ABSTRACT
Even if we stick to the platitudes of purely theoretical appraisals, it is noticeable what a huge, retrograde step many ‘outstanding’ thinkers took during the war in just this field. What was earlier, and deservedly, designated impudent, idle talk now appears to be of paramount value in today’s market of militant ‘studies’. Grown men prattle like two year olds. The inarticulate sounds which the Scheidemann-ites [SPD] and the Dan-ites of the world now make are the best proof of this. So the reader should not complain about us, if to begin with we endeavour to recall some ‘forgotten’ words. There are an infinite number of different definitions of the state. We shall disregard all those theories which regard the state as possessing some kind of theological or metaphysical essence, ‘a super-intelligent origin’, ‘realization of a spiritual concept’ and so forth. Nor are we interested in the numerous theories of the lawyers, who examine the matter from the narrow standpoint of formalistic, legal dogmatism, and go round in a vicious circle defining the state in terms of the law and the law in terms of the state. Such theories do not impart any positive knowledge because they lack a sociological foundation, they are suspended in thin air. The state can only be understood as a social phenomenon. A sociological theory is, therefore, essential and Marxism provides just such a theory.
