the state

(noun)

A state is a political organization with a centralized government that maintains a monopoly over the legitimate use of force within a certain territory.

Related Terms

Examples of the state in the following topics:

  • Formal Means of Control

    • When the state kills Katie, it is enacting its authority to use the death penalty to protect society.
    • The mechanisms utilized by the state as means of formal social control span the gamut from the death penalty to curfew laws.
    • Weber writes of the definitional relationship between the state and violence in the early twentieth century in his essay "Politics as Vocation. " Weber concludes that the state is that which has a monopoloy on violence.
    • Weber uses this definition to define what constitutes the state.
    • The formal means of social control and the monopoly on violence serve a similar role in defining the state—they both illustrate the unique relationship between the state and its subjects.

  • Authority and Legitimate Violence

    • Max Weber conceived of the state as a monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force.
    • By controlling access to guns, the state furthers this objective.
    • According to Weber, the state is that entity that "upholds the claim to the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in the enforcement of its order. " The state's authority is derived from this: the state can enforce its precepts through force without losing its legitimate authority.
    • Territory is necessary because it defines the scope of the state's authority: use of force is acceptable, but only in the jurisdiction specified by the state's lands.
    • The police and the military are the state's main instruments of legitimate violence, but this does not mean that only public force can be used: private force can be used, too, as long as it has legitimacy derived from the state.

  • Characteristics of the State

    • The concept of the state is different from the concept of government.
    • The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural or ethnic entity.
    • The term nation state implies that the two geographically coincide.
    • Civil society is the arena outside of the family, the state, and the market where people associate to advance common interests.
    • In the United States, the state is governed by a government headed by an elected president.

  • Democracy in the U.S.

    • The United States is a federal constitutional republic in which the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.
    • The United States is a federal constitutional republic in which the President of the United States (the head of state and government), Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.
    • The judiciary's function is to interpret the United States Constitution and federal laws and regulations.
    • All states and the District of Columbia contribute to the electoral vote for president.
    • In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular vote of their state.

  • Functions of the State

    • Many people consider the United States to be a pluralist state.
    • Marxists view the state as a partisan instrument that primarily serves the interests of the upper class.
    • Marx's early writings portrayed the state as "parasitic," built upon the superstructure of the economy and working against the public interest.
    • They then view the state as a neutral body that simply enacts the will of whichever group dominates the electoral process.
    • Classify the different political theories concerning the function of the state in society

  • State Formation

    • Theories explaining the origins and formation of states all revolve around the ability to centralize power in a sustainable way.
    • Political sociologists continue to debate the origins of the state and the processes of state formation.
    • Tilly examined political, social, and technological change in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present and attempted to explain the unprecedented success of the nation-state as the dominant form of state on Earth.
    • In Medieval Europe, feudalism furthered the rationalization and formalization of the state.
    • Since then, states have continued to grow more rational and bureaucratic, with expanding executive bureaucracies, such as the extensive cabinet system in the United States.

  • Types of Governments

    • Currently, 44 nations in the world have monarchs as heads of state, 16 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise the monarch of the United Kingdom as their head of state.
    • A Communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule of a Communist party and a professed allegiance to an ideology of communism as the guiding principle of the state.
    • Consequently, the institutions of the state and of the Communist party become intimately entwined, such as in the development of parallel institutions.
    • For Marxist-Leninists, the state and the Communist Party claim to act in accordance with the wishes of the industrial working class; for Maoists, the state and party claim to act in accordance to the peasantry.
    • A map showing the current Communist states.

  • State-Centered Theories

    • According to state-centered theories of inequality, the government should regulate the distribution of resources to protect workers.
    • The laissez-faire era of United States economic history, which occurred around the turn of the 20th century—when the government generally left the economy unregulated—reflects a belief in market-driven theories of inequality.
    • This latter period reflects a belief in state-centered theories of inequality, as the state sought to regulate the economy to reduce the exploitation of workers.
    • State-centered theories of inequality critique market-driven ones on the basis that capitalists embroiled in the free-market will act to increase their own wealth, exploiting the lower classes.
    • This map of all states to declare themselves officially socialist at some point in history illustrates the spread of state-centered theories of inequality.

  • Monarchy

    • A monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state.
    • Currently, 44 nations in the world have monarchs as heads of state.
    • Of these, 16 are Commonwealth realms such as Canada and Australia that recognize the monarch of the United Kingdom as their head of state.
    • Currently, 44 nations in the world have monarchs as heads of state.
    • Of these, 16 are Commonwealth realms such as Canada and Australia that recognize the monarch of the United Kingdom as their head of state.

  • New State Spaces

    • States are not necessarily the same as nations.
    • But states are not necessary the same as nations, and state boundaries will not necessarily always be the same as national boundaries.
    • The European Union is a confederation of 27 European states.
    • State power is not restricted to the national level.
    • New state spaces are evolving at both the local level (global cities) and the international level (the European Union).