Toward a Libertarian Theory of Guilt and Punishment for the Crime of Statism

Van Creveld begins his analysis by distinguishing between governments and states. In his view (1999, p. 1): “The state ... is an abstract entity which can be neither seen, nor heard, nor touched. This entity is not identical with either the rulers or the ruled; neither President Clinton, nor citizen Smith, nor even an assembly of all the citizens acting in common can claim that they are the state. On the other hand, it includes them both and claims to stand over them both.” The hallmark of the state, for Van Creveld is its impersonality. There is no one individual who can be clearly be described, distinctly, as a member of the state. On the other hand, it is possible to claim that everyone living within a certain location is a member of the state. He goes so far (1999, p. 1) as to liken this institution to a “corporation in the sense that it possesses a legal persona of its own, which means that it has rights and duties and may engage in various activities as if it were a real flesh and blood, living individual.”