I should make clear that by the word politics, I do not mean "statecraft," which is what people ordinarily mean by politics and its practitioners, politicians. Nor do I regard the state simply as a form of administration: rather I view it (as did so many socialists and anarchists of my generation some 60 years ago) as a professional apparatus with a monopoly of violence that is used by ruling classes to control meddlesome lower classes.
— Murray Bookchin (1921-2006)