A state is a political entity that rules and governs society and the population within a definite territory, or in other words, it is referred to as the country itself with various administrative divisions.Definition 7 (noun): "a politically unified people occupying a definite territory; nation."; Definition 10 (noun): "the body politic as organized for civil rule and government (distinguished from church)."; Definition 16 (noun): "of or pertaining to the central civil government or authority." -Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Random House/Barnes and Noble, ISBN 9780760702888, pp. 1860-1861. Governments are considered as an apparatus, representative, or instrument of states as such the term is used as a metonym for them in governmental topics.Black's Law Dictionary, 4th ed. (1968). West Publishing Co.Uricich v. Kolesar, 54 Ohio App. 309, 7 N.E. 2d 413. It is widely defined by the legitimacy of its sole discretion in the use of offensive and defensive force.
A state may be a unitary state or some type of federal union; in the latter type, the term "state" is sometimes used to refer to the federated polities that make up the federation, and they may have some of the attributes of a sovereign state, except being under their federation and without the same capacity to act internationally. (Other terms that are used in such federal systems may include "province", "region" or other terms.)
For most of prehistory, people lived in stateless societies. The earliest forms of states arose about 5,500 years ago. Over time societies became more stratified and developed institutions leading to centralised governments. These gained state capacity in conjunction with the growth of cities, which was often dependent on climate and economic development, with centralisation often spurred on by insecurity and territorial competitionDhakal, Tika, P. (2025). Polis, State and Rajya: The Evolution of the Idea of State. https://ssrn.com/abstract=5980995 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5980995.
Over time, varied forms of states developed that used many different justifications for their existence (such as divine right, the theory of the social contract, etc.). Today, the modern nation state is the predominant form of state to which people are subject. Sovereign states have sovereignty; any ingroup's claim to have a state faces some practical limits via the degree to which other states recognize them as such. Satellite states are states that have de facto sovereignty but are often indirectly controlled by another state.
Definitions of a state are disputed. According to sociologist Max Weber, a "state" is a polity that maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, although other definitions are common.Cudworth et al., 2007: p. 95Salmon, 2008: p. 54 Absence of a state does not preclude the existence of a society, such as stateless societies like the Haudenosaunee Confederacy that "do not have either purely or even primarily political institutions or roles". The degree and extent of governance of a state is used to determine whether it has failed.
Etymology The word state and its cognates in some other European languages (such as stato in Italian, estado in Spanish and Portuguese, état in French, Staat in German and Dutch) ultimately derive from the Latin word status, meaning "condition, circumstances". Latin status derives from stare, "to stand", or remain or be permanent, thus providing the sacred or magical connotation of the political entity.
The English noun state in the generic sense "condition, circumstances" predates the political sense. It was introduced to Middle English both from Old French and directly from Latin.
With the revival of the Roman law in 14th-century Europe, the term came to refer to the legal standing of persons (such as the various "estates of the realm" – noble, common, and clerical), and in particular the special status of the king. The highest estates, generally those with the most wealth and social rank, were those that held power. The word also had associations with Roman ideas (dating back to Cicero) about the "status rei publicae", the "condition of public matters". In time, the word lost its reference to particular social groups and became associated with the legal order of the entire society and the apparatus of its enforcement.Skinner, 1989: p.134
The early 16th-century works of Machiavelli (especially The Prince and The Discourses on Livy) played a central role in popularizing the use of the word "state" in something similar to its modern sense.Bobbio, 1989: pp.57–58 Though in Machiavelli's time, stato had a definition closer to how status is used today, and referred primarily to the position of a person or a group that has political power over individuals.Hexter, J. H. (1957). Il principe and lo stato. Studies in the Renaissance, 4, 113-138.
The contrasting of church and state still dates to the 16th century. The expression ("I am the State") attributed to Louis XIV, although probably apocryphal, is recorded in the late 18th century.C. D. Erhard, Betrachtungen über Leopolds des Weisen Gesetzgebung in Toscana, Richter, 1791, p. 30 . Recognized as apocryphal in the early 19th century. Jean Etienne François Marignié, The king can do no wrong: Le roi ne peut jamais avoit tort, le roi ne peut mal faire, Le Normant, 1818 p. 12 .
