Voluntarists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who advocates for or practices voluntary action and agreement in social, political, or economic contexts
2. An individual who believes that actions should be based on voluntary consent rather than coercion
3. Someone who supports or engages in systems where participation and decision-making are done willingly and collaboratively

Etymology: Long before it described a political stance, the root of this word meant "to wish." The Latin "voluntas" ("will") comes from "velle" ("to wish"), and "voluntarius" grew from it. Medieval English borrowed "voluntary" through Old French in the 14th century. The "-ist" ending turns the adjective into a person who holds a particular belief, and the plural "voluntarists" simply names several such people. The sense of the word as a doctrine first appeared in theology. Scholastic thinkers such as Duns Scotus argued that the will, rather than the intellect, is the higher faculty of the soul, and later writers labelled this position "voluntarism." The political sense is a 19th-century development, most prominent in Britain, where Nonconformists and others who opposed state-supported churches called themselves "voluntaryists." They believed that religion and education should be funded by voluntary contributions, not by taxation.

Synonyms: activists, advocates, campaigners

Antonyms: opponents, resistors, detractors