A NOTE ON PROUDHON'S FEDERALISM

No social disorder ever inspired greater aversion in Proudhon than the arbitrary aggrandizement of the powers of the State. Indeed, the vehemence of his pages castigating the "Statist" tendencies both of Jacobin democracy and of plebiscitarian monarchy has seldom been matched by any other writer. In our time, however, we might legitimately wonder whether Proudhon had really seen anything. Obviously, the Second French Empire can hardly be compared to the totalitarian monsters of our time. Nevertheless, Proudhon seems to have foreseen it all: the extreme centralization of authority in democracies as well as the rise of devouring dictatorships. And so, while his own ideals have been negated by events, Proudhon's critique of modern social and political developments appears today more relevant than ever.