Why do people obey states? Étienne de la Boétie answers...
- Custom - people become habituated to servitude
- Manufactured consent
- Bread - Return a portion of the spoils to the public.
- Circuses - Entertain the public with patriotic sports and diversions.
- Ideology - Convince the public that the rulers are wise, just, and benevolent; that the state promotes the common good; and is certainly inevitable, alternatives unthinkable.
- Retainers - Rulers develop hierarchies of subordinate rulers (bureaucracy) and hierarchies of privilege (cronies), both with strong incentive to keep the public servile, extorted, and pliant.
Anarchists agree.