As one historian has written of Bakunin, The International Brotherhood he founded in Naples in 1865-66 was as conspiratorial and dictatorial as he could make it, for Bakunin's libertarianism stopped short of the notion of permitting anyone to contradict him. The Brotherhood was conceived on the Masonic model, with elaborate rituals, a hierarchy, and a self-appointed directory consisting of Bakunin and a few associates. These characteristics of Bakunin and Proudhon were not mere quirks of personality. The early anarchists feared the organised power of the modern working class. To this day, most anarchists defend the 'liberty' of the private individual against the democratically made decisions of collective groups.
Anarchist oppose even the most democratic forms of collective organisation of social life.
Anarchists do not advocate political freedom. That is to say, anarchists reject any decision-making process in which the majority of people democratically determine the policies they will support. There is, however, another trend which is sometimes associated with anarchism. This is syndicalism. The syndicalist outlook does believe in collective working class action to change society.