The Six Stages of the Creation of the State

by Franz Oppenheimer

Mises Daily
November 5, 2010

Franz Oppenheimer (1864–1943) was a German-Jewish sociologist and political
economist, best known for his work on the fundamental sociology of the state. His book The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically was the prototype for Albert Jay Nock's writing, for Frank Chodorov's work, and even for the theoretical edifice that later became Rothbardianism.
 

In the genesis of the state, from the subjection of a peasant folk by a tribe of herdsmen or by sea nomads, six stages may be distinguished.

In the following discussion it should not be assumed that the actual historical development must, in each particular case, climb the entire scale step by step. Although, even here, the argument does not depend upon bare theoretical construction, since every particular stage is found in numerous examples, both in the world's history and in ethnology, and there are states which have apparently progressed through them all. But there are many more that have skipped one or more of these stages.

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