At least according to an anarchist like Graeber, the state is just a way to take power out of the hands of the people and put it into the hands of the few. It’s a way to ensure that only certain people have the right to speak, and that the state has the exclusive right to use violence. Calling the Athenian state the ‘origin’ of democracy is just a way to ignore the thousands of years humans spent successfully governing themselves without a specialized class of rulers.
At least according to an anarchist like Graeber, the state is just a way to take power out of the hands of the people and put it into the hands of the few. It’s a way to ensure that only certain people have the right to speak, and that the state has the exclusive right to use violence. Calling the Athenian state the ‘origin’ of democracy is just a way to ignore the thousands of years humans spent successfully governing themselves without a specialized class of rulers.