in both the liberal and socialist traditions who approach anarchist theory and ideals. This understandable as anarchism shares certain ideas and ideals with both. However, as will become clear in sections A.4.3 and A.4.4, anarchism shares most common ground with the socialist tradition it is a part of. This is because classical liberalism is a profoundly elitist tradition. The works of Locke and the tradition he inspired aimed to justify hierarchy, state and private property. As Carole Pateman notes, “Locke’s state of nature, with its father-rulers and capitalist economy, would certainly not find favour with anarchists” any more than his vision of the social contract and the liberal state it creates. A state, which as Pateman recounts, in which “only males who own substantial amounts of material property are [the] politically relevant members of society” and exists “precisely to preserve the property relationships of the developing capit
