Non-Desirability of the State

About the lecture

In this module, we think about the non-desirability of the state, before moving on in the next module to consider its non-necessity. In this module, we focus in particular on: (i) the belief that the state should be replaced with self-organisation; (ii) the idea of the state as a colonising force that compels individuals to behave in particular ways, to enforce uniformity, and to suppress diversity; (iii) the idea of the state as a distributor rather than an inventor of services, and the fact that these services could continue to exist even if the state did not.

About the lecturer

Ruth Kinna is Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Loughborough University. She is a political theorist and historian of ideas with research interests in anarchism, nineteenth and early twentieth-century socialist thought, utopianism and contemporary radicalism. Her book William Morris: The Art of Socialism was published in 2000. She has since published The Beginner's Guide to Anarchism (Oneworld, 2005/2009), Kropotkin: Reviewing the Classical Anarchist Tradition (University of Edinburgh, 2016) and The Government of No One (Pelican, 2019).