"Many existent states (like Canada) have relatively small military budgets. For them, wielding or even threatening to wield violence is not their primary reason for being. Their primary reason for being is to ensure the health and welfare of their citizens, and they do so not by threat of violence, but by collection and distribution of taxes and passing of laws."
The definition of a state as an institution which wields a geographic monopoly on violence is agnostic towards the "purpose" of the state. The definition concerns the means not the ends of the state. The goals of states are diverse and change over time, but their fundamental principles of operation do not.
"The vast majority of people in most democratic societies do not require the threat of arrest and imprisonment to follow the majority of laws."
Consider if this statement would remain true (and if so, for how long) if the threat of state violence were not present.
The definition of a state as an institution which wields a geographic monopoly on violence is agnostic towards the "purpose" of the state. The definition concerns the means not the ends of the state. The goals of states are diverse and change over time, but their fundamental principles of operation do not.
"The vast majority of people in most democratic societies do not require the threat of arrest and imprisonment to follow the majority of laws."
Consider if this statement would remain true (and if so, for how long) if the threat of state violence were not present.