I. In the progress of mankind from its bestial existence to a human existence, according to Bakunin, we must shortly come to the disappearance—not indeed of property, but—of property's present form, unlimited private property.

1. Private property, so far as it fastens upon all things without distinction, belongs to the same low stage of evolution as the State.

"Private property is at once the consequence and the basis of the State."[386] "Every government is necessarily based on exploitation on the one hand, and on the other hand has exploitation for its goal and bestows upon exploitation protection and legality."[387] In every State there exist "two kinds of relationship,—to wit, government and exploitation. If really governing means sacrificing one's self for the good of the governed, then indeed the second relationship is in direct contradiction to the first. But let us only understand our point rightly! From the ideal standpoint, be it theological or metaphysical, the good of the masses can of course not mean their temporal welfare: what are a few decades of earthly life in comparison to eternity? Hence one must govern the masses with regard not to this coarse earthly happiness, but to their eternal good. Outward sufferings and privations may even be welcomed from the educator's standpoint, since an excess of sensual enjoyment kills the immortal soul. But now the contradiction disappears. Exploiting and governing mean the same; the one completes the other, and serves as its means and its end."[388]

2. Private property, when it exists in all things without distinction, has such characteristics as correspond to the low stage of evolution to which it belongs.

"On the privileged representatives of head-work (who at present are called to be the representatives of society, not because they have more sense, but only because they were born in the privileged class) such property bestows all the blessings and also all the debasement of our civilization: wealth, luxury, profuse expenditure, comfort, the pleasures of family life, the exclusive enjoyment of political liberty, and hence the possibility of exploiting millions of laborers and governing them at discretion in one's own interest. What is there left for the representatives of handwork, these numberless millions of proletarians or of small farmers? Hopeless misery, not even the joys of the family (for the family soon becomes a burden to the poor man), ignorance, barbarism, an almost bestial existence, and this for consolation with it all, that they are serving as pedestal for the culture, liberty, and depravity of a minority."[389]

The freer and more highly developed trade and industry are in any place, "the more complete is the demoralization of the privileged few on the one hand, and the greater are the misery, the complaints, and the just indignation of the laboring masses on the other. England, Belgium, France, Germany, are certainly the countries of Europe in which trade and industry enjoy greatest freedom and have made most progress. In these very countries the most cruel pauperism prevails, the gulf between capitalists and landlords on the one hand and the laboring class on the other is greater than in any other country. In Russia, in the Scandinavian countries, in Italy, in Spain, where trade and industry are still embryonic, people but seldom die of hunger except on extraordinary occasions. In England starvation is an every-day thing. And not only individuals starve, but thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands."[390]

3. But mankind will soon have passed the low stage of evolution to which private property belongs.

As there has at all times been oppression of the nations by the State, so has there also always been "exploitation of the masses of slaves, serfs, wage-workers, by a ruling minority."[391] But this exploitation is no more "inseparably united with the existence of human society"[392] than is that oppression. "By the force of things themselves"[393] unlimited private property will be done away. Everybody feels already that this moment is approaching,[394] the transformation is already at hand,[395] it is to be expected within the nineteenth century.[396]

II. In the next stage of evolution, which mankind must speedily reach, property will be so constituted that there will indeed be private property in the objects of consumption, but in land, instruments of labor, and all other capital, there will be only social property. The future society will be collectivist.

In this way every laborer has the product of his labor guaranteed to him.

1. "Justice must serve as basis for the new world: without it, no liberty, no living together, no prosperity, no peace."[397] "Justice, not that of jurists, nor yet that of theologians, nor yet that of metaphysicians, but simple human justice, commands"[398] that "in future every man's enjoyment corresponds to the quantity of goods produced by him."[399] The thing is, then, to find a means "which makes it impossible for any one, whoever he may be, to exploit the labor of another, and permits each to share in the enjoyment of society's stock of goods (which is solely a product of labor) only so far as he has, by his labor, directly contributed to the production of this stock of goods."[400]

This means consists in the principle "that the land, the instruments of labor, and all other capital, as the collective property of the whole of society, shall exclusively serve for the use of the laborers,—that is, of their agricultural and industrial associations."[401] "I am not a Communist, but a Collectivist."[402]

2. The collectivism of the future society "by no means demands the setting up of any supreme authority. In the name of liberty, on which alone an economic or a political organization can be founded, we shall always protest against everything that looks even remotely similar to Communism or State Socialism."[403] "I would have the organization of society, and of the collective or social property, from below upward by the voice of free union, not from above downward by means of any authority."[404]