Peter Kropotkin, you totally dislike representative government, right? Explain this?
Yes — the central problems with representative government are hierarchy and coercion. Representative government allows the state to concentrate power in a small class of rulers. The elected officials don’t eliminate inequality; they delegate authority to a few, rather than giving people direct control over their lives. The system creates dependence, obedience, and passivity instead of cooperation and self‑organization.
Elections, in my opinion, present the illusion of choice. They mask the real power structures of money, corporations, entrenched elites. Citizens can vote, but the outcome favors entrenched interests, leaving ordinary people without true influence. Representative democracy creates the appearance of freedom, but it only maintains hierarchy and exploitation.
Instead of Representative Democracy, I favor Direct democracy. People organizing locally, managing their communities collectively. I also support Mutual aid associations, where decisions emerge from cooperation not coercion or imposed laws.
I see representative government as deeply limited: elections alone cannot achieve social justice or eliminate hierarchy.
Peter Kropotkin, do you think the political system of the current Zapatista towns in Chiapas, Mexico, are far more ideal, are they Kropotkinist?
Yes — to a significant extent, current Zapatista communities in Chiapas are Kropotkinist in spirit. Here’s why:
Each community organizes direct democracy decision-making through local assemblies, rather than top-down government mandates. Communities coordinate in federations of autonomous municipalities, reflecting my vision of federated, voluntary associations. The villagers have real say in education, healthcare, land use, and local policies. Zapatistas operate cooperatives for food production, crafts, and service, with community kitchens, mutual labor exchanges, and shared resources for those in need. This embodies my idea that society flourishes when people freely cooperate to meet each other’s needs.
Zapatista autonomous municipalities are probably the largest-scale, long-lasting, real-world experiments in Kropotkinist principles today: mutual aid, federated self-governance, cooperative economics, ecological respect, and resistance to hierarchical state structures.