The State by Franz Oppenheimer was read and discussed so exciting in the beginning of the TWENTIETH century.
The work of the German sociologist, opened a century of literature openly enemistada with the concept of “State”. Without going more far, it was the treaty that inspired the work of Albert J. Nock and the work of Frank Chodorov, and even for many it is the theoretical basis on which Murray N. Rothbard articulate subsequently the whole of his thinking. In effect, Franz Oppenheimer signed the which even today is still considered one of the most stimulating works on the History of Political Philosophy ever conceived.
The author faces the daunting task of dismantling centuries and centuries of thought fallacious about the origin, nature and ultimate purpose of the State. Oppenheimer sets the starting point at the dawn of Humanity, when the world was constituted by dispersed communities of peasants and nomads. A chronological and character psicosociológico of the evolution of the State from its formulations primitive to the modern constitutional State.
This detailed work is, without doubt, the replica most accurate that has ever received the theory of the “social contract State”, as proposed by most political thinkers since the Enlightenment. The true nature of the State may not be disclosed by pilgrim justifications philosophical thinkers more or less inspired, but thanks to a thorough analysis, scientific and unbiased, of the History of Mankind. And that is precisely what offers Oppenheimer in his work magna.
In this treaty only deals with the State from a sociological point of view and not from legal sociology, as I conceive the term, being both a Philosophy of History and an economic theory. Our goal is to investigate and chart the evolution of the State from its genesis sociopsychological up to its current constitutional form. This is done, we will focus our efforts with the purpose of presenting a vision well-founded with respect to its future evolution. Since we have only to inquire into the essence of the State, we should not concern ourselves with the external forms of law under which it is assumed both its origin the international and national levels. In short, this treaty is a contribution to the philosophy of the evolution of the State, although only in so far as the law of evolution here treated from its generic form affects also the social problems common to any form of the modern State.
Excerpt from the first Chapter (p. 27)
Download First Chapter. Theories of State
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Brief about Franz Oppenheimer
Franz Oppenheimer (Berlin, 30 march 1864 – Los Angeles, September 30, 1943) was a sociologist and a political economist German, also published in the field of sociology are fundamental to the State.
Ludwig Erhard studied economics with Franz Oppenheimer and was strongly influenced by the ideas of the economic policy “socialist liberal” Oppenheimer who tried to put himself in the middle point between socialism and liberalism. Albert Jay Nock, although he was an anarchist critic of socialism, was deeply influenced by the analysis of Oppenheimer of the fundamental nature of the State.