The Archaic State and the Priestly State

This post contained an draft version of a dissertation section. A more recent version is now available on the works page.

The Birth of the Modern State

This post contained an draft version of a dissertation section. A more recent version is now available on the works page.

The Jurist-Priest, and the Priestly State (of Contract)

This post contained an draft version of a dissertation section. A more recent version is now available on the works page.

Archaic State Pt. 6 Summoning the War Machine

This post contained an draft version of a dissertation section. A more recent version is now available on the works page.

Society Against the State

Anti-Evolutionary Model

Primitive Society characterized by ‘Savages’ lacking political power [Lapierre’s model] (8-10).

*Political Power: “a relation that ultimately comes down to coercion” (11)

*Weberian power: “state power as the monopoly on the legitimate use of violence” (11)

Critiqued as ethnocentric: “the model…is…constituted in advance by the idea Western civilization has shaped and developed….[P]olitical power in terms of hierarchized and authoritarian relations of command and obedience.” (16)

*The impact: “the ethnocentrism that mediates all attention directed to difference in order to reduce them to identity and finally suppress them.” (16)

*Nietzschean question: “when there is neither coercion nor violence, it is impossible to speak of power?” (11)