In these tribal ‘stateless societies’, then, there is law rather than
anarchy (in the everyday sense of no guarantees of law and order);
equally, collective decisions on self-defence and economic co-
operation are also made – but in a decentralised fashion. Many
members of these societies would also emphasise that collective
activities also occur on a spiritual level. In short, life continues and
even apparently prospers without the state with its accompanying
mechanisms of professional armies, bureaucrats, prisons and the like.
It is not surprising that, consequently, some modern thinkers –
anarchists in the technical sense – have argued that the same is
possible in a modern context. We shall examine their views at more
length in Chapter 3. First, however, it is interesting to look at another
example of what might be described as ‘politics without the state’,
although this is perhaps a slightly more arguable case.
Feudalism
This second example is the feudal system – particularly as it was
practised in Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries – though it
has also applied in other parts of the world, such as in pre-modern
Japan (Reischaur, 1956; Prawer and Eisenstadt, 1968). European
feudalism is of interest as being perhaps ‘nearer to home’ for con-
temporary European readers, and as showing the state as we under-
stand it to be a more recent innovation than some may have imagined.
It may also suggest some lessons for the future of Europe.
At first sight, feudal Europe was full of states and mini-states,
rather than stateless. Did not England, France, Poland and other
familiar states already exist in this period – admittedly accompanied
by extra ‘players’ on the international scene like Burgundy, Saxony
and Venice? The appearance of kings, dukes and doges on the scene
would seem to indicate the presence of strong centralized decision-
making institutions for these territories. The similarity of names
with institutions and territories of later periods may well, however,
be quite misleading. Outside of England and France, particularly, it
soon becomes clear that the idea of a number of territories each with
its own legal jurisdiction is quite inappropriate.
This is clearest in the area round about what is now Germany in
what was misleadingly called the Holy Roman Empire (accurately
SYSTEMS 31