It seems to me that if you look in the book of Genesis you can’t really tell the difference between the public sector and the private sector. Laban, for example, seems to be Jacob’s “government.” Abraham seems like just some guy, but as he gets wealthy, he comes to be regarded as a “prince,” leads an army, and makes alliances with what we would think of as political units.

But that’s the point, extended family units with servants and political units are hard, in my opinion, to distinguish.

The libertarians won’t recognize it, but what I see in Genesis looks pretty much like it is all “private sector.” There may be people who got treated with respect and deference that we now think of as royalty, but this deference was shown to any powerful person.

What this means is that we have an example of what happens when the private sector “provides public services” like arbitration, punishments, and military protection. And what happens is kind of predictable. No one ever thought to form a completely voluntary association. No, once you joined with a household, or lord, you were expected to be loyal for life with your children. It was a natural monopoly.

Robert Nozick did the reasoning in Anarchy, the State, and Utopia. He pointed out that people want protection from threats, not just protection from harm. If someone played russian roulette with a revolver pointed at your child’s head, you would want retribution and/or protection, even if no actual harm ensued. Likewise, people tend to want more protection than the hypothetical free associations of right-wing anarchism can provide. They want their protector to be able to claim a monopoly. Likewise, the rich and powerful protector, who may remember a time when he was not so rich and powerful, takes the steps he takes to provide protection and order with the goal of feeling safe.

I’m not saying that there can’t be stateless societies. They have happened (though usually on islands and in extremely traditionalist and uniform cultures). I’m just saying it is completely natural to see how the state arises out of society’s needs.