Proudhon exerted an ideological influence before and during the Paris Commune. This took the form of associative and federalist socialism, which took the form of workers' associations and associative management of institutions.

He was born in Besançon in 1809. As a typographer, he lived in a proto-industrial world (a phase of industrialisation that was not based on the factory system). The workers of the time did not constitute a proletariat, as they were still in a system of small-scale production. Workers were fighting to maintain their autonomy and emancipation from capital.
In 1840, Proudhon wrote "What is property? His provocative statement that "property is theft" gave him a certain notoriety. However, this did not prevent Proudhon from defending the right of ownership of small property owners.
In 1846, he published "La philosophie de la misère" (The Philosophy of Misery), which met with a resounding response the following year from Marx in his "Misère de la philosophie" (The Misery of Philosophy). Marx called Proudhon "a petty bourgeois constantly tossed back and forth between capital and labour"
It was at this time that Proudhon settled in Paris for good. He was a journalist with the "Représentant du Peuple" newspaper when the revolution of 1848 broke out. He was elected to the National Assembly in the by-election of 4 June. It was in the Assembly that he defended the insurgents during the days of June 1848.
Sentenced to prison under the Second Empire, he went into exile in Brussels. Returning to Paris in 1860, he published several works, including his political testament in 1864: "De la capacité politique des classes ouvrières", in which he envisaged the gradual destruction of the State. He died on 19 January 1865, six years before the Paris Commune. But his influence remained strong among the Communards.

To find out more.