State (Oppenheimer)

The State, thanks to Oppenheimer's missionary perseverance, gained popularity among readers and was hotly debated at the beginning of the 20th century. The book was well received by influential people as well as various wide audiences, such as Israeli Halutzim , American and Slavic communitarianists , German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard , libertarians Henry Lewis Menken , Frank Khodorov , and anarchist capitalists Albert Jay Knock , Murray Rothb . ^[1] Albert Jay Knock was heavily influenced by the anti-statist writings of the German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer , whose most revolutionary work, The State, against the criminal essence of the state, was published in English in 1914. In his writings, Albert Jay Knock later based on the theory of Franz Oppenheimer stating that, acquiring his well-being, a person acts only by two methods of enrichment: either by creative, beneficial method "economic method", how does voluntary exchange and free market; either by the destructive, ruining and destructive method of “the political method”, how looters, robbers act and how the state acts.

A convinced anti-statistician , a supporter of classical liberal values ​​and sympathetic to socialist views, Franz Oppenheimer considered capitalism to be “a system of exploitation, and income from capital as a profit from such exploitation”, but blamed this exploitation not on a truly free market , but on the state’s monopoly intervention in the economy . ^[1] Oppenheimer's view of the essence of the State was fundamentally opposed to the then prevailing position of the etatists , based on Hegel’s attitude to the state as "admirable achievement of modern civilization." ^[1] Statisticians , supporters of the exaltation of the state, believe that the state arose as a result of a " social contract ", and tend to perceive a social contract as "the result of the consent of most groups of people to subordinate their private interests to a certain" common good. " Oppenheimer explicitly called a" social contract " - in fiction . In the preface to the English edition, one of the editors of The Freeman and Libertarian Review magazines, the libertarian Charles Hamilton writes:

"The state emerges through conquest and robbery, and survives as a result of massive exploitation; Franz Oppenheimer develops his libertarian ideas in this significant but long forgotten sociological classic ."

On the contrary, Oppenheimer's view was a continuation of the development of the theory of conquest , as the reason for the emergence of the State, which was developed at the end of the 19th century by Ludwig Gumplovich . ^[2] According to Gumplovich’s theory of conquest , the state arose as a result of wars and conquests, the result of which was the creation of social classes ; the ruling class of conquerors and the subordinate class of the vanquished. It was this that led to the emergence of the political system of the state, intended to consolidate and establish the power of the conquerors, maintain power and ensure class inequality. ^[2] Franz Oppenheimer's views on the state prompted American essayist Albert Jay Knock , who wrote about anarchism at the beginning of the 20th century, to declare in his book "Our Enemy, the State":

“ Taking any state, wherever it is, penetrating its history at any given time, it is impossible to distinguish the activities of the founders, administrators and beneficiaries of the state from similar activities of the professional-criminal class, organized crime. " ^[3]

Franz Oppenheimer regarded the state as the main factor in creating privileges and maintaining inequality. ^[1] Franz Oppenheimer rejected the views of radical anarchists and revolutionary socialists as overly pessimistic. Not violent impact, but evolutionary development should bring the desired social changes. His ideal was a state without classes or without class interests, in which the bureaucracy would become an impartial guardian of public interests. ^[1] In the USA, Franz Oppenheimer became a popularizer and supporter of the American social reformer Henry George . Although Oppenheimer and Henry George considered the state a longtime advocate of privileges, they also believed that democracy could fundamentally change it. Government officials were forced one way or another to show their humanitarian side, which made the political class more and more vulnerable. Franz Oppenheimer saw in fascism and Bolshevism the last futile attempts to resurrect ancient tyranny. He hoped that their fall would be a prelude to a truly liberal era. ^{[1] The} result of the trend of social development of the state, Franz Oppenheimer saw the "free citizenship of free people":

“ The trend in the development of the state unmistakably leads to the only possible outcome: if we consider it in essence, the state, over time, completely ceases to be a“ developed political means ”and becomes“ free citizenship of free people. ”The“ State ”of the future will be“ Society ”, self-regulated. "

