‘What, then, is the State as a sociological concept? The State, completely in its genesis, essentially and almost completely during the first stages of its existence, is a social institution, forced by a victorious group of men on a defeated group.’
The State is an influential sociological treatise that developed the “conquest theory of state formation”. In the book, the origins, nature, and evolution of the state is explored and anthropological evidence is used to support Oppenheimer’s theory. The theory argues that the state is a class organization arising through conquest for the purpose of cementing the control of the conquerors. This is a radical departure from the social contract theory and the natural evolution theory of state formation that were popular at the time. The State was hugely influential when it was first published and influenced disparate ideologies such as libertarianism, anarchism, and socialism.
Franz Oppenheimer was a German sociologist and political economist. He is best known for his development of the conquest theory of state formation.