themroc on Nostr: Does anyone know of a useful anarchist definition of what "a state" is? When one ...
Does anyone know of a useful anarchist definition of what "a state" is?
When one reads the first anarchist texts, the term "state" was used as an umbrella term to designate the monarchies, empires, republics, and colonial administrations of that time. But given how anti-statistism and state abolitionism are prevalent principles in anarchism, I wondered if there was a more descriptive definition people found to be useful.
I guess I am looking for what is called an "intentional" definition, one that delineates the necessary conditions for the term to apply, rather than an "extensional" definition that lists the situations where the term is known to apply. Such a definition should be useful, for example, to point out when an established commune is at risk of becoming a state or starting to behave like a state.
Anarquists often use Weber's famous "monopoly over the legitimacy of violence" to that end but I don't find it to be useful for that purpose, although I get the appeal and I see what it brings to the conversation. Maybe this could be the subject of a later post.
Do you know a good anarchist definition of the state? Have you made your own that you would like to share?
#anarchism #politicalscience #theory
When one reads the first anarchist texts, the term "state" was used as an umbrella term to designate the monarchies, empires, republics, and colonial administrations of that time. But given how anti-statistism and state abolitionism are prevalent principles in anarchism, I wondered if there was a more descriptive definition people found to be useful.
I guess I am looking for what is called an "intentional" definition, one that delineates the necessary conditions for the term to apply, rather than an "extensional" definition that lists the situations where the term is known to apply. Such a definition should be useful, for example, to point out when an established commune is at risk of becoming a state or starting to behave like a state.
Anarquists often use Weber's famous "monopoly over the legitimacy of violence" to that end but I don't find it to be useful for that purpose, although I get the appeal and I see what it brings to the conversation. Maybe this could be the subject of a later post.
Do you know a good anarchist definition of the state? Have you made your own that you would like to share?
#anarchism #politicalscience #theory