ABSTRACT
It is fair to say that states and citizens have always regarded each other with suspicion. However just a state may be, there have been so many examples of truly awful states, states that kill, rob and pillage their citizens, that the most loyal citizens do well to be on their guard against the state apparatus being in the hands of fellow citizens who would do them harm. We should always remember that this apparatus has a sinister as well as a kindly face. Down the road there is a hospital where I will be treated if I am ill and a school to which I send my children, but over the river there is a police station from which policemen patrol the streets with powers of arrest. Beside it there is a court where citizens can be tried and punishments ordered. Outside of the city there is a prison, where citizens, having been stripped of some of their rights in the judicial process, are incarcerated, sometimes for many years. And in a nearby town there is a barracks where members of the armed forces are housed – and they are trained and willing to come to the assistance of the civil power should the people be regarded as a threat. Even a just and stable state, whose citizens properly feel secure against usurpation, may make mistakes. It may prosecute and convict innocent persons, it may become inefficient and too costly and as a result tax folk excessively. It may take a grandiose view of its remit and interfere in the lives of its citizens where it has no business. So even the most loyal citizen is right to be suspicious of the state.