" In my book I also adhere to generally accepted Western European terminology and by the term" State "I mean, not a cluster, and not a community of people into which people can unite, and which can spontaneously arise, as is commonly believed (in Eastern Europe and, in including in Germany, approx. interpreter), and a certain set of privileges and dominant position is the result of a violent non-economic power. in contrast, the term "Company", I mean a set of concepts, odyaschih among all purely natural human relations and social institutions between man and man, who can not be fully realized as long as the last remnants of the consequences of the barbaric "the era of invasions and conquests" are completely excluded from public life. "

"In turn, this affects the understanding of the nature of the" State ", which, and this should be noted especially, is one of the forms of an organized political association, it should also be remembered that this is a form with certain characteristics. Each state in history has been or is a class state, a state with a hierarchy of supreme and subordinate social groups, founded with different and unequal rights, and with different and unequal possessions. This phenomenon should be called the "State" . And only the "State" fills the story. "

"Now they are trying to convince us that class society arises only as a result of the full occupation of fertile lands, but, as I have shown earlier, from an economic point of view, even in modern conditions, a significant amount of land remains unoccupied, which actually means - the occupation of land was carried out using political, not economic methods. Taking into account the fact that the shortage of land was not observed, there was a tool that allows you to "legal" to create a similar deficit. Thus, m, land ownership established by the ruling class, which prevented its members move in the poorer classes, and this means that the class "State" can only arise as a result of the processes of conquest and subjugation. "

“I added the economic component to the initial sociological idea of ​​the state, which I formulated as follows: What is the State from the point of view of the sociological concept? The state, completely in its origin, significantly and almost completely in the initial stages of its existence, is a social institution, forcibly imposed on the victorious a group of people over a defeated group for the sole purpose of asserting the dominance of the victorious group over the defeated, and to protect themselves from rebellion and and attacks from outside Teleologically -. such Domination has no other purpose than the economic exploitation of the vanquished victors All primitive state known to history, arose in this way [*] But even in those cases where the historical facts to the contrary, we are.. As a rule, it’s about unification of two developed primitive states into a single structure, Another option for such a union is the formation of a single “bloc” to counter the external threat - as in the fable when the herd of sheep chose bear his "king" to protect him from the wolf. But even in this case, the form and content of the State were exactly the same as in those states that no one had conquered, and which immediately became "wolf states."

[*] " History cannot show us a single example of a people whose first traces of the division of labor and agriculture would not coincide with such agricultural exploitation, in which the efforts of labor would not be attributed to any one, and the fruits of labor would not be appropriated by someone else, in other words, in which the division of labor would not develop as the subordination of some people to other people. "- Rodbertus-Yagetsov, coverage of the social issue, second edition. Berlin, 1890, p. 124.

In his book The State, Franz Oppenheimer distinguishes between the "economic methods" of free exchange and the "political methods" of forced removal used to acquire wealth:

" There are two fundamentally opposite methods by which a person satisfies his needs - work and robbery. In other words, his own labor and forcible appropriation of the labor of other people. Robbery! Forced withdrawal! Given the fact that modern civilization is based on the principle of inviolability of private property, from these words breathes violence and prison Negative attitudes towards robbery retained regardless of where it takes place -. on land or at sea, but, for example, mercenaries, according to which five cases is an organized form of robbery, was considered one of the most respected studies. Given the ambiguity of the concepts and definitions, there is an urgent need to use the correct terminology in our further investigation. To this end, the description of their own labor and the process of equitable sharing of the results of their work on the results of work of other people, I suggest using the definition of “economic methods”, while for describing forced and unequal withdrawal the result Out of the labor of others, I propose using the definition of "political methods." "

“ In other words, a clear separation of methods for achieving goals will allow us to avoid confusion in our research and will be the key to understanding the stages of development, the essence and goals of the“ State. ” Moreover, since until now the history of mankind has been the history of the“ State ”, then our the study will allow us to better understand historical events.I would like to note here that the whole world history, from primitive times to the present day, is nothing but a continuous struggle between the “economic” and the political "methods , which will continue until we reach a level of development at which the emergence of" free citizenship of free people. "

The result of the historical transformation of the state and society, Franz Oppenheimer saw the complete defeat of violent "political methods" and the victory of voluntary "economic methods" and, as a result, the death of the criminal institution of the state, and the emergence of a civil free society of "free citizenship of free people":

