Submission theory
The submission theory is a model that is supposed to explain the emergence of the state from stateless societies.
Developing the theory
The theory of submission or conquest was advocated early on by Ibn Chaldun and further elaborated by Franz Oppenheimer . Oppenheimer relied on the overlay theory of earlier authors, especially Gumplowicz's ethnic overlay theory .
The submission theory followed, among others, Alexander Rustow and a number of libertarian thinkers.
Content of the theory
The submission theory assumes that the state came into being in a process of subjugation of peaceful peasant peoples by warlike shepherd peoples.
According to Oppenheimer's model, the process of becoming a state takes place in six phases, some of which can take several decades or centuries:
After a first phase of looting, a certain “sustainability” takes hold in the second phase of the model: the looted are left alive, but have to give up part of their generated surplus to the conquerors; the violence on the part of the conquerors is reduced to a minimum in order to maintain this power relationship. Oppenheimer compares the first phase with the bear robbing and destroying the beehive, the second with the beekeeper, who leaves the bees "enough honey to hibernate".
The relationship established in the second phase means that the conquered farmers receive protection from the conquerors and seek protection from them. Outsiders are forbidden to rob the subject. At the end of this development, the third phase arises when the conquered pay a "tribute" instead of having it taken from the conquerors. This has advantages for both sides - in the form of reliable regularity for the subject and in the form of easier work for the conqueror.
The fourth phase is characterized by the fact that conquerors and subjugated from one area unite - either due to spatial constraints due to competing shepherd peoples or for reasons of better monitoring of the peasants. The spatial proximity also gives the shepherd people the opportunity to prevent impairment of the tribute payments (no longer only through attacks from outside, but also) through internal disputes among the farmers. In the fifth phase, therefore, the shepherds begin to call themselves the arbitrator in internal disputes and to enforce their award by force. The conquerors and the subjugated begin to mingle in this rule structure, which is usually consolidating itself, with spatial proximity; Both culturally and kinship (in that the conquerors choose the women of the subjugated) there is a dedifferentiation of the tribal affiliation of rulers and ruled while maintaining the familiar structure of rule. With the completion of this sixth phase of mixing, the formation of the state according to Oppenheimer's model is complete.
Evidence for the theory of submission
According to Uwe Wesel , the assumption of the submission theory, according to which state rule emerged in the course of the conquest of peaceful peasant tribes by warlike shepherd tribes, is best supported by ethnological findings.
This assessment is essentially based on three observations:
On the one hand, it is important for the conquest thesis that state rule is never to be found in societies that are culturally homogeneous, i.e. in which one tribe has never been conquered by another.
Second, states came into being well after the introduction of arable farming. At this point in time, its techniques were so advanced that a surplus could actually be generated. It is concluded from this that it was only the generated surplus that provided the reason for a conqueror not to plunder and destroy the conquered, but to demand parts of the harvest as tribute payments. Ethnologically, this thesis is confirmed by the Nuer people : The Nuer have often plundered neighboring peoples; However, these conquered peoples were shepherd peoples, which is why the Nuer - due to the lack of a surplus to be demanded as from peasant peoples - have not established state rule.
The third observation concerns the part of the theory according to which the conquerors must have been shepherds: Examples of warlike peasant peoples show that they take the conquered land for their own cultivation and kill the local population; hence the conquerors must have been shepherds.
See also
literature
- Ludwig Gumplowicz : The race struggle: sociological investigations. Wagner, Innsbruck 1883.
- Franz Oppenheimer : The state. First edition 1907 in Frankfurt a. M. as vol. 14/15 in the series edited by Martin Buber : Die Gesellschaft. Collection of social psychological monographs, Verlag Rütten & Loening; Unchanged reprint of the last edited by Oppenheimer, 3rd edition from 1929 by Libertad-Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-922226-12-4 and as an online version .
- Friedrich Ratzel : Political Geography. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987 (2nd edition 1903).
- Alexander Riistow : Location of the present. A universal historical cultural criticism , Volume 1: The Origin of Rule , Eugen Rentsch Verlag, Erlenbach-Zurich 1950.
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich Ratzel : Political Geography , Munich 1987.
- ↑ Ludwig Gumplowicz : Der Rassenkampf: sociological investigations Innsbruck 1883.
- ↑ Franz Oppenheimer , Der Staat , p. 36 ff.
- ↑ Uwe Wesel , History of Law , Rn 32.
- ↑ See e.g. B. for Africa: Malinowski, societies without a state ; for Mesopotamia Werner Herzog , States of the Early Period , 2nd edition 1997, ISBN 3-406-429-22-X , p. 41.
- ↑ Max Weber , Economy and Society , Part III, Chap. III, § 2.