000			01664cam a2200181 4500
100	1		_aLEWIS Colin J.
700			_aKLING Jennifer
245			_aProud vermin: _bmodern militias and the state/ _cColin J. Lewis and Jennifer Kling
260			_c2023
520			_aContemporary arguments about private paramilitary organizations often focus on the threat of physical violence that they pose to the state: if such organizations garner enough physical power, then they can overtake the state via violent coup. Inspired by the legalist scholar Han Feizi's position, we contend that such organizations also represent a sociopolitical, existential threat to the state. Specifically, their tendency for ideological expansion and subsequent gathering of political influence undermines state institutions, even without the use of overt physical force. Consequently, the sociopolitical enterprise of having a unified, stable state is incompatible with the existence of, and public political support for, private paramilitary organizations, regardless of their actual or potential physical power. This argument succeeds regardless of the moral status of such paramilitary groups. Such groups, when they match the essential components of the description Han Feizi provides, are practically and politically antithetical to the integrity of the state.
650			_aMILITIAS
650			_aCOMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY
650			_aHAN FEIZI
773			_aJournal of Military Ethics: _gVol 22, No 1,April-June 2023 pp33-50
598			_aMILITARY
856			_uhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15027570.2023.2230690 _zClick here for full text
945			_i70181-1001 _rY _sY
999			_c43252 _d43252