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The efficiency of the state institution and the stateless society development perspective

https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6339-2018-2-9-20

Abstract

For a long time the hierarchically arranged system of society was considered as the most progressive to regulate complex social processes. Sharp expansion of the transport system has allowed the state to strengthen as the leading political institution. The expansion carried with it the growth of bureaucracy control over the population thus displacing all other forms of social order. For a long time it was believed that only the state could provide society with social benefits and develop the best rational solution. This very aspect is being questioned by the author. The main disadvantage of the state is the need to bear the costs of a complex bureaucratic institutional system. Technical progress, the development of a network society offers some new tools to make collective decisions and create self-sufficient social benefits. Here the question arises: whether it is possible to do without the state under modern conditions?

For most of its history, mankind lived in a stateless society. Now, more than 100 million people of the world population are minimally affected by the state, both in the leading countries and in the hard-to-reach underdeveloped territories. Absence of the state has both disadvantages and advantages. In a stateless society, the risks of reducing the level of well-being are lowered in case there is sufficient social capital and groups are rationally chosen.

The article raises the questions of transforming the state as a social institution and redistributing its functions within the society. In addition, the author highlights possible perspectives for a stateless organization of society, and conditions for the sustainable existence of anarchy.

About the Author

O. V. Rodenko
Russian State University for the Humanities.
Russian Federation

senior lecturer.

 bld. 6, Miusskaya sq., Moscow, 125993



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Review

For citations:


Rodenko O.V. The efficiency of the state institution and the stateless society development perspective. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin Series "Political Science. History. International Relations". 2018;(2):9-20. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6339-2018-2-9-20

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ISSN 2073-6339 (Print)