Full Idea
No State can exist without a permanent conspiracy, directed, of course, against the mass of drudge-people, for the enslavement and fleecing of which all States can exist.
Gist of Idea
A state can only exist as a conspiracy for exploiting working people
Source
Mikhail Bakunin (Science and the Urgent Revolutionary Task [1870], p.129)
A Reaction
The view of a famous anarchist. The interesting claim is not that states happen to do this, but that necessarily all states do it. Presumably any state launched with lovely intentions would quickly turn into this criminal enterprise. Power corrupts.
Book Reference
'The Anarchists', ed/tr. Horowitz,Irving L. [Dell 1964], p.129
Related Idea
Idea 24430 The ruling classes produce a small group, to organise state power and exploit the people [Bakunin]