Theory of the origin of the state: Power and ambition is not evenly distributed throughout society, and powerful and ambitious people tend to gravitate towards eachother. Left to their own devices, they will naturally organize in ways that benefit themselves and solidify their power. They form companies, alliances, and states, and there's little ability to stop them. It's mutually beneficial for powerful people in a geographic location to "be on the same side" - i.e. it is better to direct their ambition and desire for conquest to people outside their immediate vicinity. It's also beneficial for them to set up common rules of the game, so that they aren't competing warlords. It's something akin to a predator-organization that benefits domestic predators and can more successfully fend off foreign predators. It's not that the state is necessary or that it provides some magical service that couldn't be provided privately. It's that it's an inevitable result of ambitious people. Another way of putting it: With a high enough population, the types of people that that form states will inevitably organize and form states.