West European Studies

Kropotkin viewed the state in a totally different perspective. He viewed the state as being totally different from the government idea. He held that any person who would think different from him would be causing the two ideas of the state and the government. He viewed those thinkers who tended to confuse the society and the state as overlooking the advances which have occurred in the history domain. He observed that confusing the state and the society is overlooking the idea that the society existed since time immemorial and man lived in such societies for many years ago even before the idea of the state was born. He therefore held the view that the idea of the state is a relatively new idea of recent origin and it does not even go beyond the sixteenth century.

Kropotkin also viewed the state as having occurred or emerged in the historical evolution of the society and therefore it was just a form of the society and not a separate phenomenon. He therefore noted that there is need to make distinctions between what is accidental and what id permanent. In this case he referred to the society as being permanent and the state as being accidental or just having occurred as the society evolved.

Furthermore, Kropotkin observed that the government and the state are also two majorly confused concepts. However, according to Kropotkin the view that a state cannot exist on itself without a government is quite wrong because the government and the state are two quite different concepts which in essence have dissimilar order.

He held that the state in its totality comprised of a certain level of power which went beyond the society level and into the concentration of a territory level. In this regard, Kropotkin saw the state as implying a new kind of relationship between the society members which did not prevail before the state was formed and in this regard, a whole mechanism of policing and legislation had to be established in order make some classes subject or get dominated by others. Kropotkin held the view that the distinction between the government and the state might not be obvious in the eyes of many people but when people continue to study the state origin then the distinction becomes obvious. In addition, Kropotkin continued that in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the state, it would rather be advisable to go back to the studies of the development of the state throughout history rather than trying to make spontaneous views about the state.

Kropotkin continues that the state developed primarily according to the performed functions and it did so in a specific direction and not in every direction. He therefore concluded that the state should be abolished because as it populates institutions and growing in the societies, it prevents the smooth development of individual and local initiatives and crushes the prevailing freedoms or liberties thus preventing the blossoming of new relationships between human societies. The end purpose of the state being to make the minorities rule over other masses. Kropotkin views the state as being used to achieve evil ends and applied by greedy people with the sole objective of amassing more power to rule over others.  He also views the state as an institution that does not appreciate the history which brought it to being rather it tends to operate as an independent phenomenon apart from history.