tion that lent the character of perpetuity not only to the newly rising division into classes, but also to the right of the possessing classes to exploit and rule the non-possessing classes. And this institution was found. The State arose."
Thus, in place of the free armed nation, spontaneously acknowledging its Elder as their military and civic chief, armed only for their defence against external foes, there arises the State which is a "product of society at a certain stage of its development. The State is tantamount to an acknowledgement that the given society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it has broken up into irreconcilable antagonisms, of which it cannot rid itself." To keep the conflict of these antagonisms or classes within certain limits some force standing seemingly above society, but really expressing the will and power of the governing class, becomes necessary. "And this force, arising from society, but placing itself above it—this force is the State." The State is distinguished first by "the grouping of the subjects of the State according to territorial divisions" (the tribal or clan organisation was independent of territory), secondly, by the existence of "a public power no longer identical with the whole population and which is organised as an armed force," consisting "not only of armed men, but also of material additions in the shape of prisons and repressive institutions of all kinds which were unknown in the gentilic (clan) form of society."
Engels traces the various forms through which the State has passed, and shows that in "most historical States the rights of the citizens are differentiated according to their wealth. This is a direct confirmation of the fact that the State is organised for the protection of the possessing against the non-possessing classes." Engels further shows how class morality and class ideals permeate the whole of our modern State institutions, and how, with the emancipation of the working class the whole of the modern State machinery will have to be scrapped. "The working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made State machinery and wield it for its own purpose," says Engels, in his preface to the 1888 edition of the Communist manifesto. No, they must break it up, for the triumph of the working class means the end of class rule and the class State. This, of course, does not mean the abolition of representative institutions. On the contrary, it means their real establishment and the abolition of institutions which misrepresent the workers. It means the abolition of bureaucracy. It means the setting up of bodies composed of direct representatives of the workers elected for very short periods and subject to recall at any time should they act contrary to the wishes of their electors; these representative bodies not forming a privileged section of the community, their members receiving moderate salaries, placing them on the same footing as any other citizen of the country, and whilst making the laws at the instruction of their electors, they are themselves to carry out these
