"The state, therefore, has not existed from all eternity.
There have been societies which have managed without it, 
which had no notion of the state or state power. 
At a definite stage of economic development, which
necessarily involved the cleavage of society into classes,
the state became a necessity because of this cleavage. 
We are now rapidly approaching a stage in the development
of production at which the existence of these classes has
not only ceased to be a necessity, but becomes a positive
hindrance to production.
They will fall as inevitably as they once arose.
The state inevitably falls with them.
The society which organizes production anew on the basis
of free and equal association of the producers will put
the whole state machinery where it will then belong – into
the museum of antiquities, next to the spinning wheel and 
the bronze ax."
  —Frederick Engels, "Origins of the Family, 
  Private Property, and the State", 
  Ch. 9 "Barbarism and Civilization".