anarchy

[Fr. anarchie; from Gr. av αρχία ( anarch i a ), ἄναρχος ( anarchos ) = without a head or chief: av (an), priv., and ἀρχός (archos) = leader.] 1. Absence or insufficience of government; social and political confusion owing to the want of strong controlling power. "That a community should be hurried into errors alternately by fear of tyranny and by fear of anarchy is doubtle a great evil."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng ., ch. XV. 2. A social theory which would do away with all authority except that sanctioned by conviction, and which is intended to secure individual liberty against the encroachments of the state. [SOCIALISM.] 3. Disorder, confusion. "Where oldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy." Milton : P. L. , 11. 696. expect, Xenophon, exist. -ing 204