Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: What is a Nation?
Position‹4 of 4: Nations mean coercion
Argument‹2 of 4›: All states are tools of coercion

Nations are just another form of state and states are coercive.

The argument

All states are coercive and anti-democratic even if they claim to be democracies. Anything that is imposed on someone that they haven't personally agreed to is an infringement on their liberty. Most people never vote or consent to the vast majority of laws they are subject to. If they try to object they face state coercion in the form of the police, prison, or even the army. As nations are just another form of state they are inherently coercive.

Context

Anarchists and hardcore libertarians reject all states as tools of coercion that limit individual liberty. Nations are just another form of the state.

Premises

[P1]All states are coercive: laws are imposed on people who never personally consented to the vast majority of them, and any objection is met with the police, prison or even the army. [P2] Any imposition on someone without their agreement infringes their liberty, and a nation is simply another form of state. [C] Therefore nations are inherently coercive—nations mean coercion.

Counter-arguments

Even if you disagree with some laws you have a duty to obey them as you benefit from the system as a whole. As long as you participate in and benefit from the system, you are giving passive consent to be governed. In proper democracies, people do give consent to their government and its laws by voting and choosing who will make and administer the laws. Even if people don't vote, they give consent passively by living within the society and enjoying its many advantages.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] People benefit from being part of the state; it is not simple coercion. [Rejecting P2] People do consent, either passively or actively, to the laws of society in democracies.