Definition There is no academic consensus on the definition of the state.Cudworth et al., 2007: p. 1 The term "state" refers to a set of different, but interrelated and often overlapping, theories about a certain range of political phenomena.Barrow, 1993: pp. 9–10 According to Walter Scheidel, mainstream definitions of the state have the following in common: "centralized institutions that impose rules, and back them up by force, over a territorially circumscribed population; a distinction between the rulers and the ruled; and an element of autonomy, stability, and differentiation. These distinguish the state from less stable forms of organization, such as the exercise of chiefly power."
The most commonly used definition is by Max Weber who describes the state as a compulsory political organization with a centralized government that maintains a monopoly of the legitimate use of force within a certain territory. Weber writes that the state "is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory."
While defining a state, it is important not to confuse it with a nation; an error that occurs frequently in common discussion. A state refers to a political unit with sovereignty over a given territory. While a state is more of a "political-legal abstraction," the definition of a nation is more concerned with political identity and cultural or historical factors. Importantly, nations do not possess the organizational characteristics like geographic boundaries or authority figures and officials that states do. Additionally, a nation does not have a claim to a monopoly on the legitimate use of force over their populace, while a state does, as Weber indicated. An example of the instability that arises when a state does not have a monopoly on the use of force can be seen in African states which remain weak due to the lack of war which European states relied on. A state should not be confused with a government; a government is an organization that has been granted the authority to act on the behalf of a state. Nor should a state be confused with a society; a society refers to all organized groups, movements, and individuals who are independent of the state and seek to remain out of its influence.
Neuberger offers a slightly different definition of the state with respect to the nation: the state is "a primordial, essential, and permanent expression of the genius of a specific [nation]."
The definition of a state is also dependent on how and why it forms. The contractarian view of the state suggests that states form because people can all benefit from cooperation with othersArguments for Liberty and that without a state, there would be chaos. The contractarian view focuses more on the alignment and conflict of interests between individuals in a state. On the other hand, the predatory view of the state focuses on the potential mismatch between the interests of the people and the interests of the state. Charles Tilly goes so far as to say that states "resemble a form of organized crime and should be viewed as extortion rackets." He argued that the state sells protection from itself and raises the question about why people should trust a state when they cannot trust one another.
Tilly defines states as "coercion-wielding organisations that are distinct from households and kinship groups and exercise a clear priority in some respects over all other organizations within substantial territories." Tilly includes city-states, theocracies and empires in his definition along with nation-states, but excludes tribes, lineages, firms and churches. According to Tilly, states can be seen in the archaeological record as of 6000 BC; in Europe, they appeared around 990, but became particularly prominent after 1490. Tilly defines a state's "essential minimal activities" as:
War making – "eliminating or neutralizing their outside rivals" State making – "eliminating or neutralizing their rivals inside their own territory" Protection – "eliminating or neutralizing the enemies of their clients" Extraction – "acquiring the means of carrying out the first three activities" Adjudication – "authoritative settlement of disputes among members of the population" Distribution – "intervention in the allocation of goods among the members of the population" Production – "control of the creation and transformation of goods and services produced by the population"
Importantly, Tilly makes the case that war is an essential part of state-making; that wars create states and vice versa.
Modern academic definitions of the state frequently include the criterion that a state has to be recognized as such by the international community.
Liberal thought provides another possible teleology of the state. According to John Locke, the goal of the state or commonwealth is "the preservation of property" (Second Treatise on Government), with 'property' in Locke's work referring not only to personal possessions but also to one's life and liberty. On this account, the state provides the basis for social cohesion and productivity, creating incentives for wealth-creation by providing guarantees of protection for one's life, liberty, and personal property. Provision of public goods is considered by some such as Adam Smith as a central function of the state, since these goods would otherwise be underprovided. Tilly has challenged narratives of the state as being the result of a societal contract or provision of services in a free market – he characterizes the state more akin to a protection racket in the vein of organized crime.
While economic and political philosophers have contested the monopolistic tendency of states, Robert Nozick argues that the use of force naturally tends towards monopoly.
Another commonly accepted definition of the state is the one given at the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States in 1933. It provides that "[t]he state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states."Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention. And that "[t]he federal state shall constitute a sole person in the eyes of international law."Article 2 of the Montevideo Convention.