...snip...
Worked pretty good in medieval Iceland, for about 600 years, until an outside power bought up the judges. 1000 years in Ireland, before Cromwell finally beat 'em.
Surely that is all you need to know? If outside powers or hostile races like the English exist, then you need a state.
No, it means we need some way of coordinating defense. A state is one option, but I don't think it's the best one. And it took
centuries of attempted conquest before one finally stuck.
I agree there are many options. But a state is the only one that has been proven to work. In the free market for the right to govern, there are no surviving non-state entities. And of course, as we discussed a year ago, the market in government is the ultimate free market. Weak competitors get conquered and occupied - what's left are examples of viable societies.