What a State to be in...

on the institutional question

Saverio Craparo

A little history never hurt anyone! The beast that is the modern State was born over two centuries ago and was closely connected with the emergence of the bourgeoisie as the new dominant class. It is not by chance that a large part of the typical functions of the modern State owe their origins to revolutionary France in 1789. It is a good idea to examine the reasons behind this profound transformation of the power structures in society, which social relationships ceased to exist in order to make way for others, what effects all this had on class relations and, above all, how the domination of the emerging bourgeoisie came about...

• Introduction
• Part I: The birth of the State and what came before it

  • Social relations under feudalism

  • The liberal State and rights

  • Progressive participation

• Part II: The 19th-century State and the birth of Anarchist theory
• Part III: The evolution of the State

  • The State as entrepreneur

  • Control of the cycle

  • The direct management of capital

  • Welfare

  • From the primitive state to the modern State

• Part IV: Ambiguities in the role of the State

  • The State in the revolution

  • The Number-One Enemy

  • Collective functions and coercive functions

• Part V: A few groundrules

Translation by Nestor McNab. Italian original, "Quel che è stato... è Stato", published by FdCA as part of the series "I Quaderni di Alternativa Libertaria".

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