Marxist theory of state Ernest Mandel

Origin and Development of the State in the History of Societies

THE MARXIST THEORY OF THE STATE - PART 1

Tuesday 30 December 2003, by Ernest Mandel

A. Primitive society and the origins of the state

The state did not always exist.
Certain sociologists and other representatives of academic political science are in error when they speak of the state in primitive societies. What they are really doing is identifying the state with the community. In so doing, they strip the state of its special characteristic, i.e., the exercise of certain functions is removed from the community as a whole to become the exclusive prerogative of a tiny fraction of the members of this community.

In other words, the emergence of the state is a product of the social division of labour.
So long as this social division of labour is only rudimentary, all members of the society in turn exercise practically all its functions. There is no state. There are no special state functions.
In connection with the Bushmen, Father Victor Ellenberger writes that this tribe knew neither private property nor courts, neither central authority nor special