Fear or Freedom? Errico Malatesta on Crime and Punishment

Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) founded his anarchism on the idea that political systems are characterized by their method. This idea suggests contrasting punishment and abolitionism in terms of methods. Statism is steeped in fear: universal fear in the state of nature and deterrence as the state’s moralizing method. For Malatesta, the state is not a moralizer, but a monopolizer of immoral behaviour. In contrast, he advocates an experimentalist moral order based on equality of conditions, solidarity and freedom as a method. Defence from anti-social behaviour is everyone’s right and duty, while punishment has no place as either deterrence or retribution. The more anarchist practices are widespread, the more a moral order is approached. In this gradualist perspective, Malatesta’s definition of anarchy also outlines his abolitionist strategy. Equality of conditions means removing the main cause of crime: social inequality. Solidarity, more than justice, is the antidote to anti-social attitudes. And freedom is the antithesis of the method of fear and all penal systems. One could aim for a middle ground between coercion and freedom. However, in strategic interaction one can only choose a strategy, not an outcome. Ultimately, abolitionism is bound to choose between fear and freedom as its method.