Why do many libertarians reject the legitimacy of the State? The answer is that, unlike the majority of the population, libertarians generally understand what the State is. George Washington came close to the point when he said, "government is force, not reason." Murray Rothbard has an even better definition of the State in his essay The Anatomy of the State:
Briefly, the State is that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area; in particular, it is the only organization in society that obtains its revenue not by voluntary contribution or payment for services rendered but by coercion. While other individuals or institutions obtain their income by production of goods and services and by the peaceful and voluntary sale of these goods and services to others, the State obtains its revenue by the use of compulsion; that is, by the use and the threat of the jailhouse and the bayonet.
