ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the sociogenesis of the state in the Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy of James Steuart. It introduces the problem, based on what Steuart called ‘the spirit of the people’ who plays, along with the class relations, the role of genetic principles of the forms of the State. The chapter examines how Steuart proceeds on this basis to show how the dissolution of feudal relationships, accompanied by the development of a mercantile economy, disrupted the foundations of state power and gave it an impersonal form, separate from and those societies. It considers the role of the state in the establishment and reproduction of the conditions of wage labour. Steuart addresses the question of taxation both from a sociological and an economic perspective. In the first, conscious of the reluctance to pay taxes in general, he considers the interests and spirit that predominate in each social class with respect to each type of tax.
