Beyond the “monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force”. Contemporary contributions to the conceptualization of the State from the work of Max Weber

Abstract

In this article, we propose to reflect on the conception of modern “State”, taking as for start point the work of Max Weber to address some contemporary theoretical proposals that have updated, problematized and/or added some fundamental dimension to its study. To do this, first, we reconstruct some of the most important definitions in this regard, which we find scattered in several passages of the vast work of the German thinker. Next, we incorporate into the analysis a series of theoretical proposals that are inscribed (in certain ways which we will try to clarify) in the tradition that Weber was able to inaugurate more than a century ago. We refer to the work of Charles Tilly, Michael Mann, Theda Skocpol and Pierre Bourdieu. In their work, the focus is placed mainly on the degree of autonomy that the modern State presents with respect to other dimensions or spheres of civil society and its intervention in the territory throughout history, as well as on the symbolic dimension of the domination exercised by the State and its bureaucracy. Finally, we offer some comparative conclusions in which we present the main lines in which these theoretical proposals approach of distance from the ideas from Weber, our author-proposal who served as a starting point for our reflection. If the exercise is satisfactory, we trust that this work can become a contribution both to the debate around the meanings of a polysemic and polymorphic concept such as the “State” and, at the same time, to the (re)updating of the thought of one of the “founding fathers” of the social sciences.