The Territorial State

Abstract

Abstract Max Weber famously defined states as human associations that successfully claim the monopoly of legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. Modern theorists and critics of the state who start out from Weber’s definition typically concentrate on the first part of it-the claim to a monopoly of the legitimate use of force. Thus Michael Taylor starts his discussion in Community, Anarchy, and Liberty with the Weberian definition, enters a few critical reservations concerning it, and concludes that ’What is left of the Weberian account is the notion of a concentration of force and the attempt by those in whose hands it is (incompletely) concentrated to determine who else shall be permitted to employ force and on what occasions.’ What is manifestly lacking here is any reference to the territorial aspect of Weber’s definition. This absence reflects Taylor’s interests; but my aim in this essay will be to discuss precisely that aspect of the Weberian definition which Taylor and others neglect, the claim to a territory.