State
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7076973 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Boris Frankel (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Publication date | 2007-02-15 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | OTHER |
| Venue | The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeoss249 |
| OpenAlex | W4251967705 |
| ISBN | 9781405165518 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
Few concepts are as central to social analysis and political practice as the state. Many assume that the state is synonymous with the elected government. All the non‐elected state administrators, coercive apparatuses, and sociocultural institutions that constitute modern states are often ignored. Despite the crucial nature of state power, major political and methodological disputes remain over the nature and role of the state and how to acquire and maintain state power. Some argue that state institutions are interwoven with social and economic relations in society. Others view the state as distinct from non‐state institutions because they perform coercive, taxing, judicial, and other administrative roles that private institutions cannot perform. Despite the privatization of various state industries and services, there is little prospect that the state will be abolished and that all its current roles will be performed by private businesses. Sociologically and politically, Marxists argue that class and power relations in society hold the key to understanding state institutions and the way states maintain ruling‐class power, ideology, and cultural practices. Conversely, liberals and conservatives claim that society is made up of rich and poor individuals rather than a ruling class dominating other classes. Hence, they see the state as independent of class divisions in society. Weberians also argue that states are autonomous of class relations in society and have their own bureaucratic rationality and political and military agendas. Regardless of the political perspective, state theorists are also divided between those who formulate ideal types and models such as the “feudal state,” the “capitalist state,” or the “advanced liberal state,” and those who reject ideal types and stress the historical uniqueness of each state
Bureaucracy · Capitalism · Capitalist state · Economic system · Economics · Ideology · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Ruling class · Sociology · State (computer science · Law · Political Economy and Marxism · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory
| Highly cited | No |
|---|