Both ancient participatory democracies and modern states depend on division of political labour.

Evidence

It certainly is not true, as Moses Finley made exceedingly clear (1983), that the participatory democracy of the ancient polis dispensed with an elaborate division of political labour. All modern states likewise display and depend upon such division. Indeed what a modern state actually is, in large measure is a strongly institutionalized division of political labour, though not one which in any sense occludes the exercise of coercive force. The interesting question in modern political theory is not whether there is going to be a political division of labour (there is). It is the question of what forms that division is going to take and what are going to be the consequences of its taking those and not other forms. More acutely still it is the question of what, if anything, could make such a political division of labour at least partially legitimate. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1244

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Luhmann/Hardin governance analysis — the state as institutionalized division of labor parallels the mechanisms that keep opportunistic behavior in check.