State VS Society: a Socio-Political Analysis

This article analyzes the long-term process of state formation as an inherent institution within society, emerging from the differentiation of the social organism and accompanied by the monopolization of political functions and the production of norms and means of violence. Drawing on the tradition of political anthropology (P.Clastres, M.Godelier, C.Tilly) and a socio-historical approach, the author demonstrates that the constitutive violence underlying the initial separation of the ruling group from the rest of society does not disappear with the institutionalization of state structures but rather becomes latent, resurfacing in crisis situations. Bureaucratic and administrative mechanisms, developing on the principles of rationality, calculation, and procedural discipline, consolidate the autonomy of the state apparatus, transforming it into a self-referential authority capable of imposing its rules on society both from without and through the internalization of state norms by individuals themselves. Particular attention is paid to how regimes of exception, wars, terrorism, economic crises, and pandemics expose the deep mechanisms of the state’s structural pressure on society and normalize a wide range of controlling and restrictive practices that are subsequently entrenched in everyday governance. The article examines various forms of societal responses, from open rebellions and plebeian “exit” to everyday resistance and symbolic configurations of rupture. The author emphasizes the contingent nature of possible outcomes and points out that the trajectories of social transformation remain radically unpredictable, despite the apparent lack of alternatives to the “civilization of the state” and the centuries-old trend toward increasing state control over society.

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