The State

"The State" is a foundational work of sociology and political theory that examines the origin, development, and future of the state as a social institution. Franz Oppenheimer presents a provocative thesis that distinguishes between the "economic means"-the use of one's own labor and the equivalent exchange of one's own labor for the labor of others-and the "political means"-the unrequited appropriation of the labor of others. He argues that the state is not a product of a social contract, b...