“ “ The state ”means fully developed political means,“ Society ”means fully developed economic means. Until then, the state and society have been inextricably linked: in the“ free citizenship of free people ”there will be no“ state ”, but only“ free ” society ". "

" Such was the path of suffering and the salvation of mankind, from its Calvary to its resurrection in the eternal kingdom - from war to peace, from a hostile split into hordes to the peaceful unity of all mankind, from violence and cruelty to humanity, from exploitation in a state organized by domination and robbery, to a free life and "free citizenship of free people. "

Akratia ^[4] - refers to the term coined by the sociologist Franz Oppenheimer in his Theory of Democracy ^[5] , which refers to the abolition of political class society . Since dominance has never been anything other than a " legal form of economic exploitation ", Akratia is based on the " ideal of a society free from any economic exploitation ." The abolition of the political class society implies its economic overcoming. Franz Oppenheimer believed that "the place of the" State "in the future should be taken by a free" Society ", guided by self-government." ^{[6] [7] [8] [9]}

The term "Democracy" expresses a claim to the joint rule of the people (Demos), but theoretically vague, since the growth of a joint government on the basis of self-government logically repels the domination of the minority (Kratie). But what does the word (Volks-Herrschaft) mean "people's rule"? "Dominance has never been anything but a legal form of economic exploitation." ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]} Now that it is impossible to use "power over oneself" for one’s own exploitation, (...) it has been proved that, with the full implementation of the principle of democracy, democracy ceases to be Kratia, and becomes Acratia ". According to Oppenheimer, Akratia is the" ideal of a society free from all economic exploitation. "The abolition of a political class society requires its economic overcoming. All the weaknesses of democracy are caused only by oligocratic remnants of the pre-democratic period. ^{[14] [15] [16] [ 17]}

Franz Oppenheimer was also posthumously published in the anarchist journal Akratia , published from 1973 to 1981, by the Swedish anarchist Heiner Köchlin .

“So, if the state is a huge mechanism of legalized crimes and aggression, the“ organization of political methods ”for enrichment, it means that the state is a criminal, criminal organization” , - Murray Rothbard in the book “Ethics of Freedom” .

Frank Hodorov , after reading the “State” by Franz Oppenheimer, writes : “There is always a decisive struggle between the state and the individual, like tug of war: any power that one gains must harm the other ,” Frank Khodorov in the article “The Cardinal Crime” .

“One of the most influential thinkers who wrote about the nature of the state was Franz Oppenheimer, who distinguished between economic and political methods [actions], who defined the state as“ the organization of political methods , ” Stefan Kinsella in the article“ The Nature of the State and Why They Hate It . ”

“In his important book The State, the sociologist Franz Oppenheimer distinguishes what he called economic means and political tools to achieve wealth, that is, between“ work and robbery ”. “The state,” he concludes, “is an organization of political instruments,” - Tom Gordon Palmer in the article “The Nature of States and Governments” .

“Franz Oppenheimer is a left-anarchist German sociologist. In his “State”, he distinguishes between economic (peaceful and productive) and political (violent and parasitic) methods of enrichment, and characterizes the state as an instrument of domination and exploitation , ” economist Hans-Herman Hoppe in the article“ Anarcho-capitalism: a brief bibliography ” .

“In their works, the distinguished historian Charles Beard and the German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer, known for his 1908 work“ The State ”, claimed that the state is a direct product of war and conquest, repeating the words of Herbert Spencer:“ It is true that the government is generated by aggression and is source of aggression, ” - David S. D'Amato in the article“ Birth of the State ” .

“A new wave of archaeological research on the origin of the state justifies the pioneering socio-economic theories of the great libertarian sociologist Franz Oppenheimer, author of the masterpiece“ The State ”. Oppenheimer's book has had a decisive influence on modern libertarian thought, especially in the works of Albert Jay Knock, Frank Khodorov and Murray N. Rothbard. He laid the foundation for libertarian class theory or an analysis of the power elite in the 20th century. ” - Charles A. Barris, columnist for LewRockwell.com

“But the state’s main monopoly is control over the use of violence by the police and the armed forces, as well as over the courts - the source of the“ last word ”in the debates of the parties regarding crimes and treaties. Control over the police and the army is especially important for strengthening and insuring all other state authorities, including the most important - the power to extract state revenue by force, ” - Murray Rothbard in the book“ Ethics of Freedom ” .

