Anarchist Studies 29.1 © 2021 issn 2633 8270 www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/anarchiststudies/ DOI:10.3898/AS.29.1.05 Evil Institutions: Steven Bartlett’s Analysis of Human Evil and its Relevance for Anarchist Alternatives Brian Martin ABSTRACT The study of human evil, defined in a non-religious sense as serious damage to other people, animals and the environment, can be used to assess different social arrangements. Steven Bartlett’s analysis of the pathologies of human behaviour and thought provides a fruitful starting point for examining social institutions. Systems based on hierarchy and control, notably the military, bureaucracy and the state, provide the greatest facilitation of evil. Egalitarian systems are better placed to restrain the human capacity for causing harm. The study of evil offers a useful approach for understanding both the advantages of anarchism and the obstacles to moving towards it. Keywords: evil, social institutions, anarchism, bureaucracy, the state, the family INTRODUCTION It is easy to observe that humans, as individuals and as a species, do many things damaging to each other, to other species, and to the environment that supports them all. War, torture, terrorism, dictatorship, racism and systematic exploitation are just some of the toxic features of human societies. As well, humans enslave and exploit numerous other species, while humans themselves overpopulate and destroy the ecological systems that support life on earth. This is a roll call of destructive behaviours, individual and collective. One way to try to understand the proclivity of humans to hurt each other and destroy the environment is through the concept of human evil. Because of its reli-