Political Concepts
The State
Also Known As Sovereign State
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The state is the political institution that holds ultimate coercive and legal authority over a defined territory and population. Thomas Hobbes gave the foundational modern account in Leviathan (1651), describing the commonwealth as an artificial person created when individuals covenant to transfer their natural right of self-governance to a sovereign, whether a single monarch or a rule-governed assembly. Max Weber supplied the classic sociological definition in Politics as a Vocation (1919): a state is "a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory."
Facts
Founding ContextGiven its foundational modern account by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan (1651), which described the state as an artificial person created when individuals covenant to transfer their natural right of self-governance to a sovereign, and its classic sociological definition by Max Weber in Politics as a Vocation (1919). 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Advocated By
Weber's Politics as a Vocation (1919) supplied the classic sociological definition: a state successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.
Associated With
The state is conventionally understood as the entity that holds and exercises sovereignty within its territory.
Founded By
Hobbes' Leviathan (1651) described the commonwealth as an artificial person created when individuals covenant to transfer their natural right of self-governance to a sovereign.
Influenced By
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