There is nothing inherent in government that makes it the polar opposite of freedom, or dependant on huge tax revenues. Successful government, striving for the ideal of democracy, needs only cooperation. The governments we have today have their roots in systems of coercion, and have only stumbled a little way towards a cooperative model. Private corporations view the coercive properties of government as a useful tool in their arsenal, and their influence has almost entirely dominated government since the 1960s. This is why there has been a failure of financial markets – because markets and their regulation have been successfully gamed by private corporations – acting without the restraint or balance that a truly democratic environment might have provided.

We are today governed by something much more akin to the landed gentry of centuries ago, where property and money directly determine how much influence you have in the running of your country. This fact is openly celebrated by some who believe only those “with skin in the game” are capable of making smart decisions. If this is what government has become then I suspect we are experiencing “peak government”, but for quite different reasons to those explored in the article above. A government run by and for private corporations is no longer fit for purpose. It will steadily loose its grip, as people, by necessity, are forced to find other ways of managing, nurturing and protecting their communities. I would expect to see people increasingly cooperating outside of government, and becoming un-cooperative with government and private corporations. Perhaps we will experience the rise of tools and models which allow people to govern themselves directly without the need for today’s “government”. If that happens, we stand a chance of becoming the first civilisation to become “fully smart” – thinking with our whole collective brain, instead of just the tiny part of our collective brain which is made up of wealthy, white males.

And in communism there is no state.