“Only the state earns its income through violence, threatening terrible penalties if income does not appear. Such violence is known as taxation, although in less developed times it was called tribute. Taxation is simply sheer theft, and theft is of astounding proportions that no criminal can match. This is a forced or violent seizure of property of residents or citizens of the state, ” - Murray Rothbard in the book“ Ethics of Freedom ” .

“The fact that the capitalist government facilitates the exploitation of the lower masses is not an argument against capitalism; it is simply an argument against the entire civilian government, which, as Professor Franz Oppenheimer rightly demonstrated, is always and inevitably nothing more than a vast machine to facilitate such exploitation. Oppenheimer, however, is dreaming of a time when the exploiters themselves will close their shop, but these are just dreams ... " , - Henry Lewis Mencken ," Mencken's Chrestomancy " .

“History confidently indicates that the origin of the state is invariably traced to conquests and confiscations. Not a single primitive state known in history was formed as a result of any other actions. On the other hand, it is beyond any doubt proved that a primitive state could not have another origin. Moreover, the only invariable characteristic of the state is the economic exploitation of one class by another, ” - Albert Jay Knock , in the book“ Our Enemy: The State ” .

“In this sense, any state known to history is a class. Oppenheimer defined the state, with respect to its origin, as an institution, “imposed on the defeated group by the victorious group, with the sole purpose of systematizing the processes of conquerors dominating the conquered, as a means of protecting them from rebellions inside and against attacks from the outside. This dominance of the conquerors has no other ultimate goal than the financial exploitation of the conquered group, ” - Albert Jay Knock , in the book“ Our Enemy: The State ” .

“Franz Oppenheimer, the most prominent advocate of the theory of conquest, writes:“ The state ... is a social institution imposed by a winning group of people over a defeated group, with the sole purpose of enforcing the domination of the winning group over the defeated and protecting itself from insurrection from within and outside attacks. Teleologically, such domination has no other purpose than the economic exploitation of the vanquished. No primitive state known in history has arisen in any other way , ” Roderick Long and Phillip Jacobson in the dialogue“ On the Origin of the State ” .

“The German sociologist of the 19th century, Franz Oppenheimer, briefly and accurately stated the essence of the matter when he noted that there are two and only two ways to achieve wealth in society: - production and voluntary exchange with others - the free market method - forcibly seizing values ​​produced by others. The latter is a method of coercion and theft. The former benefits all parties involved, while the latter benefits the parasitic thieves group or class and violates the rights of the robbed. Oppenheimer distinguished the first method of acquiring wealth - “economic methods” from the second, which was caustically called “political methods”. Oppenheimer then brilliantly continued and defined the state as “the organization of political methods” , - Murray Rothbard in the book “Ethics of Freedom” .

“The great German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer argued that there are two mutually exclusive ways of gaining wealth; the first - the above method of production and exchange of products - he called the "economic method". Another enrichment method, more primitive and not requiring production; it is a way of capturing other people's goods and services through violence and coercion. This is a method of free confiscation, theft of private property, robbery of other people. Franz Oppenheimer called this method the “political method" of enrichment. From this it is clear that the use of peaceful exchange and one’s own labor for production is the “natural way” of the well-being of human civilization; and "predatory robbery" - "the path of degradation" - Murray Rothbard in the book "Anatomy of the State . "

“Now we can more fully answer the question: what is the state? The state, according to Oppenheimer, is an “organization of political methods”; it is a systematization of predatory processes in a given territory. Indeed, crime is sporadic and inconstant; parasitism is short-lived, and a lifestyle based on coercion and parasitism can be interrupted at any time due to the resistance of the victims. The state provides a legal, orderly and systematic channel for the theft of private property; it provides the parasitic caste of society with a reliable, safe and relatively “peaceful” supply channel. Since production must always precede theft, the free market is an ancient state. The state was never created through a "social contract"; it was always born through conquest and exploitation. The classical paradigm was that the conqueror tribe stopped its time-tested method of robbery and extermination of the conquered tribe, realizing that it was possible to rob longer, more reliable and in a more pleasant environment, if the conquered tribe was allowed to live and produce, while the conquerors settled among them as rulers, extorting a constant annual tribute, ” - Murray Rothbard in the book“ The Anatomy of the State . ”

