Good day and welcome to Reasoning Politics!
Today we will talk about the state. This concept is at the core of politics and political science.
The concept of the state is a controversial one.
Heywood calls the state “a political association that enjoys sovereign jurisdiction within defined territorial borders.”
But, perhaps the most well-known definition of the state comes from Max Weber.
His definition is “a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence within a given territory.”
By this he means that some kind of military or police exist who can use violence under the authority of the state.
This, however, does not mean that only the government can use violence.
For example, in the United States people can legally own guns and use them for self-defense.
But, this right derives from the authority of the state.
This does not mean that a state is always violent.
Only that there is some form of coercion.
It is the power that the state exercises over a people through the police, military, judiciary, and prisons.
What is then the difference between a nation and a state and is there an overlap?
A nation is a complex phenomenon that is shaped by cultural, political and psychological factors.
It is a group of people that can be bound together by common traditions, languages or religions.
This, of course, does not mean that there are no cultural differences between those peoples but that they feel connected through their shared ones.
These people usually regard themselves as a political community and wish to form a sovereign state.
The state is the political association within defined territorial borders.
There are nations that are not states and states that are not nations.
An example of a nation that is not a state is Kurdistan.
Kurds feel related to each other but they do not live in their own state.
They are spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
An example of a state that is not a nation is Yugoslavia.
This country existed in the 20th century and consisted of different peoples, like Serbs, Bosnians and Croats.
I hope I was able to give you a good idea about the definition of a state and the difference between nations and states.
There are many different definitions and ideas about what a state is or should be.
What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments and until next time at Reasoning Politics!
