What was the role of the state in Louis Blanc's idea?

Correct answer: The state should encourage cooperatives

Direct answer: Option C, the state should encourage cooperatives. Louis Blanc was a socialist thinker who believed that workers should be helped to organise production through cooperatives, often described as workers’ associations or workshops. He did not simply want the state to disappear; he expected the state to support these institutions and help create a fairer economic system. Step by step: workers suffer under competition and exploitation; cooperative organisations can allow them to work together; public authority can provide support; therefore state-supported cooperatives are the intended answer. Option A is wrong because abolishing the state was associated with other radical views, not Blanc’s proposal here. Option B is irrelevant and keeps the state concerned only with a palace. Option C is correct because it expresses Blanc’s state-supported reform. Option D is opposite to his aim, since criminalising workers’ unions would prevent collective organisation. Memory cue: Louis Blanc means the state helping workers’ cooperatives.