The “State” was first published in Germany in 1907. The very first edition of the book was published in limited edition in 1907 in Frankfurt am Main as a publication in a scientific collection edited by Martin Buber: “Society. A collection of socio-psychological monographs” (Der Staat Erstauflage erschienen 1907 in Frankfurt a.M. als Bd. 14/15 in der von Martin Buber herausgegebenen Reihe: Die Gesellschaft. Sammlung sozialpsychologischer Monographien). The first English publication was published in the USA in 1914. The second English edition of the 1922 edition did not include the changes made by Oppenheimer to the second German edition in 1919. In his preface to the 1922 English edition, Franz Oppenheimer refers to authoritative editions of his work in English, French, Hungarian, and Serbian, noting also the distribution of pirated publications in Japanese, Hebrew, Russian, and Yiddish.

• Oppenheimer, Franz. The state; Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically. - New York: Arno Press, 1972. - ISBN 0405004338 .
• Oppenheimer, Franz. The state. - New York: Free Life Editions, 1975 .-- ISBN 0914156047 .
• Oppenheimer, Franz. The state. - Fox & Wilkes, 1997 .-- ISBN 0930073231 . (paperback)
• Oppenheimer, Franz. The state. - Fox & Wilkes, 1997 .-- ISBN 0930073223 . (hardback)
• Oppenheimer, Franz. The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically. - New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1999 .-- ISBN 1560009659 .
• Oppenheimer, Franz. The state. - Montréal: Black Rose Books, 2007 .-- ISBN 1551643006 .

The book "The State", by the sociologist Franz Oppenheimer, over 112 years (counting from the first edition in 1907 to the current 2019) was published about 152 times around the world, but has not been published a single time in Russia. Franz Oppenheimer’s book, The State: Its History and Development from a Sociological Perspective, was translated into Russian by the Rustate.org project team in 2019. The translation of the book was started in October 2018 and completed on September 13, 2019, and the translation was sent to the publishing house on September 19, 2019. Funds for the translation and publication of the book “The State” by Franz Oppenheimer were raised using a crowdfunding campaign on the Planeta.ru service from February 28 to May 16, 2019. The book of Franz Oppenheimer under the localized title "State: Rethinking" is officially published for the first time in Russia in Russian. The book is dedicated to the 155th birthday of the author, economist and sociologist, Dr. Franz Oppenheimer. The State: Rethinking book is an initiative of the independent Rustate.org project. The publication of the book "State: Rethinking" is expected in September - October 2019.

• Acratia
• Agorism
• Statism
• Anarchism
• Georgism
• State
• Antietatism
• Libertarianism
• Free market
• Anarcho-capitalism
• Market Anarchism
• Market economy
• Social anarchism
• Left libertarianism
• Libertarian Socialism
• Economic sociology

• Project "The State" in Russian "Rustate.org"
• State Book Campaign
• Page "State" F. Oppenheimer.
• Der Staat , Third German Edition 1929.
• The State , First English Edition 1914/1922.
• L'ETAT , first French edition of 1913.
• The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically, 2017.
• The State - Online Library of Liberty, Franz Oppenheimer, The State, 1922.
• RUSTATE.ORG: “THE STATE” BOOK BY FRANZ OPPENHEIMER IN RUSSIAN
• Mises Institute, The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically, 1926.
• WorldCat, Der staat Franz Oppenheimer, Frankfurt am Main, Rütten & Loening, 1907.
• Der staat: Oppenheimer, Franz, 1864-1943: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming: Internet Archive.
• HathiTrust Digital Library, Der staat von Franz Oppenheimer, Frankfurt am Main, Rütten & Loening, 1907.
• Der Staat. Die Gesellschaft Literarische Anstalt Rütten und Loening Ort: Frankfurt aM Erschienen: 1907.
• Der Staat. Die Gesellschaft. Martin Buber. Franz Oppenheimer. Frankfurt am Main, Rütten und Loening, 30 November 1907. "
• Der Staat. Erstauflage erschienen 1907 in Frankfurt a. M. als Bd. 14/15 in der von Martin Buber herausgegebenen Reihe: Die Gesellschaft. Sammlung sozialpsychologischer Monographien.