📌 Definition of the State
The State is a sovereign political organization over a given territory, holding a legitimate monopoly on coercion over a population.
Max Weber: The State holds the monopoly on legitimate violence.
🎯 Functions of the State
- Maintain order (police, justice, security)
- Protect individual freedoms (rights, laws, constitution)
- Ensure social justice (taxes, redistribution)
- Regulate the economy (public services, market laws)
📚 Key Thinkers & Ideas
➤ Hobbes – Leviathan
- The State is necessary to escape the state of nature, where there is a war of all against all.
- Individuals must give up some freedom to a strong sovereign to ensure peace.
➤ Locke
- The State protects natural rights: life, liberty, property.
- The State must be limited by law and founded on a social contract.
➤ Rousseau
- The State comes from the social contract: each gives up their private will for the general will.
- The State expresses the sovereignty of the people.
➤ Marx
- The State is an instrument of bourgeois domination.
- In a classless society, the State withers away.
➤ Hegel
- The State is the realization of rational freedom.
- It goes beyond private interests in the name of the common good.
⚖️ Legitimacy and Authority
Types of legitimacy (Max Weber):
- Traditional (e.g., hereditary monarchy)
- Charismatic (e.g., charismatic leader)
- Rational-legal (e.g., modern democracy)
🧩 Possible Essay Questions
- Can we live without a State?
- Does the State guarantee or threaten freedom?
- Is the State at the service of all or of a dominant class?
- Is the State always just?
✅ Key Ideas to Remember
- The State guarantees order but can also be oppressive.
- Political power is legitimate if based on consent or justice.
- The modern State tends to rationalize power.