State (Polity)

States or Governments are entities composed of a hierarchical bureaucracy that exist to dominate society by claiming a monopoly on legal violence over a clearly defined geographical area. According to libertarian socialists, states are defined by the anti-democratic nature, excluding most people from making decisions about how society, either explicitly undemocratic regimes (ie dictatorships) or maintain a facade of democracy (through elections) that fail by inertia and complex legal bureaucracy (representative democracy). States represent the most obvious and violent form of social hierarchy in the world today, and their dissolution is a necessary part of the project for human freedom.

History

The ultimate 'origin' of the state is still largely a mystery in politics, the proposed theories of where states come from are listed below.

Primary State Formation

Primary States refers to states developed in stateless societies that had no contact with other states.

Neolithic Revolution

Many theorists argue that the Neolithic Revolution led to the rise of states, as the use of agriculture enabled for much more production of food per person, this meant that people could specialise in tasks other than gathering food, and the control of food production and distribution ensured that a society based on class emerged, and that the state emerged to enforce class society.

Others are critical of this theory, pointing out that many agricultural societies did not develop states (some even remained strongly non-hierarchical) such as Highland New Guinea, Aboriginal Australia or the Haudenosaunee.

Secondary State Formation

Secondary States refer to states developed, aided or influenceed by an already existing state of a stateless population.

Tertiary State Formation

Tertiary States refers to states created by direct intervention and administration by a fully formed state, in order to restore state power to previously statist populations in which state authority had been weakened or destroyed, or to impose its authority on a population that had previously resisted full integration under a state.

Post-State Formation

Post-State Society refers to societies consisting of people who once lived in a state and faced injustice, soon leaving the state to form their own, non-state communities that develop their own unique culture. Examples include Zomia.

Justifications

Various ideologies across the political spectrum have attempted to justify the state, and collectively these are known as statism.

Divine Right of Kings

Many early states often claimed legitimacy by appealing to religious theories, claiming that god had granted them (the ruling class) the right and duty to rule

Defense of Revolution

Some states (notably authoritarian socialist ones) have claimed their legitimacy by stating

List of States

See: List of States

Notable Theorists

Pro-State

• Plato
• Thomas Hobbes

Anti-State

• Fredy Perlmen
• James C. Scott
• Peter Gelderloos
• Peter Kropotkin
• Pierre Clastres