Though Proudhon known as himself an nihilist, he did non advocate the abolishment of government nor did he suppose that such a tool was imaginable. Like, he advocated its minimisation: "By the word [anarchy] I wanted to indicate the extreme limit of political progress. Anarchy is... a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness, formed through the development of science and law, is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties... The institutions of the police, preventative and repressive methods officialdom, taxation etc., are reduced to a minimum..."

Proudhon claimed that "Property is impossible," "Property is theft," & "Property is freedom." Although he was against capitalist economy (which he repute state-backed monopoly in capital & a consequent benefit making), he rejected communism and believed that private property in the fruits of one's labor (which he known as "possession" inside early writings; "property" inside more texts) was necessary two for liberty and for an efficient economy. He believed that property was larceny once it was found & maintained by state-backed coercion. Though he is illustrious for saying "property is theft," he was applying "property" to mean government protection of that which was non produced away from labor, like unused land. He late switched to using the term "property" within a supplementary standard way, holding that the product of a single's labor should exist as esteem his "property," believing property to exist as essential element of single liberty: "Where shall we find a power capable of counter-balancing the... State? There is none other than property... The absolute right of the State is in conflict with the absolute right of the property owner. Property is the greatest revolutionary force which exists" (Theory of Property). A second one of his celebrated statements is that "anarchy is order". This statement is believed by a bit of to become a source of the circled-A.

He adopted a term Mutualism for his brand of anarchism, which involved control of the means of production per workers. Around his vision, self-freelance artificer, peasants, and cooperatives would trade their products on the market. He opposed capitalist economy since it included benefit --the violation of the labor theory of value, to Proudhon. &, he opposed communism since it opposed single ownership of the garden truck of labor. Communist-anarchist Joseph Dejacque criticized Proudhon directly, saying that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature." For Proudhon, mill & more big work would become rerun by 'labor associations' operate directly popular information. the state would exist as abolished; instead, society would exist as organized by a federation of 'loose communes' (community assemblies). Inside 1863 Proudhon said, "All my economic ideas as developed over twenty-five years can be summed up in the words: agricultural-industrial federation. All my political ideas boil down to a similar formula: political federation or decentralization." Proudhon rejected violent revolution, favoring the gradual evolution of society into lawlessness.

He mass produced couple of public criticisms of Marx or Marxism because in his life-time Marx was the comparatively minor thinker; it was simply when Proudhon's demise that Marxism became the big movement. As a matter of fact, Marx experienced to struggle against a greater influence of Proudhon amongst collectivist. He did, still, criticize more authoritarian socialists of his period of time. This involved a state socialist Louis Blanc, of which Proudhon said, "let me say to M. Blanc: you desire neither Catholicism nor monarchy nor nobility, but you must have a God, a religion, a dictatorship, a censorship, a hierarchy, distinctions, and ranks. For my part, I deny your God, your authority, your sovereignty, your judicial State, and all your representative mystifications." It was Proudhon's book What is Property? that convinced the immature Karl Marx that private property should be abolished. Around one of his number 1 works, A Holy Personal, Marx said, "Not only does Proudhon write in the interest of the proletarians, he is himself a proletarian, an ouvrier. His work is a scientific manifesto of the French proletariat." Marx, all the same, disagreed by owning Proudhon's anarchism & late published vicious criticisms of Proudhon. Marx wrote The Poverty of Philosophy as a refutation of Proudhon's The Philosophy of Poorness. Inside his libertarian socialism, Proudhon was followed by Mikhail Bakunin, in direct contrast to the authoritarian socialism that followed from either Marx.

His works were foremost translated into English by Benjamin Tucker, an advocate of individualist anarchism, who promoted Proudhon's ideas in the United States.

His essay in what is government is as easily quite well known.

A second noted quote was his 'dialogue using the philistine' within What is Property?: