My argument isn’t that progressive Buddhists don’t understand Buddhism. Rather, it’s that progressive Buddhists go wrong in their politics because they don’t understand the fundamental nature of the state.

It’s important to be clear about just what the state is and so what it means to ask the state to take actions or to use government to enact political goals. Unfortunately, most of us don’t think much about this, and so treat government as simply a means for realizing our political dreams, as a tool that can reliably be employed whenever a problem’s been identified–especially when that problem involves some people not doing what we think they really ought to be doing.

What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for an institution’s being a state? There are two.

First, states possess the authority to issue commands, which entails the right to use violence or threats of violence to compel us to obey, or to punish us if we refuse. In other words, states pass and enforce laws, and every law is a permission to employ violent force in a specific instance.

You might be skeptical here. When the legislature passes a bill saying cigarettes can’t be sold to anyone under the age of eighteen, or that we need to stop using incandescent light bulbs in order to protect the environment, what does that have to do with violence? The answer is so mundane that few of us ever think about it, even as we live in a society subject to more laws and regulations than any of us could read in our lifetimes.

To understand why all laws are ultimately about violence, simply ask what happens when someone disobeys? What happens if I use incandescent light bulbs or if I sell cigarettes to a minor? If I’m caught, I might face a fine, which doesn’t appear to be a violent act. But why am I motivated to pay the fine? What if I don’t want to? If, again, I refuse, I’ll be asked to show up in court. Refuse again and police will come to my door and arrest me. Refuse again and they will use force to bring me in. Resist that force and they will forcibly subdue me or, if I fight back enough, kill me. This same chain exists for every law, for every regulation, rule, and government policy. Underlying all of them is a threat of violent retaliation for disobedience, a threat that must be back up by the application of actual violence, or the threat will be hollow and laws will instead become suggestions.

The second of the two necessary and sufficient features of states is taxation. Making and enforcing laws requires resources. We need people to take on the roles of legislatures and police, we need to provide them with buildings to work in and equipment to use, and we need to pay them so they can afford to carry out their roles. So states need money, and the way they get it is by taking it from their citizens.

Note that this is different from the way other organizations and individuals raise funds. If I’d like money from you, I have two legitimate and permissible options. I can ask you for money (donations) or I can give you something you value in exchange for the money (trade). The “legitimate and permissible” qualifier cuts off a third option: I can’t take the money from you against your will (theft). Buddhism stands united with the other major ethical and spiritual traditions of the world in condemning theft, whether or not a state happens to exist to enforce any laws against it.

Theft is always a possibility, of course, but it’s one we reject and believe to be grounds for punishment. But here we get to the key feature of taxation that sets it apart from what you or I can do to acquire money. For the rule saying I need to give a certain portion of my income to the state every year is a law, and, as we saw above, laws are ultimately backed by violence or the threat of violence. Many people believe that we owe the state our taxes and that it is wrong to not pay them. But some don’t, believing that the amount asked for is too high or that the uses to which the money will be put (such as conducting wars) are immoral. In such cases, taxes simply are taking money against the will of its possessor.

Thus every state does, at the very least, two things: It threatens and employs violence against living beings, and it takes money from people that they did not give freely. These features ought to look familiar from our discussion of the precepts above–and they ought to be deeply troubling to Buddhists.